Q: Our home was built in 1970 and has a textured ceiling and paneled walls in the living room. We started to remove the old paneling, but this caused some of the ceiling texture to be scraped off.

Roof leaks, overflowing sinks, tobacco smoke and big spills can all leave ugly ceiling stains or dinginess that is impossible to conceal with plain old paint. But cover the stain with a coat of ...