your choice.. but make it all the same ...

it might be easier to apply a thin plasterboard to it all.. than to remove the surface on one ... something like a 1/4 inch wallboard product ...

the prior owner.. put up lamianted fake woodgrain paneling [all the rage in the 80s for a rec room .... he glued it with liquid nails.. .and then used about 100 brads per sheet ... in some spots it came away free.. leaving 30 year old LNs ... and in other spots.. it took the wallboard ...

i was going to repair it all.. when my friend said ... just take off the globs.. and put the thin wall board over it.. then all we need to do it mud the joints/corners ... about 20% of the job of repairing that which was there ... i suggested he was a genius.. lol ...

i have a sneaking suspicion.. that trying to match one or the other... will never satisfy you ...

good luck

ken

1/4" drywall over the whole mess, smooth finished. Definitely. And be sure that you followed the structural engineer's directions to a T to do the replacement support needed between the two rooms so that your brand new ceiling (and roof!) doesn't develop issues down the road.

I am attaching a photo of where the ceilings meet. We did have a contractor put in a soffit with an island hood where the wall was. (It was not a supporting wall, so that's not an issue.) But we thought we'd tackle the painting ourselves. I am concerned that putting drywall up will alter the look of the soffit in a weird way. In the photo the sand finish is to the right and the smooth to the left of the patching job.
thanks!
eve

eve

Here's a close-up.
thanks!

eve

The crown on the soffit and not the walls is a poorly thought out design detail. I'd remove the soffit entirely and just do the 1/4" drywall over it all. A soffit over an island is an uber modern detail that the crown is at odds with. If the home is more traditional as the light indicates, then it's a false note and should definitely be removed. An island hood hangs from brackets that are attached to the ceiling joists, so there should be zero issue about that interface. The recessed lighting should also be able to be raised to the attic with no issues.

Yikes, livewireoak, that's not good to hear. I guess I just don't know enough about these things. The soffit was a way to hide the venting, and to mimic the shape of the peninsula below. I didn't think the hood could vent through the ceiling with a second floor above it, so part of the hood vent is hidden in the soffit then above the ceiling as it exits the side of the house. I did think it perhaps should have crown molding only if the walls had it, but since our ceilings are low (7'4") I wanted to keep the walls without molding to make it feel a bit higher (?). Here is what the whole room looks like. hope it's not as bad as you think:

the soffit looks fine to my layperson's eye, whether traditional or modern, but the ceiling texture should be all one or the other.

i dont see.. where butting 1/4 wallboard up to the molding will substantially change the look ... no one will notice.. but you ... mostly because you know what was there .. before the new ceiling ... others will just presume it is.. what it is ...

try matching the sand.. or removing it for the other ... and when and if it looks like heck ... you know the alternative ...

good luck

ken

Thanks Ken and Violet, I think I will try doing a sand coat over the whole thing, including the part that's already a sand ceiling, and match it that way.
Thanks everyone for the input and advice. very informative. ;)

eve

Yea, that's going to be tough to blend in, unless you know the exact technique that was used by the person that applied the texture and which sand was used, etc. I used to do those types of ceilings with a 4 inch brush and just made random swirls all over but others just pour sand in the paint and then roll it on. You may have to sand off the texture and start over to get it to look perfect. Maybe bring in some painters to give their opinions.

Thanks everyone! Turns out my husband has decided to skimcoat it himself and then paint the whole thing smooth--YAY!

I wonder whether using a high build primer would work.

Thank you Graywings, I will look into that and let my husband know.

A good plaster man could lay a 1/16" skim coat over that sand in a few hours, which is much less work, money, and detail problems than 1/4" drywall over everything.