# Do I HAVE to paint over closet primer??



## queenofthehouse (Jul 14, 2007)

Hi all,

We are remodeling a downstairs bedroom. Now it is "official", as we added a big closet and an egress window. My job this weekend is to prime and paint. I am a big fan of washable paint as we are a grubby family! I believe we used Dutch Boy for other rooms in our house and it has held up nicely for us. I will paint the walls with that. Anyway, the whole room and closet (all new drywall) is primed with 2 coats of Zinsser 1-2-3 primer.
The ceiling will stay white, and so will the closet. It looks just fine to me. I would rather not buy white ceiling paint and do the closet and ceiling yet again. I will confess that in our other remodeled rooms, I used Kilz on our popcorn ceilings and left them that way--primed, not painted. 6 years later, they all look just fine to me. Is there a GOOD reason why I should paint??


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2007)

Zinsser is a very good primer. If you are just planning to put cheap paint on it anyway, you might as well leave it alone. The primer is probably better than what you would top coat it with.


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## slickshift (Aug 25, 2005)

Primer makes a lousy topcoat
It will absorb all the dirt that would be repelled by a paint
It looks fine now, it will look horrible soon enough

As for the ceilings, gravity help keep a lot of visible dirt off of it, but now, 6 years later, it may _look_ OK...but if you did/do decide to paint it you will have a heckava time doing so

I would have to almost triple my rate for a maintenance coat on the ceiling (no color change) if you hired me to paint 6 year old primered popcorn
Granted, it may go smoother, but I wouldn't bet on it


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## Da Vinci (Jul 1, 2007)

Hmmm. I don't think I've ever run across that question for interiors, although I have been asked that about exterior primers (answer is NO on exterior- primers are not designed to hold up like the finish coats). 

I could come up with the long drawn out explanations about primers/topcoats being different chemically, durability issues, blah, blah, blah. 

I personally think topcoats are softer looking, and I don't use white white (as opposed to off-white) much at all. 

In reality, which is what we are dealing with here, you can pretty much do whatever you want. If you've used it on ceilings before, and you like the way it looks, save yourself the time and money - it is only a closet. 

The only other issue may be the paint fumes- sometimes the zinsser's ammonia smell can hang around- especially in a closed closet area, you don't want that soaking into your clothes. That disappears when you cover it with a topcoat. But if it's well ventilated and fumes are exhausted, I don't see a problem here..

Good Luck,
Bob
Bay Area Painting Contractor


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## queenofthehouse (Jul 14, 2007)

Thank you for that frank reply!!  

What brand of washable/kid-proof paint would you recommend? I do not see this room being painted again for years.

Thanks!



poppameth said:


> Zinsser is a very good primer. If you are just planning to put cheap paint on it anyway, you might as well leave it alone. The primer is probably better than what you would top coat it with.


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## queenofthehouse (Jul 14, 2007)

You would have cringed to see my poor popcorn ceilings before I coated them. 30 years old, smoke damage from candles and a wood burning stove, you could see the truss-marks all across the ceiling---yuck. 

I put on a couple coats of Kilz and yes, it still looks like new 6 years later.

I didn't think of a topcoat as dirt-repelling. Da Vinci alluded to that as well.

Would you like to recommend a good paint?

Thanks!




slickshift said:


> Primer makes a lousy topcoat
> It will absorb all the dirt that would be repelled by a paint
> It looks fine now, it will look horrible soon enough
> 
> ...


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