There is red, and then there is RED

Back to the Rental project... Here is actually the second thing done (after ripping out the stinky carpet).

One of the bedrooms was painted red and white. The red wasn't just any red. Oh no. It was shiny, fire engine red. Fun times. I don't want to even imagine what the decorations were like in that room. I'm all for color, but this is a rental, and I want whoever lives in this place to have good dreams instead of nightmares!

So - painting was necessary. I knew I was going to need at least two coats of paint - one primer and the other a nice eggshell off white (I chose Swiss Coffee, just in case you were wondering!). With all the hoopla about the new primer and paint in one, I chose to take the opportunity to do a little experiment. If I could paint once with the primer/ paint combo and get the same result as one coat of primer and one coat of paint, then I'd like to save myself some time!

So this is what I did:

First, I had to paint the paneling seams in the walls (yes - the red and white were painted over paneling). Then I painted one side of the wall with the combo paint, the other with primer, and I walked away for the evening. When I came back the next morning, you could still see the red through the combo paint. Sigh. So I ended up doing the whole room with 2 coats of combo paint. Yes folks, that means that it would have taken four coats of regular paint to cover the ungodly RED in that room.

Here is the result. You can see in the top right corner how one coat of primer covered..... not so great. Did I save money? Nope. The combo paint is pretty pricey. But I did save time. Now it is done. And I am rethinking my ideas about bold colors in our own home. Maybe I'll just do accent pieces.