Primer test

To prime or not to prime? I was a bit confused.

I spent a fair amount of time (perhaps too much time) reading about interior paints and primers, and the information to me seemed largely inconclusive. There seems to be two schools of thought on the issue: the "always prime" camp and the "that's a load of crap, don't waste your money" camp. Being the tightwad that I am (yup, I said it), I was drifting towards the latter. I was; however, willing to experiment.

I bought a can of Zinnser primer from our local Ace Hardware. As an aside, while I realize I am about to sound a bit like John Madden, Ace actually may be the place for me. The paint guy there was really knowledgeable and patient with me and my paint chips of other brands from other stores. At any rate, the Zinnser was originally purchased for our half bath downstairs, but seeing as how the wallpaper stripping debacle is likely going to go on for months (that's a story for another day), I was itching to put something on the wall, any wall.

So I took the Zinnser and a can of paint up to the Slaughtered Salmon bathroom to test the paint vs. primer thing. I discovered that the lighter color we chose for the bathroom (again, that's a story for another day) was not covering the salmon. That salmon is a little bright.

Slaughtered salmon. Love it!

So....for now, I have decided that the answer to the primer question is: it depends. My mom's advice was to prime things like brick, cinder block, and new Sheetrock. I would add that really dark colored paint should also be primed (unless of course having the old color show through is a desired look). I have happily begun priming over the salmon. The primer is an improvement.