In the crazy rush of the holiday season, some of you might be taking on a few DIY projects during the long weekends or potential time away from work. If you happen to have any painting to do, remember this simple tip to potentially save you some serious cash.
Although many paints come with a primer built in to allow you to skip a coat of paint or two, some colors don't allow for such a luxury. If you're looking at having to buy a primer and a top coat, then make sure you check out the Oops! section first.
This Old House tells us that as long as it's the same type of paint (enamel, latex) is used and the color is lighter than your wall color, you can get away with saving a few bucks. So next time you see that 5 gallon bucket of seafoam green, don't turn your nose up at it, take it home and put it to use — under your paint!
Image: Flickr member wharman licensed for use by Creative Commons
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Hose Jockey Wall Mount
Comments (17)
swatch first and color "primer" will change the tint of your paint.
Primer is cheap. I don't think I'd risk it.
Primer is not really expensive. Probably not worth the risk.
The other thing to do is buy a few similar Oops paints and mix your own color.
Primer is not just white paint. If you're going to the effort of painting, you might as well get the proper materials!
This doesn't make any sense to me. Primer is not paint. The purpose of primer is to provide a better surface for the paint to adhere to. It has binding properties. It is also meant to seal in stains, prevent wood from bleeding through, and seal porous surfaces, such as fresh dry wall.
If you can "prime" with any old colour paint, then you wouldn't have to "prime" at all, would you? I would just start painting instead of wasting energy with the oops coat.
I really love reading AT, but I do get tired of the bloggers not doing their homework before they do their blog entries for the day. I often ask myself who the editor is and why there isn't a quality baseline or some other standard for bloggers to follow.
I never prime, unless, of course, I am painting a surface that HAS to be primed. Otherwise, Behr paint is of such good quality that primer is not necessary.
oh wow, that didn't go well did it ......
I have gotta say I have not yet failed to be impressed by Behr Premium plus Ultra and it's Valspar equivalent. I've used both multiple times, no primer, one coat, just as advertised, no brush strokes even going from white to dark brown or pale biscuit over dark red. I wouldn't use anything else cuz lord knows I hate to paint the same area twice ! Hope that was constructive criticism :)
.... and that's even painting flat over eggshell !
If I have to keep hearing this term "Oops!" paint, I'm going to lose it. I work at Sherwin-Williams and we, and almost every other major paint company, call these types of paints "Mistints". MISTINTS
Paint is different from primer, but it does work. I don't usually prime, but if I am painting over something glossy (usually furniture) and am too lazy to go to the store, I will "prime" with leftover flat paint. It has always worked well for me.
I think that if you were painting glossy paint over glossy paint, this works, but if you were painting over bare drywall or plaster, or a wall that you have patched, it is probably best to use a real primer.
Thanks for the tip Sarah. I can certainly see using a lighter hue of flat/matte paint as primer, particularly when there are no stains that need covering, the topcoat paint is expensive and the area to be painted is large.
Even if the cost difference is $5 a gallon, 3-4 gallons would be a savings of $15-$20.
I could buy a Jonathan Adler iPhone case for $20...
quesarahsarah, at the big box stores, it's called oops! paint, meaning "oops, the technician screwed up!"
While not every situation requires primer, it exists for a reason and like others have said it is different from paint. Maybe it won't matter in the year or two you live in your apartment, but you are creating a problem that someone down the road is going to curse you for.
what happens when you prime and the primer doesn't seem to make the paint stick to the walls? i just painted for the first time in years this weekend -- a peony pink over a cranberry shade. the guy at home depot said i needed to use a grey primer so i did. it still took 2 coats of the paint to cover and then, while pulling up the painters tape, huge sections of primer and paint pulled off. what did i do wrong??