Decorating

[missspeedy23]

We're moving house in a couple of weeks and need to paint the upstairs rooms. Some of them are quite bold colours (purple, red, blue) so I want to paint them in neutral colours.

Do I need to use undercoat or will white emulsion do the same trick? Emulsion is less than half the price for twice as much paint!

[buildersmate]

You use emulsion on walls, and (oil-based) undercoat & gloss systems on woodwork. I assume we are talking about walls here, so you paint with emulsion.
White emulsion is cheap compared to the price of the various shade colours available, and if you are trying to cover a dark shade with a lighter / neutral colour you need several coats to do it.
So it is far cheaper to paint with white emulsion in the first place to hide the dark colour, then finish off with the more expensive neutral shade you have chosen.
You may well need two coats of white emulsion to cover the dark stuff.

[missspeedy23]

Yes sorry, the walls!

I've been told to use undercoat on the walls but I wasn't sure as the biggest tins I've really seen are 750ml and we're going to need quite a lot! I was planning on a couple of coats of white emulsion so I'll stick with that.

Thanks for the advice.

Jo

[kira000]

I've recently been painting my Oh's place in new neutrals before selling. There were some really horrible wall colours. Quality street purple in the kitchen, bright puce in the spare room, and purple bedroom.

I debated whether to use an undercoat, but in the end didnt.
The tip is to use good quality paint to get good coverage, I recommend Crown over Dulux.
The purple bedroom, worked particularly well- i used crown suede finish paint in "Chalk" and after 2 coats, you couldnt see a bit of the purple.
Used Crown "soft linen" (a creamy white) on two walls in the bedroom, "on the rocks" on the other 2. The soft linen needed 3 coats, the rocks prety much went after the first coat.

[VonnieII]

I will vouch for Kira's Dulux comments it took me 5 coats of the stuff to cover the dark green walls & lime green ceiling of a bedroom of the house i bought - but I used Wickes own brand in the bright yellow kitchen and only needed 2 coats!

Good luck anyway, and happy new home!

[Beauj]

We are doing the same at present.

Just bought a couple of B&Q's big buckets of White Matt emulsion, slapped that one - yes it took a couple of coats in some rooms (washed the walls down beforehand with 'Sugar Soap' - we are smokers!)

Then just went over them with the a neutral 'colour' - that old favourite - Magnolia!! Mat on ceilings & Silk Vinyl on walls. Did the trick! Why buy the dear paint if Your not going to benefit from it??

[missspeedy23]

Thanks all. We've just got some of the B&Q huge tubs of white emulsion too!

Think will put a couple of coats of that on and just one or too of the top coats. Thanks a lot.