"How soon can I repaint a wall?" Topic

Okay, they painted the bathroom today and I don't like the color. The insurance won't pay for a repaint, as the color choice was ours (it's just too danged blue, whereas I wanted more gray).

It's a flat finish, Sherwin-Williams paint. I'm thinking I'd like to do it before next week, as I want all this painting in the house to be finished, once and for all.

So, do I need to wait awhile before laying a new coat over it? Or can I go immediately? And, do I need to prime it again? I probably need to use a coat of Killz so it will be white, and thus I'll get a pure color when I lay it down.

Any thoughts or experience on this topic?

If the paint is bog-standard (pun-alert) emulsion it can be painted over within a few hours.

If you want to change to a similar colour, a couple of coats straight on top should be fine.

My own experience is that when toning down a colour, you need to give a coat of white primer before the new coat.

I had a very strident shade of green in the bathroom of a house I bought once and wanted a light cream (half Spanish white). It took stripping and several coats of white before it stopped showing through as green.

From blue to grey you should not have a big problem though. Since you have just painted I assume you have a good surface and don't need to sand back. Two coats of the new colour should do it, unless the blue is VERY blue, in which case you may need a lighter undercoat.

Theoretically you can paint over as soon as it's dry, but I always leave it at least 24 hours – though I may be being overly conservative.

Did the same thing myself a couple of decades ago – lovely medium blue oil – no one else liked it for the bath. Got some black pigment from the paint supplier and tinted some of the blue to a blue gray. Repainted it a day later (same weekend if I recall correctly) with a single coat and haven't ever had any problems with the paint. If you are going from a blue to a blue gray shouldn't need a primer. If you do Killz is good (took about 24-28 hours drying last winter at 65 degrees though).

Unless it's really humid, paint over when dry.

As to primer, it all depends upon the translucency of your new paint.
-Kle.

Like everyone else said, you should be able to pain over it by now.

I would suggest that you not prime it. It would be easier to do several coats of the new color rather than spend the extra time cleaning all the primer off your equipment and letting it dry, which could take an extra day.

What I do is leave my brush and roller with paint on them in the roller tray and cover the whole thing with a plastic garbage bag between coats. This prevents your paint supply and equipment from drying out. I'm usually able to reapply paint in about half an hour to an hour, as long as the paint is dry to the touch and the first coat is not lifting up while you apply the new coat. You should be able to do as many coats as you want in an afternoon this way.

I'd give it a couple of days to cure. Once it is dry you should be ok

Thanks all! That's pretty much what I thought (and you guys gave better advice than I got over at the DIY forum -- you were all more thorough).

Tomorrow I'll pick up the test quart ($5 from Sherwin-WIlliams) and paint some foam core panels I have lying around. That will give me a good idea of who a nice, big area of the color will look.

Then I'll paint it next week.

timlillig: Thanks for that tip. I'd seen it once on a home improvement show, but had completely forgotten it! Excellent suggestion!

If you're going to test coat it, but not re-prime your bathroom walls, you'll want to first paint your foam core the same color as your walls are painted now.