Remember when I painted our outdoor ceiling white last month? I was very 50/50 on doing it, I love natural wood but I wanted a fresh new look out here! I had several people mention they were thinking about doing the same on their patio so I wanted to give you some Tips For Painting An Outdoor Ceiling!
It was a bit of a tedious job with all the prep work but it was worth it!
Tips For Painting An Outdoor Ceiling

This post today is all about painting a raw wood ceiling. If yours is already stained or sealed you will need to take some additional steps and sand it down.
Exterior Paint Supplies
- Exterior Wood Primer
- Exterior Satin Paint ( Used Reserved White)
- Paint Roller
- Paint brush
- Painter’s Tape
Painting An Wood Ceiling
First step is to clean your ceiling. Wipe it down to get rid of all dust. Sand down looks parts of wood.

When painting over raw wood, you want to prime it first with a proper wood primer. I used this Exterior Wood Primer. I haven’t used straight primer in a long time and I forgot how sticky it is! It’s messy so I would suggest gloves and a shower cap if doing a ceiling!

The primer will help the paint adhere to the wood so it won’t peel or chip off. It’s important to prep!

For the paint color, I went with Reserved White by Sherwin Williams. The same color I use in the rest of my house. You can see clearly in this picture the difference between the bright white primer and the white paint. The Reserved White has a very slight gray tone to it, you can see in the picture above.

I did two coats of the paint. I tried to get into the creases of the wood as much as I could, but I may go back and put some caulking in there to make them a little more polished.
Have any questions?
I love it! We live in an almost 100 year old bungalow style home. We painted the ceiling of our front porch almost immediately! It’s a place Robin-egg blue reminiscent of a South Carolina Haint Blue which we fell in love with on a trip there. My front porch is my favorite part of our home and ceiling is the feature I love most.