I’m sure you’ve heard the terms deep base paint and medium base paint.
While you wanted to paint your walls, the painting professionals must have asked you or told you what kinds of colors they’ll get. And that got you all perplexed with the ‘base paint’ terms.
We got your back; take a few minutes to go through this article, and next time you talk to your house painter, you can tell him your preferences like an expert.
This article will let you know-
- What is base paint?
- What is deep base paint?
- Paint base types
- Can I Use Base Paint Without Tint?
- What is Medium Base Paint?
- Difference Between the Deep Base and Medium Base Paint
- Usage of deep base paint
So, let’s move on.
Table of Contents
What Is Base Paint?
If you know a bit about paint production, you would see that base is the substance that comes in a fine solid-state that makes the paint body. The properties of the paint, the identity of the color is all due to the paint base. You can say it forms the paint bulk. Have you ever wondered how paint is so polished, smooth, opaque, elastic, and doesn’t even crack! Well, thanks to the paint base.
Let’s get you more information about it because otherwise, the ones you’ll be reading next may not make sense. Get this clear; base paint is no primer. Primer is a base coat you apply before the paint for better adherence, and base paint is more of a medium to make those colorful paints.
Although you may even use it directly on the surfaces, it is not paint. It’s made to add a tint or colorant to it that gives it the fancy looks.
So, how does a base paint look like? It’ll seem like white paint when you take a look at it. But if you get inside a bit, the bulk of the base is clear. The colorant materials, while added to the clear bulk, allow the insertion of solids that result in the final color. Adding different colorants to the transparent base changes the paint hue. That’s why you may notice some slight differences in the paint base color sometimes.
What Is Deep Base Paint?
When you say deep base or medium base, it refers to the ability of the paint to be more tinted in respect to the added white pigment that gives it the opaque consistency. Now, a deep base paint has the least quantity of white pigment added to it. This means you can add more colorant to the paint, and it will give off richer, vibrant, more pigmented, and darker colors.
To make it more transparent, a deep base indicates a base used to tint darker tones of colors from it. On the other hand, white or lighter bases are made to tint lighter colors.
An In-Depth Look into The Paint Base Types
Manufacturers follow two ways of labeling the paint bases. The first approach is to label it with numbers to define the severity of the white pigmentation process. In this case, you will find for types of paint bases which I’m briefing right below-
Base 1: This base type is suitable for whites and light pastels. It has the most amount of added white pigment. Using this base gives you lighter tones.
Base 2: It is used to tint a bit darker colors. Base 2 also has a lesser amount of white pigment added to it. Although we might use it for a little darker hue, it still gives off lighter shades.
Base 3: For those mid-toned paints, or just your average paint tones, base three is used. It has a lot lesser white pigmentation. And it accepts more colorants that render the rich colors.
Base 4: It is used for creating the richest, darkest, and most pigmented colors. Since it has the least amount of white pigment added, you can mix more colorants into it to give off the most vibrant colors.
Now, let’s move on to the following approach. Many companies do not go for the numbering as they might create confusion, so they label their base paints as a deep base, medium base, pastel base, light base, or white base. The darker the color you are trying to obtain, the darker the base needs to be and vice versa. Simple!
While the deep base contains the least whites, it gradually intensifies as you move to medium base, light base, pastel, and then white base.
Almost forgot to tell you about another paint base, namely accent base. When you go to the stores, along with the traditional base paints, you’ll also see accent base labels. They have a meager amount of white pigment, which is preferred by many as ideal. This results in accepting more tints for more pigmented colors.
Can I Use Base Paint Without Tint?
Well, technically speaking, you can. It looks like paint, and when you apply it to the wall, it dries like paint. It’s not going to do any harm and might even pull out the trick as paint, but it lacks the colorant. So you may say what if you want white painted walls and the base color is already white, so there should be no problem. I’m sorry, that’s not how it works. Let’s see why-
- When painting with untinted, the paint will not give you the desired coverage. The same goes for white walls.
- There is every chance that the untinted paint without the colorant and pigments will not give you the expected richness of color.
- If you are painting over existing paint, then the color will bleed through.
- And if you try experimenting with a deep base, apply it without the tint. You should be ready for a disaster because, without the colorant, it will dry somewhat clear. This is because the deep base has the least amount of white pigment in it, and hence you cannot expect coverage at all.
What is Medium Base Paint?
If we chronologically number the intensity of the white pigmentation, then medium base paint would be placed 3 or 4. The thing with base paints is that they limit how much colorant can be added to them. If you add too much, then the quality and drying ability of the color will be affected. And if you add less, then coverage will be affected.
A medium-based paint creates shades that are a bit too much for white base or pastel base paint. With a significantly less amount of added white pigmentation, you can add more colorants in the paint, and the hues will saturate to a point it gives off rich colors.
Difference Between the Deep Base and Medium Base Paint
Okay, although I know, you are already somewhat aware of it. Let me go into the details-
- Both deep base and medium base are media to mix colorants to bring on the actual paint color. Both have a lower amount of white pigment added to them. However, the deep base has the least amount of whites, even lower than the medium base.
- The ability to accept colorant is more of the deep base than of the medium base.
- Deep base creates darker shades of paint, while the medium base produces colors between light and dark colors.
Using Deep Base Paint
As I mentioned earlier, deep base paints create darker colors as they can accept more colorants. Due to the least amount of white pigments compared to white bases help make the most decadent shades like black, brown, burgundy, navy blue, dark green, copper, etc. You keep adding more colorants to it till you get the desired vivid colors.
Well, I hope this little discussion on the deep base paint has given you a clear idea of what base you need for making those different shades of colors. Mixing colorants with the bases is one beautiful thing, and if you have a cane labeled with a ‘deep base,’ then watch how beautifully the stains immerse in the paint to give brilliant colors!