Making Dots: For the people that want to put small dots on something-- hairpicks from brush rollers work real well. You can make one perfect little dot. Try it out first please.

Vivian Worrell

Marble: If your marble is defaced by wear, abrasion, or pitting, there is no auto/furniture/anything "polish" that will help you. My suggestion is this:
If you have a Dremel rotary tool (or equivalent), use the polishing kits they have available. These kits will actually polish your marble to a luster that you may want to wax for a final gloss. These kits include all the grinding and polishing tools you need to make your marble as beautiful as it ever was. It will work if you work slowly and don't harm your marble with your efforts.

Dave Brazelton

Polishing marble: To polish marble use plain white toothpaste - preferably one of the tooth polishing ones like Pearl Drops (which we used to be able to get in Oz - don't know if it's still around or not). The slightly gritty texture is so fine that is works well on marble and will create a really fine abrasive effect to take off any scratched surface on the marble and reveal the stone's natural shine. Another tedious but effective option (which incidentally also does a great job on shining painted surfaces is talcum powder -after bath talc - and brown lunch paper. Once you sprinkle the talc onto the marble, use the brown paper to polish it off. It takes a while on paint and I suspect it will take a lot longer on marble so perhaps you could use toothpaste first and then use the talc for your final polish? Good Luck,

Trace, Melbourne, Australia

Polishing marble: When I paint faux marble surfaces I use three very thin coats of high gloss poly varnish. I use very, very fine steel wool in between each coat of varnish. It looks like highly polished marble when I am done. This should work for you.

Ann Fisher in Minnesota

Polishing marble: Use either tooth paste or automobile compound. They both are mild rouges (abrasives). It is a labor intensive project but the results are worth it.

DrBob...Delray Beach, FL.

Polishing marble: What you need is a very soft abrasive paste. The best thing I have used to polish any kind of stone, including marble, is polishing paste, one of the best ones is the one that dentist use to polish your teeth, they use another paste, yellowish color to polish dentures, and another one that is red, if you are in good terms with your dentist ask him for a small piece, use it with a Dremel rotary tool, and while you are at the dentist ask him for a rubber cup the same ones they use for cleaning teeth, and because it is slow speed you can attach to your Dremel tool, it is a good idea to use a variable speed, do it very slowly.

If you have scratches in the marble, you have to wet sand first, start with #400, then #600 and finish with #2000. After the sanding is done then polish it with the abrasive paste. If you do not have a Dremel tool use it with your regular drill very slowly, you can get attachments, for polishing for your drill.I have learned all this from my dad as he has a manufacturing company of polishing compounds, wheels and abrasives. I have used the different pastes to polish all kinds of metals and stones, including marble, coral, alabaster and soap stone. and they come out as new. If you need more info please let me know.

Fay Leisorek

Ceiling: You can use joint compound or you can use a fine grain sand ceiling texture, either one works good. The joint compound will give you a more smooth appearance while the ceiling texture more rough texture. Both can be painted.

Joni

Ceiling: I bought some white wall paper that had a small embossed (textured) design and glued that to my ceiling. The roll was on their "sale" table (probably the last of that line) and was not expensive. That worked well for me.

Viola

Paper Ceilings: Someone asked what could be used. I had some embossed white wallpaper (partial roll from a yard sale) , the kind that can be painted or left white. It's fairly durable and the pattern is swirley - you can pretend it's plaster. It took paint really well. I was able to cut the pattern out so that it was centered. I painted mine Buttermilk.

Theresa again, from MD

Ceilings: None of my ceilings is plain. I use all shapes and colors of picture mats over paper lace or textured paper to create interesting ceilings. Some are one with wood slats (like the ones we had in the house I grew up in). If there is a ceiling fixture, there is a medallion or centerpiece around it. Sometimes I use mirrors!

Karen