A room painter’s primer

Deciding on a paint color is stressful. Light, dark, bold, soothing:

Sometimes it’s hard to fit all of my moods into one can of color.

I believe in tester quarts and foam brushes. There are times when

rooms in my house have looked like patchwork quilts. It’s important

to see how the color adjusts to morning light, evening light and

artificial light.

After you have made the difficult color decision, you breathe a

sigh of relief and head off to the paint store -- only to be hit with

a new series of questions.

Latex or enamel? Flat, velvet, eggshell, semi-gloss, high-gloss,

marine gloss?

Many of these choices come down to personal preference. There are

shelves full of products that have been added over the years to meet

the needs of different applications, a paint for every occasion.

Here’s a heads-up before you head off to the paint store.

Latex vs. enamel: Latex is water-soluble. A little dish soap and

water are all you need for cleanup after your paint project. Latex

paints are good on surfaces that don’t get a lot of wear and tear:

walls and ceilings are good examples. Or maybe not?

If you have a flock of rugrats, latex may not be durable enough.

You need scrubable. Any enamel paint is thicker and more durable. For

high moisture areas, enamel stands alone. Enamel paints, especially

gloss varieties, are going to wick moisture better than water-based

counterparts.

Pretend to paint a couple rooms in your house. Start with a

bathroom. In a bathroom, it’s enamel all the way. Enamel doesn’t mean

that the entire bathroom has to be shiny. That’s where the different

finishes come into play. If you want flat, you can have it with

enamel.

In a bathroom, select a velvet or eggshell finish. These finishes

are not glossy, but they’re not flat. They give you a surface that’s

easy to wipe down, which every bathroom needs to avoid moisture

streaks. The woodwork in your bathroom is what gets punished.

High-use areas are also high-moisture areas. Look at your bathroom

cabinets. I’ll bet that there are certain drawers (like the

toothpaste drawer) that look more “loved” than others. Maybe the

cabinet underneath the sink is your well-worn area. Any place that

water drips or has wet hands using it needs enamel paint.

Using a semi-gloss or high-gloss product will help repel the water

that comes with the bathroom. Marine paint is more expensive, but

hey, if they use it on boats, your bathroom or kitchen cabinets will

weather the storm nicely, too.

Now, paint the walls. Consider your audience. If you are painting

a child’s room, you want walls that can be wiped off. Even though

junior may not take crayons to the walls, the likelihood of cute

little handprints is high. Eggshell or velvet finishes are more

scrubable than flat.

Now, don’t get the impression that flat paint is a bad guy. It’s

not. Many designers really love a flat, chalky look. If you have a

shabby chic theme in your home, you want chalky. It’s a milk paint

kind of finish. No sheen, just color.

One of my favorite home stores in Los Angeles is The Silk Trading

Company. Its silks glow, but the paint is as flat as flat gets. Nice

juxtaposition, but not for the baby’s nursery.

Flat paint is also a good choice for a ceiling that has

imperfections. If your ceiling shows tape marks (from poor

dry-walling), slightly bulging nails or subtle cracks, definitely go

for a flat finish. Semi-gloss or gloss paint will just magnify the

imperfections.

You’ve picked your paint color and you’ve decided on a paint

finish. Are you done? I don’t think so. If you want to take your

paint to another level, consider specialty finishes, such as glazing

and crackle.

Glazing your walls is a good way to give a room an extra layer of

depth. Whether you want an “old” look or just want the richness of

multiple layers of color, glazing the walls is a beautiful way to

finish a special room.

If you are going for instant old, use a glaze that has a raw umber

or brown undertone. Premixed glazing compounds are available at

hardware stores like Ganahl Lumber. You can tint your own glaze or

buy a pre-tinted product. If you’re going for “old,” use a brown

glaze over any paint color you have.

Adding an extra layer of transparent color intensifies the “look”

of your room. You can add any layer of color to your paint.

Adding a green glaze to a blue room gives a Bahama Mama feeling.

Adding a light glaze over a dark color gives a room more depth. The

color combinations are endless. If you’re not happy with your

original color, glaze it.

If you have woodwork that needs a twist, a crackle finish will add

character. Using a thin coat of water-soluble glue over the base coat

of paint and adding a water-soluble paint on top achieves the crackle

effect. The crackle effect happens right before your eyes. You can

watch the fissures form. You can do light over dark, or dark over

light. Both effects are dramatic. A crackle finish requires a coat of

sealer, like a lacquer or varnish.

Think multi-dimensional: color, finish, effect and sealer. Or be

shallow, and go for a cool color that you know will be changed in a

couple of years. That’s the beauty of paint. Here one day, gone the

next. Or not?

* KAREN WIGHT is a Newport Beach resident. Her column runs

Sundays.