This past weekend we took on the task of repainting our front bedroom. We had been renting the room out to a friend, but with boy #3 on the way, it was time to prepare it as a nursery. Little did I know when we began that it would turn into such a frustrating adventure.
I do not enjoy painting. This fact had been made clear to me on a number of occasions. So it took a bit of coaxing from my wife for me to pick up some paint from Lowe’s. We had picked out a pair of colors that matched with our jungle theme: a forest green called Northern Glen for half the room, and a shade of brown called Navajo Horizon for the other. With a gallon of each in hand, I headed back to the house.
We were fortunate enough to have my folks in town for the weekend, and they had brought along a variety of brushes and other paint supplies to assist with the task. My mom had already started washing the walls with TSP to prepare them for the new paint. Because the existing paint was white and almost flat, we elected not to use primer. This may have come back to bite us.
After laying down drop cloths and applying painter’s tape to the trim and window, we were ready to go. My dad started cutting in the edges with one of his nice brushes as I started rolling on the paint. The brown Valspar seemed to be going on a little thin, but I admit I was trying to stretch each dip in the pan, expecting to come back with a second coat. We finished the first coat of brown and moved on to the green. The green seemed to be going on a bit thinner than the brown, but it may just have been that the white was more noticeable through it. Here’s where things get strange.
After finishing the green, I went back to touch up the thinly covered areas of brown. It had been about 4 hours since the first coat and, despite the high humidity that day, the paint felt almost dry to the touch. I rolled on some Navajo Horizon and immediately noticed it looked different. It was going on a lighter shade of brown! Surely it was because it was fresh wet paint. I rolled a few more spots, cautiously hoping my one day of painting wasn’t going to turn into a weekend of painting.
Then I noticed the green. It had done the same weird striping of different shades! Nooooooooo! Deep breath. OK. “Let’s take a break, let it all dry, and see how it looks in the morning.” We packaged up the paint and rollers, cleaned the brushes, and left the room for the evening. Dinner and an episode of COPS helped put the frustration of the day behind me.
The following morning and the shine of the halogen work lamps rekindled the frustration. Both the Northern Glen and Navajo Horizon had stripes and splotches of different shades. Having lost any bit of confidence in our ability to get an even application of color using the Valspar, we took the half-full cans back to Lowe’s. Fortunately, Lowe’s honored the Valspar guarantee and refunded our money. Uninterested in trying our luck with more Valspar, we headed down the street to Home Depot for some Behr.
Half an hour later we were back in the car, headed home with two gallons of color-matched Behr interior latex paint and some new rollers. The Behr paint was noticeably thicker when pouring into the roller pan, and it covered much thicker on the wall. The color match was only slightly off, but since we were doing a full second coat, it didn’t really matter. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly.
“Uh oh,” I hear my mom say as she returns to an area she rolled about 5 minutes prior. The new brown Behr paint was sloughing and collecting in lines at various points down the wall. Attempts to roll them out resulted in small areas of paint separating off the wall.
Now I’m really frustrated. Our one-day painting project has now consumed the whole weekend, and we’re nowhere near done. Rather than fiddle and fuss with paint that won’t stick, we sealed everything up and left it to dry for a few days. There were accounts online of Valspar having drying issues and streaking issues, so we figured it was best to not touch anything until it had a chance to dry completely.
It’s now Monday night, and I just peeked in the room to check on things. The green side is still streaky and blotchy, despite 48 hours having past since painting. The new brown Behr paint (get it, brown Behr, ha!) has covered very evenly and the color looks great. There are a few rough to the touch areas where the paint was lifting, and a few small areas still need to be cut in with a brush. It still feels a little tacky too, which has me concerned it may not be playing nice with the crappy Valspar underneath.
So what’s the moral of this story? I have no idea. I do know that I will not buy Valspar again. I may not buy Behr again either. It’s tempting to just stick with a premium line like Benjamin Moore. Primer may have helped as well, but I doubt it would have had an effect on the difference in color on the Valspar. One thing is for certain: I do not enjoy painting.
Disclaimer: I wish someone had paid me to write this, or had given me free paint, or had paid me to write about free paint being painted by someone else in my front bedroom.
Update November 12, 2010: Yesterday, the student ministries team repainted the lobby at our church with some Valspar and they had the same color striping problem I did. It looks pretty bad and will have to be repainted.
On a related note, I finally finished the complete second coat of Behr and everything looks good. We will know for sure in the morning once it’s dry, but I expect it to turn out just fine.
Leave a Reply