I'm sure others will weigh in on this too.

There is no such thing as paint and primer in one - it's a totally bogus marketing term used to sell paint. This is a very tough lesson many consumers learn the hard way.

Paint and primer are two completely separate entities. Most people don't understand the main function of primer.

Primer prepares the surface for paint: It seals the surface so paint sticks and stuff that won't come off doesn't wick thru. It can also be tinted so it performs as an undercoat color to aid in building opacity of the final coats of paint color.

In fact, white primer can be counter productive and while it seals and prepares the surface in a sealing capacity, it can inhibit color coverage.

With that said, you need professional tinting advice about how best to tint the primer because too much colorant can compromise the primer's ability to seal and prep the surface.

Bottom line, is buying the right primer for your project and chosen color can be kinda tricky. It's always best to get professional help to work out the right combination of products to buy.

Lots of times when consumers understand how primer, tinted or untinted, actually works, it becomes clearer how and why there can be no such thing as "paint and primer in one".

Pink and reds (some of them) are notoriously shear and require one of those tinted primers.

The purple might not be as shear. After two coats, you might be just fine over the green.

Another coat of pink might do the trick and fix that situation. Or, it might be one of those color and paint combos that no matter how many coats, without a tinted primer, it will always look streaky.

You need to find a pro colorist/paint person to help you sort out what it is you have to work with and determine your next steps.

Thanks.

I get that there is no paint and primer in one, but some of the sites I read said that for some projects two coats of paint is all you need, so I guess I mistakenly thought two coats of higher end paint should do it. Guess not.

We don't have money in the Reno budget to hire painters, so I'm in my own. The rest of the rooms are lighter colors, except one bathroom, so hopefully this should be the only challenge.

My dilemma, I have over $100 in paint that does not do what it claims right on the can! Do I return it all and buy plain white primer for all the rooms, and less expensive paint? Should I bother to waste another $30 on another can of pink paint? If 3 coats couldn't cut it is 4 going to be any better? How many coats is too many? The third coat most definatly did not go on as smoothly as the second!

And the purple to be used in the same room has the same sort of shade as the pink, should I even bother?

Fun has it right but forgot to tell you that you really need to go to a REAL paint store and tell them your story, they will help you. The people at the big box places rarely know anything about paint. Valspar is not a quality paint

Ok so "real" paint store, what would you recommend? This silly pink wall is starting to get expensive, sigh. The things you will do to make an4 year old happy!

And the purple to be used in the same room has the same sort of shade as the pink, should I even bother?

That's what makes it kinda hard. :)

The fact that they may be the same "shade" doesn't mean anything. The purple may cover ten times better than the pink.

The actual brand of paint doesn't -necessarily- matter either. The same pink likely doesn't cover in three coats IN ANY BRAND of paint.

It's the color. It may not necessarily be the paint.

There's a bunch o'stuff that plays into how and why some colors cover well and other do not. For example, inorganic vs. organic colorants.

But color and paint are inextricably tied. Which is why Chris and other pro painters often champion seeking out a "real" paint store for advice and guidance.

To answer your question, depending on the pink, 4 coats may NOT cut it. You might be better off getting a tinted primer - right now - painting the coat of primer and two more coats of pink. Total of three more coats to get the pink you want.

But. . . . I'm not there to make that call, don't know the color, the paint, the colorants, etc. You need boots on the ground to help make a plan to get this corrected.

You could take everything back to Lowe's and demand your money back and start over with a "real" paint store with pro color help behind the counter.

Or, you could try to see if your Lowe's has a 'color expert manager' type who can help you with a new strategy to get this fixed. I agree with Chris that big box stores aren't the best place to get good paint/color advice. But sometimes you can get lucky.

Thanks so much! I think i will go to lowes with my new knowledge, and if they can't help me sherwin Williams is local, maybe they can.

Since I've tinted a LOT of paint over the last decade...
(I'm at an Independant ACE retailer in ND. For paints, we've got Ralph-Lauren, ACE-Royal & C+K, & C2)

OP-
If you post your Color-name, tintbase, & the formula...here, I can help ya out! Once colors are chosen, I can help ya determine the best prep/application route to travel.

Our "Color-Goddess" here...Fun-C (She gave me permission a few years ago to call her that!), should be cloned, & placed in a few retail environs. This way, many decorating-dilemma's could be avoided!

