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I recently finished my basement. Had the drywall textured. Painted three sample areas of different paint colors I was trying to decide on. I decided on one and got the paint from a different paint store than the samples. I primed over the samples with two coats and then painted three coats of paint on the walls. When dried I could see the areas that I painted the samples were shinier than the rest of the wall. Any one know why this is or how to fix it. Thanks!

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  • Tell us more about this drywall texture.
    – jqning
    Dec 17, 2015 at 15:20
  • When acrylic paint dries the resulting coalesced paint film is affected by how the carrier (water and solvents) evaporates and how it is absorbed by the substrate (drywall). You would likely have avoided the problem had you evenly primed the whole wall, not just "over the samples". Also, as @Michael Karas states, you changed the surface texture in the area so light reflects differently there. Surface texture differences are amplified with glossy paint. Dec 18, 2015 at 21:13
  • Thanks so much for your responses, this stuff makes sense now. Didn't even think of it at the time. The only time we can see it is with the natural light coming in the window and bouncing of the wall. I guess we will have to live with it or try the flat paint idea. thanks again everyone for your response! Dec 19, 2015 at 14:27

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Did you just apply primer over the paint sample areas? If so, the primer left the wall in that area with a different surface preparation than the rest of the area where you applied the top coats. The different sheen that you see is probably mostly due to how light reflects off the wall in that area.

One fix that may be possible, particularly if you had painted with a egg shell or low luster type paint, is to repaint with a flat paint.

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I'm assuming you also primed the rest of the walls too & not just the patches. The Sheen should even up in a month. Like, I had trouble with Sherwin William's primer & paint revealing patches primed with a standalone primer, but it finally leveled off.

Otherwise, you might need to very lightly "sand" or scrub the areas with a kitchen scrubby or even triple-zero steel wool (an S.O.S. pad will work) to buff-down that sheen. But definitely, just wait first to see if it's just a curing difference.

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