Getting the gloss out of walls.

pezzy669

We recently acquired a 18 year old 3 bedroom/2 bath home with 2 prior owners. The entire interior needed a fresh coat of paint which was not a problem to us, except for one of the bedrooms. The previous owners had the room painted an absolutely horrid glossy orange.

We had zero problems with the paint finish in every other room of the house (except we have not painted the bathrooms) except the orange office. We wrongly assumed a semi-gloss would take the gloss out of the walls, but even with 2 coats of the semi gloss it still looks just as shiny as it did before. To tell you the truth it looks absolutely horrible even with the new color (Taupe #3).

Anyways I was wondering what do we need to do to get a satin finish. Is this room going to require sanding, priming and painting? Or could I just prime and repaint?

slickshift

When you re-painted, the walls took on the sheen of the new paint
If the walls are too glossy, then that company's "semi-gloss" is too glossy for you

You'll need to repaint with the next step flatter in that line of paint
Whether it's satin, pearl, eggshell
Whatever they call it
...maybe two steps, depending on the brand and your desires...or perhaps try a different line/brand of paint

There's no standard for sheens
For example, Zinsser's Eggshell is very flat compared to Ben Moore's Eggshell

As the paint is new, and a semi-gloss, I wouldn't prime
Just a scuff sand (I like a sanding screen on a pole for a quick job), and re-paint with the new sheen paint

pezzy669

Thank you very much for your reply.

I thought about that but was assuming maybe the gloss came through. The walls have real bad orange peel and hopefully a satin will cover that.

If anyone asks the paint used was Olympic latex semi gloss. Excellent paint by the way just too shiny.

Thanks again for your help.