Emulsion paint 'issue'

[newts]

Zinnser Aqua as mentioned earlier is the way forward with dark colours. In days gone by you'd paint with a shade in between first to lighten the walls abit instead of going straight from very dark to near white.
Allowing paint to fully dry before applying the next coat improves coverage with any paint.
In General paint from DIY store (even the big brand names like dulux/valspar) are pretty crap & don't cover anywhere near aswell as proper trade paint from pro suppliers.

 

[Fastpedaller]

Update........ I think in the end I put 8 coats on the )previously blue) wall. The adjoining wall (with window) had 2 coats of the chalky white and looked the same. I replaced the existing LED light fitted by previous owner with a new 'smart' light our Daughter had chosen. The new light can be programmed with different colours, and a 'warm white' was used. Success! Both walls look to be a very light grey. With the new light set to 'cold white' my Wife and daughter both thought the walls looked a 'bit blue' ) I beg to differ, but I'm a bit colour deficient in my vision as stated earlier. Fossyant was bang on the money - I could have maybe only done 5 coats
I guess the 'cold white' spectrum is also the guilt party where Mercedes Benz headlights in the distance often look a bit blue?

 

[mistyoptic]

When my son wanted daft dark colours on the walls, we papered first with lining paper and then painted that (black, yellow and dark green). Afterwards the lining paper came off and we have “Virgin walls”. No use now for the OP but a good way for future IMO. Could have papered over the dark blue though…

 

[Fastpedaller]

When my son wanted daft dark colours on the walls, we papered first with lining paper and then painted that (black, yellow and dark green). Afterwards the lining paper came off and we have “Virgin walls”. No use now for the OP but a good way for future IMO. Could have papered over the dark blue though…

Not ideal to have paper in a bathroom though!

 

[mistyoptic]

Not ideal to have paper in a bathroom though!

If you says so. Both our bathrooms are papered. One is then painted with “Kitchen and Bathroom”, the other vinyl paper. Never been a problem

 

[Fastpedaller]

If you says so. Both our bathrooms are papered. One is then painted with “Kitchen and Bathroom”, the other vinyl paper. Never been a problem

Fair enough - I've no experience of a papered bathroom except for when we moved into our bungalow 20 years ago........ in the bathroom papered with 2 different wallpapers and 3 different designs and sizes of tiles! It was the first room we tackled.

 

[Gwylan]

Our Daughter has just bought her first house - It needs a lot of work! One of the big issues I've found is the previous owner liked his Dark Blues (other dark colours, but mainly blues. Many skirting boards, door frame etc in dark blue Daughter wants lighter colours . Of course I expected this to require many coats of paint.
Specific problem/question.......... A wall in the shower room was dark blue. I washed it with sugar soap and abraded it to provide a key (and of course vacuumed it and washed it again. All well and good, the next day I started painting the 'chalky white ie a very light grey' and again and again. It has now had 7 coats of paint (all put on by roller). I an slightly colour blind (colour vision deficient is more correct) and I now see it in daylight as grey, however with the LED light on at night it does look a bit blue. I've been told by Wife and Daughter 'it's still a little bit blue' (but they haven't examined it in daylight. The adjoining wall is the only other wall painted the same colour (other 2 are tiled) and to me it looks the same in daylight, but to add to the confusion that wall had a window in it so with the daylight coming through it the eyes aren't experiencing the same conditions when trying to compare.
Is it usual to take more than 7 coats to block a colour? It's a Dulux paint BTW and couldn't be any thicker or it would be difficult to put on, so I can't suggest it's thin paint

It's a case of metamerism. It's how the actual colour of the paint is made up and how it appears under light with different spectral distributions.
That'll be 2 guineas, please