Do buy primer if using F&B dark pigmented wall paint

youth_leader

Hello everyone, I've made an expensive mistake not buying primer, I wish I had. 

Decorator came on Wednesday to paint the walls/wood in my hallway a deep red, and the results were so disappointing, he asked me to get more emulsion/eggshell and he's coming back on Monday.  Not looking forward to it as he has to have the front door open for ventilation! 

liberty_lily

Youth_leader, what we've found when using darker shades of Farrow & Ball (estate) emulsion is that more coats were required than with the lighter colours. We've never used a primer on the walls - even when using the extremely dark Brinjal - but have been known to paint four coats 🙄

Our current hallway is F&B Inchyra Blue estate emulsion and that needed three coats over the previous owner's magnolia. In the snug we have the fairly dark F&B Olive eggshell (on panelling/other joinery) and estate emulsion on the walls. Some of these were freshly plastered but apart from mist coating the new areas, we just painted two coats and it was enough even over the PO's pale lemon.

How many coats has your decorator done? If two, hopefully one more will do it 😊

liberty_lily

Also, some decorators don't like using F&B (I admit that DH and I actually prefer using Little Greene for coverage reasons these days, but sometimes F&B colours are just better 🙄) so perhaps he isn't used to using it and therefore doesn't like the application perhaps?

youth_leader

Thank you liberty_lily, I'm not sure how many coats he did over the previous bare walled magnolia.  We are both a bit deaf and communication with his radio blasting was a little difficult, but I should have asked!

I had Little Greene Canton and Airforce Blue in the other two rooms, covered perfectly without primer.  I was tempted to go all Little Greene but know I love Rectory Red so opted for that.  Fingers crossed for Monday!