Paint

[Dennis Puskar]

What is the best interior paint for walls and ceiling ?

[JR1]

I keep hearing good things about BM Advance but haven't used it. I used some SW SOLO awhile back and liked it a lot.

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

My opinion of a good wall paint is one that has excellent coverage and is thick enough to where it doesn't throw a paint mist all over everything while moving the roller at a good speed. Of course price is an issue for me as well. There are paints out there for $22-25 a gallon that are definitely good enough vs the $40-50 a gallon paints. These are the paints I've always tried to buy for walls.

I'm using Ben Moore Ultra Spec 500 for my interior walls right now. It's $22 a gallon and it's a very good paint for the money. I'm using a flat sheen even though I used and preached eggshell for many years. Eggshell will lightly wash better than flat but I've yet to see a traditional wall paint that was truly scrubable without showing some kind of witness mark. Flat paints touch up and blend better when doing a small mark or two. They also hide wall defects better and emit less glare, which I prefer. If I had big dogs, toddlers, or a very small house, I would probably lean back towards eggshell again.

I've never understood spending $40+ a gallon on interior paint for drywall. Odds are, you will want a different color before the paint wears out. Interior wall paint does very little for protection and water marks will still show on most interior acrylic paints, IME. I do believe in buying the best coatings for wood trim and cabinetry but I think many over spend when buying wall paint. Just my opinions. 13 years ago I painted a new construction Mexican restaurant and used a bright orange color for the walls. They had a budget and I needed to make it work. For around $8 a gallon, I bought Wal Marts Color Place interior wall paint. I'd read it was a lower line Sherwin paint. Although I used an airless to apply it, it turned out very well and I must admit I was quite impressed for the money. I wouldn't buy it to brush and roll in my own home though.

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

JR1 said:

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I keep hearing good things about BM Advance but haven't used it. I used some SW SOLO awhile back and liked it a lot.

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Advance is a very hard waterborne/alkyd enamel designed for high wear surfaces like wood trim and cabinetry. It's a $50 a gallon with my discount; probably $60 for Joe Public. I would consider using it on the walls of a pantry if using it on the shelfs as well. Maybe the walls of a highly used small closet as well. I wouldn't use it on the walls in any other room in my home though. I don't know why one would unless it was a commercial setting. If I really needed a more wear resistant wall covering, I'd use FRP board, tile, or an enameled wainscoting.

[AdamR]

I was a professional painter for a while. The Benjamin Moore Regal, with eggshell sheen the the best interior paint I have ever used. It has a longer open working time which allows you to really lay it off nicely with a roller and does not leave brush strokes when cutting in. It just performs so much better than anything else I have tried and is worth the extra $$. For ceilings I use Behr ceiling paint. There is no sense in spending the extra $$ for BM on the ceilings.

[daveferg]

BM is a good fall-back standard. After a horrible experience with Sears paint----I now will only buy what is recommended by Consumer Reports----which has switched their recommendations a number of times in the last 10-15 years--based on ease of application, coverage and durability.

In general, I think eggshell is a good sheen for walls---and much easier to clean than flat.

As to changing colors before the last paint job wears out----just depends on whether you're asking the spouse who will be doing the bulk of the work.

[Dennis Puskar]

Thanks everybody for all the great info.