I've got no experience painting except for helping out friends and doing the job a robot could do. Here's the deal, my gf just moved into her new place and all the interior walls are painted dark (mostly maroon). Except for the living room, which is painted in hideous stripes of yellow, green and maroon. I don't know if the previous owners worked in the circus or what...But I digress. She wants to paint all her walls w/ very light colors. Either a very light blue or very light beige. I'm assuming if we try to paint directly over the dark paint it won't turn out well. What do we need to do. Several coats? Primer? How many coats of paint should we expect? Also any recommendations on paint finish and preparation are welcome.
You definitely want to prime it especially on the stripes. Also use good paint. I've used Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore with good results. I also heard Kelly Moore has good paint also. Don't buy the crap at Lowes or Home Depot because it will require you to use more coats which will cost you more money and lots of extra time.
Don't know much painting you've done, but Behr Paint (Home Depot) is regarded as the best paint around. Take a look at Consumer Reports and look how much better it is than other paints. If you don't want to get any on the ceiling a good tip is to use a Shure-Line ceiling trimmer that rolls along the ceiling to get a straight line. Another tip is to make sure the blue tape that you lay out is against the wall very tightly because it its not, the paint will bleed through.
agree on the KILZ. go for low-voc or the odorless, because it's strong. KILZ will reduce the amount of paint you will use. I just painted a small room (10x10) using 1.5 gals of KILZ to prime, and it only took a little more than half of one gallon of Glidden Evermore to cover the interior.
I've used all them while painting my five bedroom house and know several professional painters and the consensus is Home Depot's Behr paint stinks. Again, that is from my experience and it could be different from yours.
my dad is a painter and he prefers to use Behr. He has used them since well before they hooked up with Home Depot to promote them. yes, kilz the dark colors and you might need several coats.
