Hi chloe! Yeah thats gonna look pretty blotchy over a dark blue. Remember that you can always have your primer tinted to match your top coat. It will be fine to start your top coats. I think you should be able to get baby turtle to cover in 2. Its only a matter of whether its gonna cover in 2 or 3 coats. So you could prime again but you will still have to do 2 topcoats. Or you can just do 2 or 3 topcoats & you will know after the 2nd.

Good Luck!

Chloe,
What Steve says...
Just make sure you're doing two full coats of paint. 99% of the time, primers will look kinda hazy over dark colors, and that's OK.

Faron

I would have just painted right over the navy blue with the baby turtle type color. Dark colors will cover dark colors pretty easily. No need to go back to white because then you may need to do 3 coats.

Thanks everyone.
Glad we can just move on to the paint. My husband hates painting with primers, especially on that navy ceiling. I'd have to do some real talking to get him to put on another coat of primer.:)

chloe,

I'm curious, so I'm asking. Why does husband hate primer?

Michael

Because he can't get a smooth look with it. It seems to show all the roller lines. He just said " it is a drippy, runny mess"
He has also said "why can't he just cover the navy with some cheap paint."

I think this all started several years ago when we painted our previously wallpapered laundry room red.. When we moved in to the house when it was new, I primed the walls with a primer that had a sheen before I hung the wallpaper. ( this is what they sold to me at the paint store)
when he started priming those walls with the pepto bismal pink primer it wouldn't stay on the walls. I was sick and so wasn't in there watching him, or I would have told him to stop. So he brute forced his way through the primer and it just made a huge globby mess. We ended up having to sand all of the walls. It was a real nightmare. I've explained that the reason we had all that trouble was that the walls were slick and we should have lightly sanded them before doing the primer . He is the type that once he gets an idea in his head, it is hard to get him to change his mind.
I've probably told you more than you want to know.:):)

What brand is the primer? Generally primers do not cover well because that is not their job. Their job is to seal and provide a good base for your topcoats, but the ones I use are not drippy and runny. They are looser bodied than a paint though so roller lines are a bit harder to avoid, but you just have to make sure you keep the roller fully loaded and try to keep even pressure in the center of the roller. If you have a dry roller and are pushing hard on the wall then you are not dipping heavy enough. The idea is to get the roller to do the work for you.

I would say that using a cheap flat paint is the best thing to do if all you wanted was coverage. But, then you will have a cheap flat paint on your walls and that's not a good starting point for a washable topcoat.

I have another question about this primer. I just noticed that it has left a very rough feel to the wall. What did we do wrong? The cutting in and the small places where I put the primer on with a small foam roller are nice and smooth, but the rest of the walls are very rough feeling almost Like we're going to need to sand them. We used a roller for very smooth walls, one recommended on this forum. It seems that he may have put it on too thick.

We are not inexperienced painters. We had 5 rent houses for 20 years and did all out own painting.

When rolling primer on walls I typically use a 3/8 nap cover. Same for most finishes but I use 1/2" for flat paints. 1/2" can sometimes leave a rougher texture than desired.

we started out using a Purdy white Dove 1/4 inch nap and he was in a "Mood" hating this priming stuff because of all the dripping and streaking and so about half way through he switched to a different cover. I've just looked at the second one he used , and if anything it is even thinner than the white Dove one. ( maybe a little more worn?)
Since where I cut in as well as in the little narrow spaces, where I rolled with a small foam roller it is pretty smooth, I wonder whether we should have used one of those foam roller covers

Is the paint going to smooth it out at all, or do we need to do some sanding? We do have a flat finishing sander that is pretty easy to use, but I kind of hate the thought of all that dust

Well if it is rough now, that is how the walls will feel after the finish coats are on. I would use a pole sander though instead of the finishing sander. Sanding primer won't make that much dust and it shouldn't take much effort to get it smooth again. A 1/4" nap sleeve is too small for me unless I'm rolling cabinet doors or something. 3/8" is probably standard for wall primers.

I'm gonna go into "reverse" here...

>>> Was your laundry-room wallpaper stripped off?
>>> If so, did you get all glue-residue off??

* As others have asked...What brand/series is the primer?
* What brand/sheen/color-name was applied?
* Primer ideally should've been GRAY. "Pepto-pink" is no better than White under a Red!
* Purdy 3/8" White-Doves are a VERY good roller...My favorite! Painiting a room with a 1/4" roller means you're re-loading much more often!

Don't take this wrong, but many people aren't' as good as they think they are!
* Pressure, tools, & technique can either "make" a paintjob...or KILL it!
* I'm not sure why your DH had such an "ordeal" in the priming?!??!
* The type & amount of prep (or LACK of!) is a HUGE factor too. It's often tedious, but VERY necessary removing paste-residue.

Let us know some more details!
Faron

OOOPS! I went back too far!! I got hung-up on the Laundry-room ordeal!
Sorry!
Faron