To mist or not to mist - that is the question

Before starting to paint all of our newly skimmed walls, I thought I would do a little bit of research about how to deal with new plaster. I wish I had never bothered!

I don't think there is any other subject that there are so many different 'experts' all strongly suggesting completely conflicting advice/instructions...

* Sand vs don't sand

* Filler before vs filler after mist coat

* 50:50 paint to water / 70:30 / 75:25 or any other ratio you can think of...

* PVA mixed in vs never put PVA near your walls

* No mist coat vs 1 mist coat vs 2 mist coats

Even as far as arguing whether it is a 'mist coat' or a 'miss coat'...

In the end I have decided to go with:

* A first pass of a 50:50 ratio cheap white emulsion to water ( I am not going to use this on the ceilings though, it is messy enough on the walls!)

* A second coat of 80:20 (approx) - starting with the ceilings

* Then 2 coats of the room colour 

So far I have painted half of the room with the 50:50 mixture, it is the consistency of milk so pretty messy. After trying a brush, a normal roller, I am now using a 'radiator roller' and a paint kettle - this has worked the best for me so far.

I didn't think it was working very well at first

However once it had dried overnight, I can see that it did what was expected. The water was soaked into the plaster and drew the paint pigment in

It looks much less patchy, even though I haven't actually done anything different to the first picture.

So now just to get the rest of it done...

If anyone else is interested in mist coats (hahaha) the most useful thing that I found was this YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTuaH-6rGRw