Painting Walls Red

Wazoe

I plan to paint the bottom half of the walls red. Right now they are painted an aubergine (deep purple). Would I need to use a gray primer first or do you think I can apply the red paint over the aubergine walls? Also I plan to use a chair railing then paint the upper half of the walls another color. Any sggestions on what color to paint the upper walls (I was thinking about painting the chair railing black but that is still not 100%).

Thanks everyone!

concretemasonry

The color above the red walls is up to you.

A good primer under the red is good. Expect to use much more red paint than you think you will need. Avoid the paint at the "big box" stores. Even with good paint (SW or BM), there is a limit of red pigment that can be used in the paint, so red never will cover as well as some other colors. Black gets much better coverage than red and also as good a "off white".

sdsester

I would plan on priming and two coats of the new red. Have the paint store tint the primer to 50-60 percent of your chosen paint formula. As mentioned, use something like Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams and not box store paint. There deep tone bases are nicer than most.

You will want to prime with something other than white under your black trim if you go that direction too. I was going to try to talk you out of black trim but then remembered a really dramatic restaurant I did years ago in younger days. It had gorgeous lighting to pull it off though. Remember with such dark colors you will lose it rapidly.

True black paint does tend to cover pretty well because it comes factory mixed. Anything mixed at the paint store into a base is going to give you the same problems as mentioned with a dark red so expect to need two coats over the primer.

If I were you, I would play around with one of the paint companies free online virtual painting programs to try out your color combinations before committing to something like you have in mind as it will take some effort and paint to cover your choices if you do not like them. The Benjamin Moore one will even let you upload your own photos if you have the patience to mask them off (not complicated just takes some time). Otherwise, just pick a similar room from their selections. It will have lower and upper wall sections, ceilings, trims and all already masked off.

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/bmpsweb...eLabel=fh_home

After that? You might want to invest in some sample bottles or quarts before going full bore. Paint out a few square feet and live with the colors in different lighting for a day or so to make sure?

pyper

When I painted my office a dark red (it is a big box store paint, and it came out exactly how I wanted), we primed with grey tinted primer. The areas around the window trim had previously been primed white by the sheetrock guys. It took two coats of paint. Before putting up the window trim I carefully inspected the area where there was white primer, and there is no detectable difference in the finished surface.

After one coat you could see the white primed surfaces as being different, but the second coat totally covered up any trace of what was under.

All that said, I'd probably prime it because it will stick better, but based on my one experience with tinted primers it was a waste of time and money -- we could have put the paint on the white primer that was already there and been done that much sooner.

Matthewt1970

We did a pretty deep red in ColorAccents by Sherwin Williams over a cream and it damn near covered in one coat with no primer.

sdsester

Love the term damn near. And hope, you never have to wipe anything off of it. Remember, he is covering another deep color. Perhaps he will get lucky when he skips a primer but he will need two coats.

chrisn

I believe color accents comes already mixed in a deep base, not a clear base which is normal.

chrisn

At least!

Matthewt1970

If you wipe the wall and the paint comes off, you could have 12 coats on there, it is still going to come off. I have one coat of blue in my bathroom and I wipe stuff off the walls all the time. The reason I mentioned it, is I have ran across a few situations where we primed with grey and then had to do 4 coats to get the red to cover.