Best White Paint to Cover Dark Green Walls in Minimum Number of Coats

March 21, 2020 10:16 AM

I have dark green walls in a big room, which I wish to repaint plain white. Of all the brands and types of paint I could get at Home Depot, Walmart etc., which is going to most likely require the least amount of coats? This is for a rental property I am leaving, so I don't have other considerations beyond making the room white in the least amount of time.
posted by 7 Minutes of Madness to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

I'm not sure, but I'd think you'd want a primer meant specifically for dark paint in addition to the white paint itself. It should dramatically reduce the amount of costs you need. It might be gray (or some other non-white) color.
posted by wym at 11:00 AM on March 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Brands won't really make a difference. I would start with a coat of Killz primer, maybe two. Then as much color layer as it takes.
posted by humboldt32 at 11:08 AM on March 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

Kilz. I had a super dark green wall and Kilz worked. Took 2 coats, but Kilz is terrific.
posted by kerf at 11:10 AM on March 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Success in a tough painting situation is all about prep.

1. If the paint you're painting over is glossy, sand it lightly with a medium sandpaper. This will "rough up" the gloss, creating more texture for the next layer of paint to adhere to.
2. Clean the walls with a mild detergent and make sure no detergent reside remains. Traditionally you use a trisodium phosphate solution for this (this is sold in a powder and you mix it in water).
3. One or two coats of a good latex primer. I like Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 or KILZ.
4. One or two coats of a good latex paint. I like Benjamin Moore Aura. Expensive, but high likelihood of only needing one coat, in fact it is self-priming, so you may only need one coat of primer. Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint is also good.
5. Don't skimp on the roller and make sure its nap is suitable to the surface (you need a longer nap, i.e. more floof, for more texture).

Start with an area on one wall to determine how many coats of what you need. Apply paint liberally; don't paint dry. If your roller is making noise, there is not enough paint on it.
posted by kindall at 11:18 AM on March 21, 2020 [8 favorites]

I recently painted over a light-medium green, and I got a Behr primer that was specifically labeled as “color covering”. I did 2 coats, one would probably have been fine but i had enough for 2 coats and wanted to be sure to cover evenly. I didn’t have to paint it white (they paint in between tenants so as long as they could do one coat of paint without seeing the underlying color I was good).
posted by DoubleLune at 11:28 AM on March 21, 2020

Response by poster: Just the information I was looking for - thanks everyone!
posted by 7 Minutes of Madness at 12:35 PM on March 21, 2020

Valspar (at most Lowe's) has an amazing primer for hiding dark paint and stains. I have also used Glidden's Gripper to great effect
posted by Redhush at 10:32 PM on March 21, 2020