How Do You Paint Over a Dark Wall with a Lighter Color?

If you’re planning a painting project in your home in Warsaw or Columbia City, Indiana, there a few challenges you’re going to run into. And one of the biggest challenges both professional painters like Matthews’ Painting and DIY painters encounter is panting a lighter color in a dark color.

If you’ve ever tried to paint over dark-colored paint, you know how frustrating it can be to cover the old paint with a lighter colored paint completely. Dark-colored paints tend to show through new paint coats, and this makes it difficult for new paints to show their true colors.

If you don’t have the right painting skills and tools, you might end up having to use 1-2 more paint coats to cover up the old darker paint –and that means more time and expenses towards the extra paint cans. If you’ve found yourself in a similar situation, here are some tips on how to successfully paint over a dark wall with a lighter paint color.

1) Reconsider Your Paint Color Choice

By now, chances are you’ve already made up your mind about which paint color to use. But if not, and you’re still planning to go lighter on your walls, consider choosing a lighter color in the same family as the existing dark color. This could be 2-3 shades lighter. You will find it easier to cover the older paint that way than using a sharply contrasting lighter paint color in a different family compared to the existing one.

2) Thorough Surface Preparation

The bulk of most paint jobs go to surface preparation. This is because better prep work leads to better paint coverage. Transitioning from a dark to light paint color is a challenge on its own already. So attempting to paint on a dark-colored surface that has dirt, dust particles, mildew, and failing previous paint makes your job three times harder.

To ensure better surface coverage and smooth color transition, start by thoroughly cleaning the surface to be painted to get rid of grease, stains, dust, and any other surface particles. If the surface has previous old paint that is peeling, cracking or bubbling, you need to strip or sand it off so that it doesn’t ruin your paint job. Overall, proper surface preparation ensures improved paint adhesion and coverage.

3) Prime

This is perhaps the most important step when transitioning from dark-colored to light-colored paints. The primer helps to cover the old paint and seal in any stains to stop them from bleeding through your new coat of paint. Paint doesn’t generally stick well to bare surfaces, and the primer makes the surface suitable for paint adhesion.

After surface preparation, allow the surface to completely dry, then apply a white coat of quality stain-blocking primer to your wall before painting. To increase its stain-blocking capability, tint the primer with a bit of the paint that you will be using. You can request the nice guys at the paint store to tint it for you –they often do this for free.

4) Use High-Quality Paint

Some homeowners and DIY painters tend to use cheaper, low-quality paints hoping to save some money on the project –in this unique situation, that option will simply cost you more money and time. Low-price, low-quality paints generally have few color pigments, and this means poor coverage –you will actually use extra cans of the low-quality paint to get the coverage that you need.

The Bottom Line

Regular painting is already difficult enough for many homeowners, and DIY painters, the transition from dark to light-colored paints is a whole new level of difficulty for non-experienced painters. If you need any professional help repainting your interior or exterior, Matthews’ Painting can help.

We offer professional, durable, and reliable residential painting services in Warsaw, Syracuse, Lake Tippecanoe area, Winona Lake area, Columbia City, Indiana, and surrounding Indiana cities. Contact us today for more details or a free estimate! (574) 834-3575