It All Started with a Little Chip in the Paint

Last night, around 10pm, I was standing in the kitchen chatting with my husband about what color we’ll be painting the walls (Valspar’s After Dinner Mint) when I noticed a little yellow chip in the paint on the side of the pantry. I picked at it absently while we were talking, and accidentally pulled a gigantic sheet of paint off the wall.  Oops! From there, we were horrified to find that the entire wall was peeling right down to the original buttery yellow enamel. And then it peeled right around the corner.

As it turns out, a previous homeowner had slapped latex paint right over that original oil paint without prepping the surface, and then it was repainted about 3 times. That first coat of latex never really bonded to the smooth surface, and we are stuck with a daunting decision: Scrape all the latex off the walls, or just paint over it like everyone else did. My little peeling party last night made the decision for us–we’re going to scrape. Ugh.

Once we’ve got all the latex paint off the walls, we’re going to use a heavy duty primer, Zinsser 123, to prep the surface before applying a fresh coat of minty green paint on the walls. All this is to say, if you’re painting over oil paint or enamel, you need to start with a primer that is meant to bond the two together, or else your paint will bubble and peel right off.

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