Quick Comparison
| Texture Type | DIY Difficulty | Hides Imperfections | Cost (DIY) | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orange Peel | Easy | Moderate | $12-15 per room | Bedrooms, new construction |
| Knockdown | Medium | Good | $55-70 startup, then cheap | Living areas, older homes |
| Skip Trowel | Hard | Excellent | $20-30 materials | Accent walls, Mediterranean style |
| Smooth | Very Hard | None | $15-20 materials | Modern homes, minimal look |
| Popcorn | Easy (application) | Excellent | $15-25 per room | Ceilings (dated, often removed) |
Orange Peel
Orange peel is the standard texture in most new homes today. Subtle bumps, random pattern, looks like the skin of an orange. It's inoffensive and neutral enough that nobody complains about it.
DIY difficulty: Easy. You can buy spray cans at any hardware store for about $12 and get decent results on small patches. For bigger areas, a $40 hopper setup works well. Practice on cardboard first and you'll be fine.
What it hides: Minor imperfections in your taping work. Not great at hiding major flaws or uneven joints. If your mud work is rough, orange peel won't save you.
I used spray cans to match orange peel in my bedroom after patching a hole from a door handle. Took two cans and about an hour including drying time. Sarah didn't notice the repair until I pointed it out.
Knockdown
Knockdown starts as a splatter pattern like heavy orange peel, then you flatten the peaks with a drywall knife. The result is a mottled, organic texture with flat spots and raised edges.
DIY difficulty: Medium. The spraying part is easy. The knocking down part requires timing. Wait too long and the mud sets up, won't flatten properly. Do it too soon and you smear everything into a mess. I ruined my first attempt this way.
What it hides: More than orange peel. The heavier texture pattern conceals seams, rough taping, and minor wall damage pretty well. Half my house has knockdown because it covered the previous owner's terrible drywall work.
Uncle Frank can spray and knock down a room in a couple hours. Took me all afternoon my first time. The learning curve is real, but once you get the timing right, it's manageable.
Skip Trowel
Skip trowel is a hand-applied texture where you spread mud with a trowel and intentionally skip across the surface, leaving random patterns. It's more artistic than spray textures.
DIY difficulty: Hard. This one is all technique. You're creating a pattern by hand, and every stroke shows. Uncle Frank can make skip trowel look effortless. When I tried it on a test board, it looked like a kindergartner did it.
What it hides: Almost everything. The heavy, irregular pattern covers bad drywall work, uneven surfaces, even cracks in older walls. It's popular in Mediterranean style homes and adobe construction.
The downside is painting and cleaning. All those ridges and valleys collect dust and require more paint. Brother-in-law Jeff put skip trowel in one room of his flip house. The painters charged him extra because it took twice the paint and labor.
Smooth Finish
No texture at all. Just perfectly flat walls. Looks clean and modern. Shows every single flaw.
DIY difficulty: Very hard. Getting walls perfectly smooth requires excellent taping and mudding skills. Level 5 finish, the pros call it. You're doing multiple skim coats, sanding meticulously, and praying you don't have any high spots that catch the light.
What it hides: Nothing. Zero. Any imperfection in your work shows up under harsh lighting. Bumps, ridges, slight depressions, all visible. This is why new construction almost never has smooth walls. It would triple the drywall labor cost.
I have smooth walls in exactly one room: a small office that was professionally finished. I won't attempt it myself. Carlos says even experienced painters dread smooth walls because every flaw in the drywall work becomes their problem to fix.
Popcorn
Popcorn texture, also called acoustic texture, was everywhere in the 70s and 80s. Bumpy, lumpy, looks exactly like popcorn stuck to the ceiling. Mostly used on ceilings.
DIY difficulty: Easy to apply. You spray it on and let it dry. No skill required, which is why builders loved it. But removing it is a nightmare, especially if it contains asbestos, which many pre-1980 applications do.
What it hides: Everything. The heavy texture covers terrible ceiling work. That's the whole point. Builders could finish ceilings with one coat of mud, spray popcorn, and move on. The texture hid all sins.
I still have popcorn ceilings throughout my house. I've thought about removing them, but after reading about the asbestos testing, the water spraying, the scraping, the mess, I decided to wait. Some ceilings in my area have been painted over so many times they're basically smooth now anyway. Uncle Frank removed popcorn from his entire house. Said it took three weekends and ruined his back. He'd hire it out if he had to do it again.
Which Texture Should You Use
For new construction or whole rooms: Orange peel. It's neutral, easy to apply, and nobody will hate it.
For matching older homes: Whatever's already there. My knockdown walls got knockdown patches. My orange peel bedroom got orange peel repairs. Don't mix textures in the same room unless you want it to look obvious.
For hiding bad drywall work: Knockdown or skip trowel. The heavier texture forgives a lot. Dave's basement has some rough spots from his DIY drywall. I told him to go with knockdown to cover it up.
For modern or minimal looks: Smooth, if you're willing to pay for it or have serious mudding skills. Otherwise, light orange peel is the closest you'll get without that level of expertise.
For ceilings: Not popcorn. Just don't. Orange peel or light knockdown both work. Yes, spraying ceilings is awkward. But you'll never regret not having popcorn when you go to sell the house.
Cost Breakdown From My Experience
These are real numbers from projects I've done:
Orange peel spray can (small patch): $12 per can, covers about 15 square feet realistically.
Knockdown hopper setup: $40 for the hopper, plus $15 for a bucket of mud. After that, patches cost maybe $2 in mud each.
Skip trowel: $15-25 in mud depending on wall size. But I'd pay a pro. Uncle Frank charges $200-300 for a small room when he helps friends.
Smooth finish: Materials are cheap, $15-20 in mud and sandpaper. Labor is expensive. Pros charge $1.50-2.50 per square foot for level 5 finish in my area.
Popcorn removal: Testing for asbestos runs $30-50. If it's clean, DIY removal costs maybe $50 in supplies but 20 hours of labor for a typical bedroom ceiling. Pros charge $2-4 per square foot.
Pete at the hardware store sees people every week buying supplies for texture projects. He says most come back at least once because they underestimated materials or bought the wrong thing. Start small, test your technique, then commit to the full project.