How do you paint touch-up spots on drywall?

Question

I have a few spots that need to be touched-up (after having a drywall anchor removed, being gouged while moving furniture, etc).

I filled them with putty, sanded smooth, then painted a single coat with a small foam brush, but:

1. The texture looks different from the rest of the wall
2. The color looks a bit off, though maybe this is just because of the texture.

Any tips on how to handle these spots so they don't stick out?

Answer 1

A couple of things could cause this:

• the original surface was primed, and you didn't use any primer on the patches. Primer seals the surface, so changes how the surface absorbs paint.
• the original surface was rolled, and you used a paintbrush. Rollers leave a slight orange-peel texture, whereas a paintbrush -- even the brush you used -- will leave a flat to slightly rippled texture.

More coats of paint will help too, but prime it first.

Answer 2

The difference you are seeing (like @Niall C. mentioned) is that the area you patched is very smooth from the paint brush but the rest of the wall is speckled from a roller. Possibly you also sanded the wall around the patch job too much and therefore removed the roller pattern that was previously there (making the smooth non-matching area larger and more apparent). Next time when patching a small spot, put on your spackle/joint compound and then you can use a sponge sanding block to remove any high spots (but without sanding too much to remove any of the roller pattern from around the hole). Then you can try and use a paint brush to get a match to the roller pattern by dabbing the area (instead of pulling full strokes) but you would definitely get a matching pattern by using a roller.

@Niall C. mentioned this in his answer but in my opinion priming small areas like you described is not necessary. If this is a larger area (maybe the gouge that you describe, then priming and a roller would be required to get a match).