So my touch-up painting went awesomely, the paint store computer matched the color exactly from the paint chip I gave them. Except I assumed the original job was semi-gloss. And it turns out it wasn’t, it was flat. So now I have nicely colored, but overly shiny, patches on my wall.
I am sure the paint store can again mix up some good flat paint in the same shade. But – what do I need to do to the shiny patches? Sand them off? Or can I paint right over them with flat? Do I need primer or something?
The first thing I would try was some Spic-n-Span and water, and scrub the shiny spots. Might take enough gloss off the shiny parts to where you don’t need another coat.
Failing that, we went the other way when our basement was repainted. The contractor initially used a flatter sheen, and we had him do the second coat with a shinier one. He warned us that it doesn’t always look good when you do that, but it came out fine. (Look! two anecdotes for the price of one?)
One thing to be aware of, different brands of paint have different levels for their sheens, so the brand you buy may not have one that matches a different brand already on the wall. Not sure if you can successfully mix two sheens to get one in between sheen.
Thks. I was aware of the brand the painters originally used, and got the same one, so it’s squarely on me for getting the semi-gloss instead of the base/flat. I will try, though, rubbing it down as you suggest.
You could probably skip the priming. If the color/sheen wasn’t right and you suspected the previous coat of semi-gloss, you could always repeat the process using the primer this time.
Are you sure it’s flat? There are a few different sheens between flat & semi-gloss. IIRC, Behr (Home Depot) has Flat, Eggshell, Satin Enamel, Semi-Gloss, High Gloss.