Interior Painting - Primer?

rockmonkey · July 2010

Ok so we decided to paint our living room, but neither one of us has ever painted anything. I read a couple tips online awhile back and that's the extint.

The two end walls are red like so:

And we've decided to paint them "Toffee Crunch". We went with a separate primer instead of built-in.

So we have an untinted primer (Kilz2) and we've started to primer one of the walls. It seems like it's not hiding the red. When you go to even out the primer it seems like it pulls the primer off in places as we go. leaving blotchy areas. We've tried adding more primer to our roller then the primer smears and when we even it out it still seems to have spots were the red is still showing through a bit.

Is this normal?
Are we doing something obviously wrong?
Should we expect to do two coats of primer on a dark wall like this?

bsjezz · July 2010

well you're probably going to need two coats of primer, and you have to let it dry before you apply the second layer. that's not as bad as it sounds, usually if you prime a couple of rooms by the time you get to the end, the spot where you started will be ready to cover with the second coat

if it's still not 100% opaque that's not the end of the world. you can touch up problem spots with a third coat, or just move on to your surface paint for the final layers. 4 coats should be enough to cover even that deep red

Pheezer · July 2010

You always need to use a coat of primer but I don't think there's much, if any, value to be gained from a second coat.

a penguin · July 2010

Painting ProTip: Red is a Bitch.
Priming was a ncecessity that you covered, but it looks like you didn't put enough on, If you have any left, you can go over the weak spots again, otherwise...eh, go for it.

good luck. I painted over a maroon room once with a nice tan, it was not a fun experience.

eternalbl · July 2010

I painted my basement from a similar color to a very light grey. 1 coat primer and 2 coats paint and it was fine. You might choose to do 2 coats of primer if you're concerned, but there's a reason you use multiple coats. Even after 1 you'll see through to what was there before.

bsjezz · July 2010

Pheezer wrote: »

You always need to use a coat of primer but I don't think there's much, if any, value to be gained from a second coat.

sure there is. it beats using three layers of the more expensive topcoat

we needed 4 coatings for our place, although it was previously ... shudder... cadmium yellow and turquoise

Eat it You Nasty Pig. · July 2010

If the primer isn't covering the red, you need another coat of primer.

Let the first coat dry before you put on a second coat. I assume based on the comment about 'pulling the primer off' that you're using a latex based primer? That means it wasn't dry when you rolled over it again.

rockmonkey · July 2010

Just to update, we can close this after the first few responses we did a 2nd coat of primer and that was WAY better looking as the red no longer showed through. The other two walls are a white so they won't be an issue. I can handle two red walls.

Thanks for steering me in the right directions.

Penny Arcade

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