Hi:

Part of our living room remodeling project involves adding ceiling lighting. Yesterday, the electrician installed two ceiling fixtures and the wiring to connect them to new wall switches.

To do the fixture-to-switch wiring, he had to make the "classic" L-shaped notch in the wall and ceiling. He neatly cut the two holes, saving the cut-out drywall pieces to use later in the repair phase.

Note that the ceiling has the (dreaded) popcorn texture (!!!)...

Here's a photo showing the wall and ceiling pieces back in their original locations:



My question is: What would be the best way to repair the ceiling, given that it's textured?

My electrician suggested to simply use drywall compound and fill in "artistically" the small cut-line gap around the piece. But, he's an electrician, NOT a drywall/ceiling/finish guy, so I'm not too sure about that solution, if for no other reason than the piece needs to be secured to the ceiling (so the piece doesn't just fall out!)!

Instead: Should I scrape off the texture on the piece and on the ceiling around the hole (a few inches around the edges of the hole), then repair the "clean" drywall as I would do for any drywall patch (using drywall compound, tape, etc), and then apply texture (spray on, or a paint-mix) to the newly repaired smooth surface to blend in with the rest of the ceiling?

Or is that solution overkill for this?

The cut-out is 4 inches by 7 inches.

Again, this is the living room so I want to make the repair as "perfect" as possible.

Looking forward to any and all suggestions for doing this kind of repair.

Thanks in advance.

Gary