Painting walls

Projectx

I am redecorating a few bedrooms and need some advice.
The walls at the moment are lilac / blue / and yellow. ( different rooms )
I will be using a light(ish) cream on all three.

Q: Should I undercoat and if so with what colour.
How many coats of the cream should I use.
Should the walls be sanded down and if so what grade paper.

Of course any other tips welcome.

Thanks

Tombo2001

Projectx wrote: »

I am redecorating a few bedrooms and need some advice.
The walls at the moment are lilac / blue / and yellow. ( different rooms )
I will be using a light(ish) cream on all three.

Q: Should I undercoat and if so with what colour.
How many coats of the cream should I use.
Should the walls be sanded down and if so what grade paper.

Of course any other tips welcome.

Thanks

I suppose a few questions:

How light are the wall colours you are painting onto?
How expensive is the new paint?

If you have light coloured walls currently and are using a standard dulux or whatever paint, then I would do two coats, or three if necessary.

If you have a dark paint currently and an expansive cream paint I would put on a cheap paint undercoat and then the cream.

Please note that I am not a painter; I've onlt ever painter my own house.

slimjimmc

What I done in my gaff was washed the walls with sugar soap and allow dry then filled and sanded any obvious dents / sanded obvious bumps. I then put one coat of cheap flat white paint (wall/ceiling paint) over the dark colour. Once dry I gave the wall a very quick light sanding to show up any missed bumps, brush hairs, roller fluff etc (the sanded bumps etc show up in the dark colour against the white) then made sure the bumps were sanded down flat. Two more coats of white was needed to evenly mask out the dark colour without leaving dark patches, then 2 coats of the more expensive finish colour. Like above 'twas a DIY jobb.

dodzy

A lot of DIYers go down Slimjim's route but it's not always the best. Many people think that a cheap white base is perfect for covering the original colour however those €15 buckets of white have the opacity of water i.e They cover very little as opposed to say the likes of Colourtrend vinyl Matt which would have infinitely better covering power resulting in less coats / less time.

Remember, Slim done 5 coats in total so really it boils down to how much you really value your time. You will save a few € doing the "5 coat job", but not in all cases, and it'll add significantly to the job time.

In some cases, 2 coats of a good quality matt will be sufficient, negating the need of cheapo white pre-coats completely.

In OPs case, I would however get a good grade contractor Magnolia Vinly Matt ( Fleetwood / Leyland ) and use that for the entire job. 20ltrs should give you enough for 3 coats ( 2 might suffice) in all rooms. Cheap, and much better than the crap whites that people regularly use.

slimjimmc

In my case I was going from a soft sheen darkish blue to matt cream using a decent quality paint (Fleetwood if I recall). I had tested going straight with 2 finish coats on one wall but wasn't satisfied with the masking and the pre-coats gave the best result.

obezyana

Projectx wrote: »

I am redecorating a few bedrooms and need some advice.
The walls at the moment are lilac / blue / and yellow. ( different rooms )
I will be using a light(ish) cream on all three.
Q: Should I undercoat and if so with what colour.



How many coats of the cream should I use.


Should the walls be sanded down and if so what grade paper.


Of course any other tips welcome.

Thanks

Q: Should I undercoat and if so with what colour.

Yes put undercoat (basecoat). White is your colour here.

How many coats of the cream should I use.

With 1 good coat of the the undercoat (basecoat) and 2 of the cream you should be ok. The blue if its a dark blue might need a second run of the undercoat. That again depends on how dark it is and how heavy you put the undercoat on.

Should the walls be sanded down and if so what grade paper.

Yes scrape any cracks, fill any holes or imperfections with filler then sand down with medium grade paper. 120 - 150. After you fill and sand clean the wall so your painting on to a clean dry surface.

Of course any other tips welcome.

Its pretty straightforward to paint interior walls so there is not much to say on it only prep is nearly as important as the painting itself.