Can you paint over crayon marks?

Question

My son has colored all over the walls of his bedroom and I want to know if I can just buy white paint and paint the entire bedroom or if I have to first try and clean off the crayons and then repaint?

Answer 1

The paint won't stick to the crayon marks. If you are going to paint it anyhow just take some fine grain sand paper to the crayon marks. That will remove the crayon and rough up the surface just a bit so that the paint will stick. Or Mr. Clean makes a cleaning agent that is suposed to remove crayon marks.

Answer 2

I raised 3 kids - now all grown, so I have seen my share of crayon marks too! If you paint over the crayon marks the paint will not adhere to the wall and will come off in places that you wanted to cover. Go to a good home improvement store, a store with a good cleaning section, or a paint store, and ask a professional what is the best thing to remove crayon on the walls. Some products work better than others, and since I haven't done this for a few years there may be a better product now that I don't know of. Also, why paint the walls white? Unless you are on a budget or have a lot of white paint already, you might want to be adventurous and try some color. Children love primary colors and there are so many great color combinations out there (look in the paint section for books that have displays of different colors for kids rooms - gives great ideas. We had fun with a gallon of chalk board paint applied on the bottom half of the walls with a chair rail installed above. This let the kids write on the walls with chalk and erase just like on a chalk board, but gave them a bigger canvas to draw. (You have to make sure that they understand that "chalk" can be used, not "crayons" and that they understand that this particular place is "their special drawing place" and other walls will not work this way. Not knowing the ages of your kids I don't know how "possible it is to impress these things upon them, but good luck anyway.

Answer 3

Unless you have the new crayons which can be washed off, no, you can't paint over it. You could try to put a cloth over the area and then with a warm iron on top of the cloth see if you can transfer the hot crayon on the cloth. Be careful to take a look every few seconds to make sure nothing burns. Then get some Kills, available at Home Depot or Lowe's and paint that on first and then the wall paint.

Answer 4

Good luck in trying to get the crayon marks off, as anything shy of an abrasive cleaner isn't likely to do it. The drawback with using an abrasive is that you've removed a portion of the drywall or plaster in removing the crayon mark.

I've had to paint over my child's crayon marks, but my walls aren't white, more of a light beige. It took a few coats of paint and I would imagine that it would take several coats of white paint to cover crayon marks, especially if it was a dark crayon.

Answer 5

When you go to get your paint for you son's bedroom by a gallon of KILZ latex based primer and apply before you paint.. The kilz will act as a penetrating barrier so that the crayon which is wax based will not come through.. Also by using Kilz first you will more than likely need less paint to do the entire room, so you save some cash... If you dont want to go that route just get a can of cheap hairspray and spray on the colored area and wipe with a clean cloth, stains will remain though.. Hope this helps....

Answer 6

Crayon On Walls

Answer 7

Before trying any scrubbing answer this, Is the paint on the wall washable. I have tried heating up the crayon and then wiping it off with a damp towel then using Windex. A lot of times the wax will leave a stain if the paint is not washable so you will need to touch up over it. But even if you have to paint over it try to get the wax off first or some paints will allow it to bleed through

Answer 8

A very cheap way to get rid of crayon marks is with a "Mr. Clean magic earser" You just get them wet and rub the crayon away. I have 3 kids and I am never with out them. They also remove pencil, pen, markers, scuff marks on floors, soap scum, you name it. But get the crayon off before you paint, you'll regret it if you dont.

Answer 9

I have two girls, 2 & 4yrs. I've seen many a crayon mark on the white walls of our apartment. As was said by others, Mr.Clean Magic Eraser works very well. Just not the one with the blue side). Or, a microfiber cloth with just warm water should work and without leaving little pieces behind like the magic eraser. You can find them in the auto parts section of any walmart-like store. Good luck.

Answer 10

You should try to get the crayon off so the painting surface is clean. It might look funny if you try to paint over it.