I'm curious if this is the same process if you aren't using FPE? I have cabinets painted in a factory finish. I'm changing out hardware, going from pulls to knobs and a slighly lighter color. I've filled in the holes with filler. I was going to use a liquid de-glosser followed by an oil based primer followed by Cabinet Coat. I'm still a few weeks away from painting so there's plenty of time to change directions. I WISH I could do FPE, but the nearest dealer is a 4 hour drive. I'm not confident about choosing from a deck when it's the room I spend the most time in. It's also one of the trickiest light-wise, one east facing window and mostly north facing light and flourescent lighting, oi vey! Although I have no qualms about picking one of their door colors that way. I don't have to stare at it all the time.

Yeah...there's never a 100% correct answer for this scenario! You did the perfect prep by physically sanding the trim! * Priming would be the "Ideal", but if existing paint was cleaned/firm/well-attached, the benefit of priming is minimal. * If you're in the "It's gotta look damn-near perfect" expectation-level, then yes...prime....and lightly scuff-sand the primer after its dried for a half-day! * Your white-ish color has the best "hide/opacity" of a particular tint-base series. Two finish coats preferred however for best color-depth, gloss-developement, and durability. Faron

I will answer this one in 2 parts. 1) If you have plaster walls, then your home was most likely built prior to 1978. It depends on the area, I suppose, but the majority of homes built Pre-1978 have dangerous amounts of lead in the paint. Because of this, I highly recommend either getting a lead test before DIY-ing it, or hiring a professional company that's certified to do lead abatement and lead maintenance repainting. If you scrape/sand/etc over lead paint with children in the house, then unfortunately, asthma and allergies will be the least of your worries. Lead has been shown to cause severe birth defects in fetuses of pregnant women, as well as learning deficits, lowered IQ, organ damage, ADHD, and other serious problems in children. It also affects adults, although to a lesser extent. Lead dust/chips, when inhaled or swallowed, stays in the bone marrow for decades and slowly releases into the bloodstream, where it damages organs including the brain, liver, heart, etc. ================================= 2) If by plaster you really meant to say "drywall", then unfortunately, the only way to hide this defect is by applying joint compound, sanding, oil priming and painting. If your son has asthma, a way to counter this is, ironically, doing the same thing a lead abatement company would do: Quarantine the area off with plastic and painters tape (they use duct tape and 6mm plastic for lead, but you dont need all that), turn off the AC/Heat and plastic the vents and return system, and completely box in the area sealed tight. Then, once he is done, have him do the "TSP sandwich"- clean the dust up with TSP mixed with water (8 parts water, 1 part TSP), then have him use a HEPA vacuum to vacuum all of the area, then wet-wipe again with the TSP/water combo. At this point, have the area air scrubbed with a HEPA filter (air scrubber preferably, but a lower strength one will do), then remove the plastic and immediately bag it. Problem solved. ALSO, one more thing:Even if a self-leveling paint could cover this ridge(which it wont, self leveling doesnt work over obvious ridges like that), then you would still need to clean the walls with TSP and water and then apply an oil primer before doing the self-leveling paint, in order to clean and then prime over any remnants of, the wallpaper glue. If you just put the paint over the ridge as it currently is, it would probably start to peel due to the wallpaper glue or glue remnants.

It's actually easier to cover a dark color with a light shade than the other way around. My painting contractor client taught me this years ago. That said, I think that to go ahead with one coat of primer all over the whole house makes sense. You will get a better feel for the rooms and the lighting and it will be much easier to get a nice smooth painted finish when you choose your colors. I've recently painted both my kitchen and my long entry with Ace Sensations flat matte finish. It went on so nice and is supposed to be a washable finish. I loved the look. And my kitchen was red. Put on one coat of white primer and started painting. Keep in mind that even if you use one of the better quality one-coat paints, you will still save money by using primer first. It's less expensive than paint, and if you wanted to skip the primer step, you would for sure need two coats of paint. Red