By basing I am assuming you are talking about priming the canvas?

Good quality house paint is not cheap. It is also not a very good material to use to prime a canvas from what I have experienced, observed and read.

You can buy artists gesso in bulk by the gallon or in 5 gallon buckets, for about what you would pay, or even less than decent quality house paint. Take a look at the Certified Artist brand gesso for $19 / gallon from ASW. It is pretty good stuff for the money. You can also make your own gesso / primer using bulk acrylic binder (or oil binders for an oil ground), white pigment and calcium carbonate.

The paint store primers that I feel are good enough to use to prime panels and canvas such as Sherwin Williams DTM, Rustoleum UMA XIM, various wax free shellacs, etc. generally cost as much or more than many of the name brand art supply gessos and primers. UMA XIM for example, which is my favorite first coat for priming Dibond / ACM panels is $50 a gallon! More than two and a half times the cost of Certified Artist gesso.

If you sealed the hardboard first and used a good gesso (artist or professional quality, not a cheap one) it shouldn’t take any more than 2 coats to completely cover or really knock back that brown tint. And it will have that nice tooth, too.

Based Golden’s recommendations, here’s how I’m preparing hardboard now. Start with hardboard that’s smooth on both sides. Get 4 old glasses or jars all the same height and place them so they will support your panel at its corners.

Coat the back of the panel first with Golden gloss medium. Set the panel on the glasses, wet side down. Allow to dry and then coat the edges. Repeat two more times, coating front and back to prevent warping.

Apply gesso as desired, sanding lightly between layers if you want a smooth surface. Gesso thinned 30% with water will go on more smoothly.