We (well mre teash) plastered all the house itself not quite as good as a professional plasterer but then we painted the walls in that 'suede effect paint' and it now looks like a top notch job
My hubby and I have just painted our kitchen ceiling with 'textured paint', we just put kiln dried sand in some standard paint (thats what our local DIY shop told us manufacturers do to make textured paints), mixed it well and rollered it on, it looks fab.