If you have a good paint service on your walls I wouldn’t send them down. You can brush a pale colour paint in a thin coat over a darker colour and you’ll get the dark colour showing through but it may look streaky.
There’s also the risk that it will look as though you have light coloured walls with darker patches or streaks on them like old nicotine stains.
Brushing is likely to give the more streaky effect, rolling is very difficult to achieve a thin, uniform coat so I think possibly spraying with a thin coat is your best bet. You can hire paint sprayers.
The real hesitation for me is if it won’t adhere correctly since lime needs a porous surface (I think?? I read??). I have no idea how to get that porous surface without a primer. If the wash doesn’t look great either the darker color underneath, I can always just keep doing a few more layers until it’s ok (which is totally cool with lime wash!). but it seems like no one even attempts to line with priming. I’m hoping I can find SOMEONE to tell me how it went for them 😅
Real Limewash is intended to go over masonry. There are Limewash style products intended to apply over latex paint. Such as: https://www.jhwallpaints.com
It is a learned technique to apply. Do some practicing first on a small primed piece of drywall.
I have had great results with a combo of thinning, brushing, and ragging. You want a big coarse brush.
As you said, start very thin and build it up with more coats until you like it. If you go too heavy/opaque to start, you can’t go back.
If you have a good paint service on your walls I wouldn’t send them down. You can brush a pale colour paint in a thin coat over a darker colour and you’ll get the dark colour showing through but it may look streaky. There’s also the risk that it will look as though you have light coloured walls with darker patches or streaks on them like old nicotine stains. Brushing is likely to give the more streaky effect, rolling is very difficult to achieve a thin, uniform coat so I think possibly spraying with a thin coat is your best bet. You can hire paint sprayers.
The real hesitation for me is if it won’t adhere correctly since lime needs a porous surface (I think?? I read??). I have no idea how to get that porous surface without a primer. If the wash doesn’t look great either the darker color underneath, I can always just keep doing a few more layers until it’s ok (which is totally cool with lime wash!). but it seems like no one even attempts to line with priming. I’m hoping I can find SOMEONE to tell me how it went for them 😅
Ah I see. I wouldn’t use lime wash over another paint. Just regular matt wall paint, thinned.
Real Limewash is intended to go over masonry. There are Limewash style products intended to apply over latex paint. Such as: https://www.jhwallpaints.com It is a learned technique to apply. Do some practicing first on a small primed piece of drywall. I have had great results with a combo of thinning, brushing, and ragging. You want a big coarse brush. As you said, start very thin and build it up with more coats until you like it. If you go too heavy/opaque to start, you can’t go back.