A reader painted her Ravenswood condo in flat paint when she moved in three years ago. Already her walls are scuffed up and dirty. Is there a way to remove these marks, she asks, or must she repaint everything in something wipeable?
Otto Anderson of Thybony Paint, 5440 N. Clark St., says it’s hard to clean flat paint without marring its porous surface. If you want to try, use a gentle blotting motion with a sponge dipped in a weak solution of a mild detergent. Don’t scrub, or you will create permanent shiny spots.
The alternative is to start fresh with paint that will stand up to cleaning better, and that means repriming and repainting. “We recommend an acrylic enamel undercoater, followed with an acrylic flat enamel and/or acrylic eggshell enamel. The higher the sheen, the more durable it is,” says Anderson.
Don’t be scared off by flats with sheen-they don’t have that super-glossy finish seen in paints for kitchen walls.
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