Covering Dark Paint

[Melos]

In my youth, I thought it would be very cool to paint my bedroom an incredibly dark purple. I also thought that stripping the wallpaper paste off the wall was a dumb idea and just painted over it.

Now, my father is trying to sell the house and wants to paint the room a light neutral color. The problem is twofold. First, the paint is incredibly dark and tends to bleed through any white paint we tried on the wall. Second, it is bumpy in spots where I painted over old paste.

What can we do to get this room in tip top shape again?

 

[mtatum4496]

You are right, there are two separate issues to address with the walls. First, you will need to go back and try to remove as much of that old paste as you possibly can. Not knowing how old the paste is, I can't recommend a particular agent to help you - but I would bet that you can find something at the local paint store that they can recommend for older pastes. Once you have removed as much of that as possible, the texture of the walls will be smoother and as a bonus you will have also removed a little of the paint that you want to cover.

Now - on to the repainting. You need to use primer for the first coat over the purple. I would recommend cutting in some of the wall color you plan to use into the primer. Let it dry thoroughly and then put on the first coat of the actual paint. That should do the trick, but if not, you may have to do a third layer (second coat of paint).

 

[tater03]

Yes, I would agree there is no way you are going to be able to paint these walls white without first using primer first. I had never thought of mixing in the color you plan to use in with the primer before. That is actually a very good idea. I will have to remember that one. As for the wallpaper paste I wish I could offer you some help on that one but I have not run across that problem yet.

 

[handystan]

use primer, not only will it adhere to the old paint, but you end up using less paint overall. Primer is usually cheaper then paint. Recommended primer: Kills Primer.

 

[bra]

Hi, I recommend a breathing mask, some sandpaper and some white paint.

sand the rough spots, paint the room white, let it dry. Paint the room a neutral color.
Should be good enough to sell.

The people that buy the house will probaly knock a whole in the wall anyway. (oops, j/k)

Seriously, they may want to do something else to the walls. Don't spend too much time sweating over this.

 

[mamab]

For painting, I recommend using Kilz primer, it seems to be about the best when going over dark paint. Then, try a white coat, then the neutral you want it to finally be.

For the paste, it'll just take a lot of hard work and sweat equity. There's nothing like finding out after many years, that doing things right the first time would have made them alot easier for the future.

 

[mynameisCat]

Kilz IS the best! and putting some of the color in with it is a good idea too. (You can often get the place where you buy it to mix it in for you.)

 

[destiny_star2006]

thanks for the help tips in this post guys i have exactly the same problem with my bathroom when i moved into the house it was painted black yes black god knows what they were thinking so im going to follow the tips here and hopefully have a beautifull and tranqil bathroom

 

[jeepmuddin2005]

The paste problem is a difficult one, but the paint problem should be able to be solved with a couple coats of primer before you paint.