Before repainting a room I removed some shelves that were attached with wall anchors. I took the anchors out and patched with joint compound, layering until smooth. Then I sealed it with Zinsser Bullseye 123 primer.

But when I painted, the texture difference with the patched area was very noticeable: it was as if I hadn't used any primer at all and the joint compound had just soaked up the paint: the patched area was smooth, without roller texture (3/8" roller).

Should I try sealing again and repainting that area? Or just try a second coat over the patches?

 

Pretty hard to advise when we cant see your existing texture. If your walls are smooth but have years of orange peel from roller stipple, then you need to roll on several coats of primer, and make some roller stipple of your own. If you have texture, you need to get a can of spray texture and spray it on the wall.

When you have a small repair you generally want to limit the repair to the hole ONLY instead of making a large flat spot on the wall. Wiping the repair with a wet sponge is one way to limit the smoothness of the repair, but you have to do it before you prime. Too late for that now.

 

I often use a sponge with thinned downed joint compound to replicate orange peel texture or thinned even more to replicate roller stipple. IMO it's quicker than rolling on multiple coats or the mess associated with spraying texture. As noted above a pic would help us give better advice.

 

Bottom line, when you patch drywall and sand it down you now have a very flat repair that has to be modified (depending on the amount of wall texture) or it will stand out like a sore thumb when painted!