Red Wine Stains, on the Ceiling?

Don’t ask how they got there. If you have them, you know how it happened and to be honest, it’s a little unbelievable that something as simple as a pushed in cork could cause such a ruckus.

So there we are – The Renovator and I – in our recently finished kitchen. We have a friend coming over and decide that while we wait we’ll enjoy a small glass of our favorite organic red wine. We’ll share some with our guest when they eventually arrive. I am left in charge of opening the bottle and that is where the error lies. I should never be in charge of opening the wine.  Despite the fact that we have a fancy wine opener that usually is ‘fail-safe’, if there is to be a problem, it will inevitably happen with me.

Long story short, wine spurts out of the bottle and ends up on the white ceiling. It’s amazing how far wine can fly.

Mr. Do it yourself (my dad) and my mom pop in for a visit and catch me, bare foot, on the kitchen counter dabbing at the ceiling with one of my super-wonder cleaners.

“Don’t bother,” Mom says. “The only way to get rid of it is to paint it.”

Turns out, Mom’s right – as she should be. I tried everything and the only thing I removed was the paint, but not the purple stain.

If you’ve had a red wine error like this, take heart, it’s easy to fix and won’t have any ‘show through’ if you use the right paint.

First – dot the stains with ‘Killz’ or another white based stain blocking primer. This will prevent show-through. Don’t worry if the stain-blocker is a greyish white, or if the wine stains still show through a bit.

Second – paint over the stained area with the same ceiling paint. If it has been a while since you’ve painted the ceiling this can be a bit problematic in that you may have to repaint the whole ceiling – an awful lot of work for a renegade cork, but something that must be done none-the-less.

It’s unlikely that we’ll stop drinking red wine, so it’s best that we have a solution! And that’s one of the reasons I love being the renovator’s Wife. 🙂