DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

I have just bought a house which has one bedroom decorated with pink (very bight), lilac and black paint. Nice. Should I just use loads of white paint to get rid of it or would it be better to line to walls and paint over that?

Sounds delightful!
I am buying a house also, which has numerous dodgy decorated rooms,
If the walls were in good nick and smooth, and the wierd colour scheme was just a layer of paint, I personally would use a couple of coats of good white emulsion, but if the walls were uneven etc I would line and then emulsion.
Suppose it depends on what you wish to do in the end, spend money on decent lining paper and emulsion, or just a good supply of emulsion and lots of time!

The rooms i am goin to tackle are pretty hideous- they will be lined in heavy duty lining paper as the plaster work is solid but abit uneven in places, and then will be emulsioned, but if the walls had been smoother I would have just spent a few days recoating in emulsion until the horrid colour had gone.
I am no decorator by trade, but i love diy and decorating - should of gone to vocational college when was younger!

Good luck :)
Alison

Ordinary emulsion won't work. You need an obliterator - and probably at least two coats which will be a lot less than you'll need with ordinary emulsion paint.

Cheers

alison1971,LisaC
You will get better opacity by mixing a small amount of black emulsion to your white emulsion; this will cover any colour better than white alone. Obliterating paint tends to be over pigmented and you will get a slightly textured finish to your walls. Use only a small amount of black. Then finish with white. This applies to oil based paint for woodwork as well use a small amount of black undercoat or stainer to your white undercoat this will help with the opacity.

Thank you for all the advice - this is the first time I've used the forum and it's great!
Once I've moved into my house I have a feeling I may have a lot more questions!
Good luck with your house too Alison. :)

Hey! You should consider also leaving the walls as they are, or only applying different shades of pink or lilac, trying something artistic, playing with different shades, using symmetry and geometry. I did that for my room, I refreshed the paint job, adding more shades of the same colour, and to bring a finishing touch, that really changes the atmosphere inside the room, I added matching curtains additional to white blinds. Here is the place I found a large variety of colours and shades; they also have a few interesting pink options: Google "blindsuk.net/curtains/pink.html" Take a look and think about it.
Good luck!

discard the previous paint first, then paint over with white color as a basis, I think blue is a nice color for a natural ...

good luck

How did it go? We bought our house six years ago and in the lounge we had three shades of purple, it was disgusting. We painted the walls white as they were in a good condition.

I had a similar problem with beige and brown coloured walls but wasnt allowed to repaint as they matched my wifes best pillows and curtains so we were stuck with decor like the set of a biscuit advert. I cant wait to break the eggshell out ASAP!

rigga wrote:alison1971,LisaC
You will get better opacity by mixing a small amount of black emulsion to your white emulsion; this will cover any colour better than white alone. Obliterating paint tends to be over pigmented and you will get a slightly textured finish to your walls. Use only a small amount of black. Then finish with white. This applies to oil based paint for woodwork as well use a small amount of black undercoat or stainer to your white undercoat this will help with the opacity.

This was a great tip, worked perfectly for me painting over a teracotta and red job.

I like playing with colours. On that wall I would paint something peaceful with much calmer colours - white, maybe light blue. Sometimes a strange idea can turn out to be a piece of art :)