That popcorn texture on the wall is tricky to paint.
Sheetrock is a trademark name for drywall panels made by USG Corporation, though the term "sheetrock" has come to be used in popular speech as a synonym for "drywall." Drywall is not sold with textured surfaces, but installed drywall is frequently textured using drywall mud techniques or by applying textured paint. Repainting a textured drywall surface can be a little tricky.
Variables
The first variable in deciding paint over a textured drywall surface is the type of texture. Mud trowel textures include patterns that leave raised islands, or "knockdowns," and sweeps like crow's feet, combs and swirls. These are fine patterns, and a thick application of paint can partially fill these patterns, leaving them looking less distinct. Textured paint has sometimes been applied, the most common of these being a "popcorn" texture that leaves thousands of tiny raised bits on the surface. The problem with painting over popcorn texture is that painting over the raised bits can break them off.
To Keep or Not to Keep
You need to decide whether you want to keep the texture at all or remove it. Removal involves covering everything in the room with plastic, spraying water on the textured surfaced and allowing it to soak, then scraping the texture off with a floor knife. If you are keeping it, the three basic options for applying paint to a textured drywall surface are brush, roller and spray.
Brushes
Brushes are more labor-intensive, but they allow you to work lightly over the texture surface without creaming the paint on so thickly that it obscures the textured pattern. Brushes work well with knockdown textures and sweeps. The edges along knockdown patterns that collect paint can be brushed out to bring the texture back up. You can draw a brush along the lines of sweep patterns to color the fine valleys without filling them and making them disappear. Use soft brushes no more than 3 inches wide.
Rollers
Rollers will cover a lot of surface quickly, but they can miss the small edges and valleys in the texture. They can also apply paint so thickly that it drips from the texture. Some rollers that are extra thick are advertised as being specifically for textured surfaces, because they reach into the texture and fill it with paint. The downside is that they can also apply so much paint that the texture itself is smoothed over and obscured. Thin rollers, combined with a brush for touch-up, are one way to cover a lot of surface and still retain most of the texture.
Spray
Spray painting is a good way to apply paint evenly and thinly, though it often means hiring someone who knows do it. If you do it yourself, you must mask and sheet everything except the painted surface, open the windows, run a fan to exhaust the fumes and wear something you don't mind covering in a fine mist of paint. Apply in very thin, multiple layers until the color is uniform. Spray is the best way to paint over popcorn texture, since brushing and rolling will always cause popcorn to shed.
Soakage
One of the problems with painting textured drywall surfaces is that many were originally painted with water-soluble paint, and drywall mud is also water-soluble. When the new paint is applied, it sometimes wets the texture, causing pieces of it to pop off. This is especially true for popcorn texture. Prime the surfaces with a fast-drying alkyd primer, and you will have fewer problems with soakage.
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