Painting a room red adds drama and personality, but it can be really tricky. In my first home, my husband and I had a cherry kitchen.  It was adorable.  I loved it and still miss it.  But, guess how many coats of paint it took to finish that room.  Four!

Since painting that first kitchen, I’ve learned a few tricks that have helped make the process go more smoothly. Orange, purple, pink and brown are all components of red, so the tips I’m sharing here also apply to these colors.  Keep in mind this advice also works best for dark, red browns.

1. Paint a dark color on your walls before adding red. I always ask my teams to paint the walls black first. This undercoat eliminates more than two other coats of paint, and oftentimes, my clients love the black so much they want to keep it.

2. Open the can a few days early. Even with some higher quality paints, the paint magically becomes thinner when the red pigment is added.  I have learned opening the can a few days early and stirring it every few hours helps thicken the paint, making for fewer coats.

3. When using red, buy the highest quality paint you can find. Trust me. It will be worth it.  If time is money (four coats in a room?!), you save big.  Consider the quantity of materials used. Using higher quality paint can reduce the number of coats cutting your materials in half and reducing extra trips to the store.