Red Painted Walls

Let's talk about red walls. It is really popular to have an accent wall painted a different color than the rest of the walls in a room now a days. One of the most popular colors is RED! Our family likes a tomatoe red, but we were horrified when the painters said they were done with the wall. The color was BRIGHT FIRE ENGINE RED. This is the wall that has the TV on it so it's not like we aren't going to notice it. Well, with some research we found a few helpful tips to have a red that you will be able to live with and most importantly, look at! First, prime the wall with a toned primer. Many paint stores will give you an orange primer that is great under red paint. Some painters will suggest putting even a gray or brown primer down first. The deal is this...red (and yellow and orange) tend to have a translucence to them. Therefor they will let the under color effect it's color. If you have an orange primer the red will take on an orange tint to it. If you don't use a toned primer you can always do what we did...paint the wall with 5 coats! You decide which way to go! No matter what, you will most likely have to put a couple of coats of paint on in order to get what you anticipated.

The other thing about red (orange, or other dark color) paint. It can show imperfections in the wall and/or paint job if it's in a well lit area. We chose the East wall because there will be no sun light directly on it. We've seen many painted walls in which the paint strokes or drywall seams clearly show their ugly faces when the sun comes through the window! It's mighty hard to get an even paint job, so don't harass the painter if you choose a wall that is well lit and you see paint strokes! Give yourself and the painter a break by choosing a wall that is not well lit!