How to Tint Primer

Painting your home is often a time consuming process, especially if you are painting the walls a deep, rich color like red or brown. Priming without tinting can add a lot more time to the process. Primer is the first coat of paint put on the wall to prepare a surface for the colored paint to go over top. Since most primers are white, you will need to apply several coats of paint to get the walls the right color. However, by tinting your primer closer to the finished color, you will require less coats of paint, since the primed surface is not stark white, saving time and money.

Things You'll Need

• White primer
• Top coat of paint
• Small cup
• Paint stick

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Instructions

1. • 1

     Open your paint cans and use a small plastic cup to scoop a small quantity of your top coat color.

   • 2

     Pour the top coat color into your white primer paint. Depending on how large your can of primer is, you will need to add more paint to tint the primer. Add about one cup of the colored paint to every quart of primer.

   • 3

     Stir the mixture thoroughly with your paint stick until there are no visible streaks of white primer, and the paint has been completely tinted. Add more top color as necessary to tint the primer a bit darker.