Tips for Covering a Dark Color

Tips for Covering a Dark Color

Anyone who has ever hit the housing market in search of his or her next happy home can identify with the feeling of finding a place that seems as if it’s almost perfect — but not quite. There are one or two things that you would like to be able to change. If you can change them, you might have just found your new home.

That said, some factors are more changeable than others. Putting in some new appliances and countertops as you rework the kitchen? That’s pretty typical. The right home in the wrong place? You can’t do anything about that.

Somewhere in between is the prospect of repainting a home that features a darker color scheme than you’d like. On the one hand, repainting a home with a darker color scheme can seem more challenging at first than doing so with a home featuring a lighter one, given that you have to cover up the darker color without it bleeding through a lighter hue. On the other hand, this house is just so perfect otherwise so is there any way that you could make this happen?

Of course there is. With these tips and tricks, you’ll be able to cover a darker color with ease.

Pick the Right Painting Tools

As the saying goes, for every task there is a proper tool and that’s certainly true in the world of painting. The tools that the great painters used helped influence their art. Where would Van Gogh and his boldly rough style have been without his trusty palette knife to create the distinctive swaths of color that we all know and love?

The same logic applies when painting a home. You’ll want to be sure to know what size paint brushes and rollers you’ll need. For larger surfaces, you’ll naturally need larger options or even paint sprayers while for tight corners and crevices, you’ll want to opt for slimmer paint brushes.

Prep and Prime

You’ll want to be sure to prime any surface on which you’ll be painting. Take the time to wash it thoroughly, removing any extant debris. You’ll also want to prime the surface with an undercoat of light paint.

Paint it Thick

One of the most important steps to take when transitioning from a darker hue to a lighter one is making sure to add several layers until you have quite a thick surface of paint made up of one layer after another.

There are two reasons for this. First, adding multiple layers of paint is standard operating procedure when it comes to painting homes since you don’t want any cracks or unevenness popping up. This is especially true when it comes to covering a darker surface with a lighter one. Because you are covering up a darker surface, you’ll need to make sure that not only is the darker paint covered up but that it has no chance to peek through the existing surface through cracks or the translucent nature of your paint.

Adding several layers atop one another until you have an extra-thick paint job can help you successfully repaint a room or home with dark paint using lighter colors.

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