Yes, the "P&P-in-one" Hooey is only true in a VERY loose construct!!!
* Paint resins have improved markedly in the last decade.
* These newer blends "behave" more like primers these days, so the ever-eager Marketing-dept's made the BIIIIIIIIIG stretch in labeling them "Primers" as well!
* When I say...."behave" like primers, what I mean is:
>>>> The improved resin-blends don't get pulled into porous substrates quite as bad anymore; AND...newer Acrylic-resin technology means paints STICK better now.
* BUT....are they actually a primer-resin as well!!?!?!? Noooooooooo.
* Another HuuuuuuuUUUUGE misconception out there....a "Primer" doesn't magically mean only 1 or 2 coats of finish color are needed!
* The ONLY ONLY ONLY main function of primer is to improve ADHESION, and to "plug-up" porous surfaces.
* The "color-hiding" of a previous paint-job, is only a tangential benefit of priming.
* I like to say...."Prime to improve adhesion and sheen-uniformity of your new topcoatS (PLURAL HERE!!), NOT to reduce the number of topcoats"!

Faron

Is your 4 year old really unhappy - I can't see the green in that picture, and it's possible that some of what you see is reflected from the adjacent wall. I'd just go ahead and finish the room and then decide.

If you're doing these colors presumably all for your child's sake,so long as she is happy does it really matter if you think you can still see green?

2 coats of Ben Moore Aura for the get go and you would not be here :)

My last house I painted with Aura had about 12 colors...5 of them took 3 coats and the white and the yellow color took more than 3 coats. A pink accent wall I painted over a taupe color took 3 coats. Aura covers great, but when it comes to the whites, yellows, etc it covers just as bad as any other brand.

Tinan makes a good point - is it possible you aren't seeing a reflection from the other wall? I use blue painter's tape when I paint, and there are moments that I swear something has gone wrong because of the blue hue. It might be worth it to cover the green wall and see if anything changes on the pink wall. You could tape sheets of newspaper to the green wall. (Newspaper is the cheapest available paper I could think of.)

Faron may be right about adhesion being the main reason for using a primer, but primer does a pretty good job of covering over a previous color - and is cheaper than than that first coat of paint. I almost always use primer, and in a color switch like you are doing, I certainly would have used it.

Faron79, thanks! If
I don't get anywhere tomorrow I will take you up on that!

Tinan, I did wonder if I was seeing a reflection of the green, I don't think so as the green peaking through is pretty Obvious. At this point I don't have enough pink to add a third coat to the second wall anyway, and I'm not really wanting to spend another $30 on a gallon of the same paint without knowing if it will cover. And at that, it says right on the can "only needs one coat", so I'm going to ask lowes to refund me that one gallon (based in it didn't work as advertised) and paint the other 2 walls purple to see how I feel. If the purple doesn't perform well I will return that plus the 2 gallons I got for my sons room and wash my hands of it.

It's also possible, as a layperson, that you are putting the paint on thinly. I think that's common.

Whether it's reflection or telegraphing thru, if I saw green in my pink when it shouldn't be there, I couldn't get past it. It's true that sometimes with color a good strategy is to simply decide to like it. But some stuff is easier to decide to live with than others. :)

As far as primer and how it plays into the final color, I prefer to not think about using it to cover the old color.

Rather, it's all about the NEW color. Instead of focusing on what you think it might take to cover up the old, find out from the pro's the best way to tint your primer to support a fabulous final finish of the new color.

Because if you focus on the best final finish possible of the new color, any issues with covering up the old color become null and void.

Ok so I stopped by the house on my way home (we aren't living there yet) and now that the wall is dry it looks quite a lot better. Still need to coat the opposite wall though. This has been a learning experience for sure! This was the first room of a whole house so the silver lining is I am much better informed now! Thanks everyone.

Yay. And I agree with ChrisN about Aura.

You got hit by two problems:

Human eyes are very responsive to green
Red pigments don't cover very well

Most of what you are seeing now is reflected light from the unpainted wall. Go ahead and paint it with a good high-hide white primer and the purple. That should fix the problem.

ADDING:
OP said , and now that the wall is dry it looks quite a lot better Most paints go through a stage where they are partly dried, partly semi-dry and UGLY and blotchy and patchy and UGLY!!!!

I learned to never look back at the room, just keep painting walls and evaluate the job when it's fully dried.

This post was edited by lazygardens on Sun, Jun 9, 13 at 18:10

I primed and painted over the rest of the walls with purple, and if I look closely I can still see the green under the pink. However, it's not awful and I have the whole house to paint so I'm moving on.

15 years ago, DH and I helped paint a preschool. It was a huge room, and we did accent walls in primary colors. Blue, yellow, even orange - not bad. Red took 3 coats (plus some touch-up); purple took 4, and green took 5 full coats before it looked decent.

Sometimes it just takes a lot of coats.

OT: Faron, I'm in ND too!

LOL Annkh!!

Yeah....in cases like yours, real vivid primaries like that need a primer tinted to just about what the end color is!
Under the Blues/Purples, med-gray works better!

I KNEW we needed some more "ND-class" up-in-hyah!!!!

Faron