Popcorn ceiling

Popcorn ceiling is a term for a spray-on or paint-on acoustic ceiling treatment often used in the 1960s and 1970s in American residential construction. Its bright white "cottage cheese" texture, often with small bits of gold-colored glitter attached, was good at covering poor workmanship in the attachment and taping of the drywall and helped eliminate echoes and reflected sound. It was also quickly and easily applied in new construction. It was often the standard for bedroom and residential hallways ceilings, while kitchen and living rooms ceilings would normally be textured in smoother skip-trowel or orange peel texture.

When asbestos was banned in the late 1970s, popcorn ceilings fell out of favor, as they usually contained asbestos. Fashions changed to more natural and hand made finishes. Popcorn ceiling became unattractive when it got dirty, and was hard to paint or patch. Nowadays we have the option of covering popcorn ceilings with styrofoam decorative ceiling tiles which adhere with ceramic tile adhesive.