Covering dark coloured gloss paint on walls...?

flower24

Hi, we are moving soon and the living room at the new house currently has purple gloss paint on the walls and ceiling. Our first job is going to be trying to sort it out, but really not sure how we are going to go about this! I'd be very grateful for ideas/suggestions (preferably as cheap as possible!). Thanks

Jaynne

A couple of quotes of regular white paint will do it, no different to painting any other walls/ceilings it just takes more coats.

Rebob

Either lightly sand with a fine paper or use Easy Surface Primer and then use a couple of coats of undercoat and then paint.;)

Ben84

I find modern quality paints will generally cover basically anything. My major concern is that it's gloss which is rather smooth and shiny to hold new paint. The prep work on small areas of gloss like doors and window frames isn't too much work, but for large areas you'll really need to set aside some more time to prepare things properly. If you get a big plastic scouring pad and clean the surfaces with soda crystals in hot water you should take all the gloss off and leave a good surface for new paint. Pay extra attention around high wear areas like light switches and corners Sugar soap works too, but I find soda crystals much better for roughening gloss paint.

Anyway, try a test patch first, and if 2-3 coats of your chosen paint aren't covering it up well, try another test patch with a neutral coloured primer designed to block stains, as these tend to form a good barrier between the surface and the new paint above. Don't do the whole room until you've found by test patch an effective method, as that's how people end up applying endless coats of paint to try and cover the problem. It gets expensive and time consuming, so work out a good strategy before you start. When you do paint, paint over the test patches so they don't stand out at the end.