What To Do With That Popcorn Ceiling?

This is a question I ask myself frequently.... My house in Weston was built in 1972, and the bedrooms all have popcorn ceilings, defined by Wikipedia as "a spray-on or paint-on ceiling treatment used from the late 1950s into the 1980s in residential construction. Cheaper than painting, it could be quickly and easily sprayed on in new construction...." It is "also known as an acoustic ceiling...as it was the standard for bedroom and residential hallways ceilings for its noise reduction qualities."

When we bought this house 10 years ago, there were popcorn ceilings in all of the bedrooms on the second floor and the family room on the first floor. Since that time, I renovated the family room and therefore resurfaced the ceiling in that room, but the popcorn ceilings still exist in the four bedrooms. Hmmm — what to do? When I asked my painter about re-surfacing the ceilings, he said it was expensive and a big mess. He also added that the "popcorn" on my ceilings was not really so bad (see photo of the ceiling with the pink walls). And he's right — the ceilings aren't so swirly. That being said, I have several friends who have redone the popcorn ceilings in their homes. In fact, they had such a distaste for them that they removed the popcorn before moving in.

From a re-sale perspective, popcorn ceilings aren't usually the deciding factor about whether buyers purchase a home or not. At least I have never experienced that kind of response from buyers when I have showed them homes with swirly ceilings. They generally consider this aesthetic fix an easy one and one that is not super costly, especially vis-a-vis kitchen or bathroom renovations.

The truth is I am on the fence about this. When it comes right down to it, I would rather spend the money needed to fix the ceilings elsewhere - on a new vanity, appliance or piece of furniture for example. What are your thoughts? If you were about to repaint your bedrooms with popcorn ceilings, would you use that opportunity to resurface the ceilings or keep them as is? I can't wait to hear....