It’s tempting, I know.

Painting is a chore. You have to move the furniture, mask everything off, watch for splatters. Standing on ladders in awkward positions. And the clean up. Ugh.

So when the paint companies announced “one-coat” paint (aka paint-and-primer-in-one), I was jubilant. Yes, I would pay extra money for reduced effort. I fell to the temptation.

Obviously, I was not impressed. No matter how thick I applied that one coat, it was insufficient. I saw the old color peeking through. Less of the old color than with traditional paint, but nonetheless.

One-coat paint is basically one-and-a-half coat paint—which is two-coat paint—just more expensive.

There’s no getting around it. Make up your mind to apply two coats of color for every paint job (with one rare caveat, see P.S.).

Some paint items are worth a few extra bucks (reference my article on the subject), but one-coat paint is not one of them.

Oh, and don’t let your contractor use it either if you hire out. He’s going to have to do two coats in the end and it will cost you.

Kevin

P.S. – Caveat: if you are repainting walls the same color as the previous paint job, you can usually get away with one coat. If there are no scuffs or patching to be done. But only then. Just paint two coats.