Painting Red Kitchens

[Bender]

Nothing covers worse then bright red paints. They usually start out as a semi-clear paste that they add pigment to. (Think Elmer's Glue with red pigments) Its not uncommon to need 5 or 6 coats to stop what is called 'picture framing'.

Picture framing happens in the corners where you have brushed, then came back and rolled, essentially putting two coats on the overlap. After you have finished 2 complete coats, the corners (theoretically) have 4 coats lending to better coverage whereas the body only has two coats and tends to still be transparent. This will make your walls appear to be 'framed' and usually starts to frustrate a home owner.
Who wants to paint a kitchen 4 or 5 times anyway:rolleyes3:


The best way to stop this is to prime your walls with a medium dark gray. This will help stop the light from traveling through the paint and bouncing back out. It will easily save you 1 or 2 coats of aggravation.

[Bender]

Here is what the walls look like without the gray primer. You can see right where I stopped the gray and how transparent the red is. This would have been a real headache to get the red to cover without the primer.

[Bender]

And here is the kitchen with only 1 coat of red. I probably could have gotten away with 1 coat but we doubled it. Two coats will help make the walls more washable and last a little longer:)

[Absolute Basements]

good info. Thanks.
Darren

[uwing]

I will never forget my 1st red wall.
It was murder. 6 coats later

[uwing]

Looks good Mr ..... Dan

[Eieio]

Ho ho ho

1304

[Decoman]

Dan you could just use Aura and be done in two... but I know you don't have good access to it in ID by you.

How many coats over the gray?

[Bender]

No Mark, Aura is 150 miles away:rolleyes3: or I would love to try it.
I probably could have sold it with one coat red but I doubled it up. Its worth the extra effort.

[nEighter]

Good stuff Bender, and SO true. I did a red kitchen with SW Duration and it took 4 coats (no grey), could have used a 5th, but H/O didn't want to pay for it(originally didn't want to pay for grey prime layer). The Grey prime layer is really essential in this process. Education into what it takes to get the job done is the best to understand pricing and the scope of work presented to Home Owners.

[Splinter]

Definitely a great tip if you dont have access to a Ben Moore dealer, but if there's one close, use Aura... One coat over white primer looked decent, second coat looks fantastic.

http://www.alexseaton.com/images/gallery/kitchens/MoKitch1.jpg

[88dblifestyle]

And here is the kitchen with only 1 coat of red. I probably could have gotten away with 1 coat but we doubled it. Two coats will help make the walls more washable and last a little longer:)

Yes.. It's cool when it's red.. Did you not know that most fastfoods like Mc Donalds and etc are color red and yellow? It's just because red and yellow are good for appetite...:2thumbsup:

[Sinclair]

I use the new Behr Premium Ultra Plus this summer to paint the exterior of our house. It's a paint and primer in one and the dark color worked really well with one coat while the white trim needed two coats to cover. Is this similar to Aura? I know Behr also makes an interior of this paint. I wonder if that would work or if a grey primer is better? The kitchen looks good by the way.

[ArmchairDIY]

Bender,

Did you consider using a red pigmented primer? Just curious.