Thanks for your inquiry. It is actually very easy to scrape off the popcorn finish as I've done it in 3 of my own homes. We used an angled carbon scraper blade with the sharp edge reversed so it would not dig past the popcorn which easily comes off, sometimes helped with a light spray of water. You can get the tool at most hardware stores. You will need to be re-mudded by a skilled person and then you can add moldings and beams as we designed in this room. Have fun :-) Peter

REVERSE REMODELLING! Came across this just now and am interested to know what is a POPCORN CEILING ? I am in Australia and have tongue and groove pine ceilings of 1924 vintage. The T&G has some gaps allowing dust to fall in. Have been looking for any type of "finish" that might be applied to the pine T&G ceilings to prevent the dust dropping through the warped boards...(only slightly warped)... and would like to know what is this "Popcorn Ceiling"...that others seem to want to scrape off but which seems to be something I would like to put up. Would appreciate any details regarding what material it is, how it is applied...why do people want to scrape it off...etc. Thanks to anyone who sees this request for details and can supply.

Popcorn ceiling is a material that builders spray onto ceilings. I think personally it is used to cover blemishes and imperfections in the ceiling from poor drywall mudding or a shortcut to avoid quality drywall finishing. It cannot be painted once it's on the ceiling unless you spray paint the ceiling since the popcorn material is not immune to come off if it gets touched.
Good luck.

THANKS! Doubt we have such a product here in Australia but interesting to know. Might need to think a bit left of centre to solve my problem as need to cover a T&G pine timber ceiling that lets the roof dust in...either have it plasterboarded or....???? Maybe there's some new product. Glad of your advice!