Need help with painting my walls red over drywall repairs

tdm71 · 07-31-2010, 08:55 PM

Hey guys-

I have an Asian room that was painted a deep red. The job didn't look awesome but better than average. Anyways, I had to move some shelves and decided to fix some nail pops. Well here is where my nightmare begins. I spackled the holes and sanded them as well as I could to the point to where they were as near to flush with the wall as I could imagine. Well, I figured a I could just re-prime and paint the area and it would dry to match the orginal... NO WAY! The area stuck out like a sore thumb. So I re-painted the whole wall but no matter how much I try... the areas that were spackled look like blisters even though they are flat to the wall. Plus the original red show where I may have missed a spot with the new coat... so I'm left of this cycle of re-sanding priming painting etc... and nothing looks as good as the original!!!

Can anyone offer some advice and tell me what I'm doing wrong and how to stop this madness?

THANKS

Windows · 08-01-2010, 12:44 AM

One approach to this type of repair that is often successful is to keep the repair and touchup as small as possible. Scrape off the pop being careful to limit the damage - touch up with just enough mud to cover the hole - sand and wipe area with damp cloth - use touch up paint and small artist brush to mask repaired area. This often works simply because the repaired area is so small it goes unnoticed.

In your case the repaired area stands out because the texture of the recently applied paint is different from the original coating. Each coat you add changes the texture more and more and makes it less and less likely that the repair will match the original. Sometimes one touch up coat can be left alone for a few days/weeks to 'dry down' and will end up matching. In your case, I think you may have to take a more drastic approach. Give your repair a day or two to dry, then thoroughly pole sand the entire wall with 120 grit paper, prime and finish coat. You may get away without having to prime the entire wall given you have spot primed the repair, but why take chances.

If that doesn't work, I suggest window coverings and 40 watt light bulbs.

chrisn · 08-01-2010, 06:25 AM

as windows said "Give your repair a day or two to dry, then thoroughly pole sand the entire wall with 120 grit paper, prime and finish coat."

thats all you can do now to make it right.

canadaclub · 08-01-2010, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdm71

The area stuck out like a sore thumb. So I re-painted the whole wall but no matter how much I try... the areas that were spackled look like blisters even though they are flat to the wall.

Is it the texture which is sticking out or is it the primer which continues to bleed through?

If it is the primer you need to have it tinted. Dark red is difficult to patch and match. What you need is a quart of tinted primer, about 90% tint to a medium to dark grey. The red paint should cover it perfectly.

epson · 08-02-2010, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by canadaclub

If it is the primer you need to have it tinted. Dark red is difficult to patch and match. What you need is a quart of tinted primer, about 90% tint to a medium to dark grey. The red paint should cover it perfectly.

After reading all the posts I was going to add my 2 cents to your problem and canadaclub beat me to it. Take his advice and mine. Tint the primer medium to dark grey in other words if you’re going to use a gallon of primer tint it to one quart and you should be good to go....