Valspar One Coat Primer Review
Jocie and I (mostly Jocie) decided to give some old furniture a new look. We used Valspar Interior High Hiding Primer and here are the results.
The Challenge
We have two pieces of hunter green furniture. One dresser and one end table, typical size. Both will be painted white after it’s all over. We wanted to test out a one-coat-primer and chose Valspar.
Valspar High Hiding Primer claims that it will cover
dramatic paint colors and dry fast (straight from
the website).
The Methods
We started with a quick sanding to remove any hidden finishing layers. This also helps prepare the wood for a new coat of paint. Make sure to clean up all surfaces if you sand before painting. We applied the primer with a paint brush and small roller combination.
The Results
One coat primer didn’t hold up to its name. The primer quickly soaked into the wood and dried. But a light green tinge and wood grain could be seen throughout (middle picture). It took another full application before Jocie and I were confident that no green would bleed
through (last picture). I doubt we will purchase Valspar primer again.
What do you think? Do you know a tried and true one coat primer? Have you used any competitors’ versions (Behr, Duron, Sherwin Williams, Ralph Lauren, etc.)?
Post update: Click here to see how Valspar responded (4/3/2008).
Comments & Conversation on this Article...
9 Responses to Valspar One Coat Primer Review
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March 17th, 2008 8:07 am
I’ve always been happy with Kilz. I’ve used it on very dark wood paneling, outdoor furniture, and drywall in the bathroom, and it’s always covered well and given a nice surface to work with. I will say, it took two coats of the Kilz on the dark wood paneling. It was very old, dry wood and it soaked up the Kilz, but in that case, it’s probably a good thing because that means we got the dry parts all soaked in so that whatever color we applied later would not soak in and reveal the dark wood underneath. We’ve had no bleed through at all. Good luck!
March 17th, 2008 11:48 am
I, too, have been very happy with Kilz. Covers all kinds of stuff very well!
March 17th, 2008 1:01 pm
I’ve never tried Kilz but it sounds like a worthwhile product. And I know I have some painting in my future. Thanks for the recommendations (Kelli, Sandy).
March 17th, 2008 1:16 pm
I have to say that I have never used primer… We’ve had great luck so far, even with painting our kitchen dark brick red from white.
March 18th, 2008 2:34 pm
We painted the cabinets in our kitchen when we moved in as a temporary solution (eventually we want to re-do the kitchen but just haven’t scraped together the $ yet). The back of our cabinets had some staining on them (a gift from the POs). It literally took 2 coats of kilz primer and like 4 additional coats of semi-gloss to irradicate the stain. I was surprised that the kilz didn’t handle it within the first 2 coats (and I probably should have just continued to put kilz on, instead of moving to the final paint).
April 1st, 2008 12:16 pm
I love Valspar paints – but have been disappointed with Valspar primers. I’ll join the rest of the comment crowd in going with Kilz for priming!
April 1st, 2008 1:00 pm
Anita,
I plan on comparing the two when I paint the dinning room. I’ll post about how it turned out. Then we can all see which is better.
May 1st, 2008 9:36 pm
I have been painting for 15 years and started using Valspar products a few years ago per customer requests. All of their primers and paints work well, however they have specific primers for specific uses like drywall primer, multi-purp primer and high hiding primer which is designed to cover up dark painted walls. Their multi-purp primer is great cause it covers as well as sticks to any surface without sanding. I have to say kilz is ok at blocking stains but it does NOT cover well. Stick with the Valspar!!
May 1st, 2008 10:06 pm
Hey Joe. Thanks for the feedback. 15 years sounds like some good experience. I’ve started to wonder if any primer would have really done a better job. I think this summer I’ll do a Valspar to Kilz comparison when we paint our dining room.