How do I make gloss oil based paint matt? How do I put emulsion over gloss paint?
OK so here was my dilemma. I wanted to make a home theatre with a projector. But I wanted to project onto the wall. I heard that satin paint was perfect so I painted the whole wall. All I had was Oil-based Satin paint from Johnstones. It was good paint don’t get me wrong but on doors and skirting boards and windows yeah but as I found out not on walls. Its too ugly!
When it died I turned on the room light only to be greeted with a glowing reflection sunlike patch on the wall!!! Disaster!!! 🙁
So what do I do now? I did the usual search the internet and found very little. Sure there are guides about undercoat but its quite thick and many are water-based. So I needed an OIL-BASED undercoat but one that dried flat matt white (maybe a little sheen) but not reflective!!!
I used this!
I picked up a litre on off for under £15 from Screwfix which is plenty for what I needed but you can buy bigger tins if you have a lot of real estate to cover but don’t mix up too much at a time!.
PROBLEMS!
The main problem with this is it is VERY THICK! And kinda designed to be applied with a brush in small areas at a time and then to be rubbed down afterwards. It will fill imperfections and knots etc. But this is another issue. On the Screwfix forums I heard a guy say you need to dilute this with white spirit to have a longer and more pleasing working time. So this is what I did I tipped about 1/4 of a can into an old Ice Cream container. Then added 15% white spirit to thin it down. I used a clean stick I had to stir it. I stirred it well until it was similar to emulsion paint. Then used the wall as the roller tray and the side of the Ice cream container to roll out the excess. And gently with a mini foam roller started to cover the wall. It did an enter 3m by 2m wall. And the finish is like matt white paint. The beauty is you can kinda leave it like that. But now you have a key undercoat you can apply other paints to. But I will just redo this with another coat of this undercoat as its perfect for my needs (and it is Dulux which is the best) and maybe annually.
Dulux Trade Oil-based Undercoat saved me as else it would be sanding and even breathing in goodness knows what, the mess, and possible having to resort to lining paper, or at worst replastering or buying a projector screen!!! Thank Dulux.
I hope you found this helpful!
Have fun and happy painting!
Surwidow