What's the difference between paint with primer and JUST primer.

Crystal Farrell
by Crystal Farrell
When we bought our house, I was intending on painting over the very dark faux boarding in out dining room vs taking the board down. I love the look of it, bit hate the darkness. However, the paint with primer we have is just making the color of the board bleed. What should I do?

  7 answers
  • Joan Joan on Jun 11, 2018

    Primer is what you need to cover a dark wall. You may need a couple of coats. Paint with primer, which I believe all paints now have, would work for painting lighter colored walls. Good luck!

  • Janet Pizaro Janet Pizaro on Jun 11, 2018

    Use a regular primer first.The paint mixed with primer may not be enough to cover the dark wall

  • Vimarhonor Vimarhonor on Jun 11, 2018

    Call the paint manufacturer! They ( Behr and Valspar) have been very helpful with our troubles and failures....they often supply advice and replacement product, sometimes another product that will sucessfully preform in your project .


    Example we had wood knot holes bleeding through PRIMER on a wood panneled ceiling. When one primer failed we were given a gallon of another primer product that worked!

    • See 1 previous
    • Vimarhonor Vimarhonor on Jun 11, 2018

      I hope your situation gets corrected as easily as ours did! I was not aware there are so many primer ( alone) variations.


      The 1-800 # help lines assisted us with this ceiling problem and a deck sealing failure.

      I see that Home Depot is verbally advertising satisfaction guaranteed on TV ads with their paint products. Its quite reassuring to a customer.


      Best wishes in finding a resolution and the renovation and decorating of your home!

  • If you're having bleedthrough you need to use a good primer, not a paint and primer in one. Paint and primer does have primer in it, but not enough. If you use just primer, you'll notice it is MUCH thicker than your typical paint and will cover much better.

  • Laura Cooper Laura Cooper on Jun 11, 2018

    I absolutely HATE the advertising label that says paint+primer. If you are painting any surface that has not been painted before, you need primer and then paint. If you have any surface with damage such as mold or urine, then you need to primer and then paint.

  • Bev Bev on Jun 11, 2018

    Use a primer /sealer like Kilz or similar...this will seal the wood so that color doesn't bleed thru....comes in white and some colors....then pain top coat with a good quality paint.

  • Janice Janice on Jun 11, 2018

    You need to use a stain-blocking primer like Kilz, Zinsser, etc.