Best Interior House Paint?

Nessism1

Nessism1

Joined
May 30, 2022
Messages
2,501
Location
Torrance, CA
Sorry, had to use that title! Almost as bad as asking what's the "best oil"? Ha ha

Watched a bunch of YouTube reviews, checked Consumer's Report, Reddit, etc. No consensus! No surprise!

Painting the interior of my house. No fancy colors; any color you want as long as it's white!

Paint sheens have evolved. Walls moving from flat to matte, and trim from semi-gloss to satin. This is just popular trend, of course.

Sherwin Williams has a sale right now, 30% off, which brings down their prices to just a smig higher than big box store premium paint prices, so I pulled the trigger. Picked SW Emerald. Consumer's Report rated this stuff below many box store paints, but all other reviews rate it highly. Project Farm liked it, so it's a lock! :rolleyes:
 
When we painted the inside of our house, we went top tier, IMO, SW Emerald. It rolled really nice, like really really nice.

We caught one of those sales and bought enough to do the house.

This was almost 10 years ago. No wearing concerns.

I don't know if others have caught up or if Emerald has gone down.
 
cptbarkey said:
My city offers two colors, battleship grey and baby poo brown in 5 gallon buckets for free. My house looks great.
Click to expand...
Free paint? Wow!

I'm not a color guy...to a point. That said, when walking around the neighborhood, I've been paying attention to the colors other houses are using. My house is yellow, with white trim, and I'm not repainting with yellow! A few years back I bought a 5 gallon pail of white, never opened, but hoping it's still okay. Need some main color now, but won't be using battleship gray or poo brown.
 
Expensive paint is most often expensive for a reason. When I do it myself, I get expensive paint.

There was a local builder (since retired) that when he painted the inside of his spec homes, that he'd buy the Contractor grade paint in 5 gallon buckets... and then would add another gallon of water to it. I don't know how he made the walls look decent... but he was good at it.

As far as sheen, I prefer the eggshell finish.
 
mrsilv04 said:
Expensive paint is most often expensive for a reason. When I do it myself, I get expensive paint.

There was a local builder (since retired) that when he painted the inside of his spec homes, that he'd buy the Contractor grade paint in 5 gallon buckets... and then would add another gallon of water to it. I don't know how he made the walls look decent... but he was good at it.

As far as sheen, I prefer the eggshell finish.
Click to expand...

I helped put myself through college by painting. Typically, the client picked the paint; some good, some not so good.

Contractor grade paint is typically super high solids and thick. Or, at least it used to be. Not great for cleaning, but great coverage. There used to be a local supplier in my area called Old Quaker, and that stuff covered better than any paint I've ever used. I can imagine that it would hold up to water thinning pretty well. Sadly, Old Quaker doesn't seem to be in business any longer, or I'd buy some.
 
I swore myself off of Sherwin Williams paint after repeated poor experiences in their stores locally.
In other words, if you are not a contractor, they want nothing to do with you.
So I started buying from a nice family owned store that specializes in Pittsburgh paint.
Been using that almost exclusively for years.
Last I used was Pittsburgh Paramount. Good stuff.
But for $50. a gallon, it ought to be.
 
If you ever get something on the wall the best way to clean it in my experience is using Krud Kutter and a sponge, don't use a paper towel as that can change the sheen in that spot.

I had a home built in 2022. I specified Benjamin Moore Ultra Spec 500 low sheen eggshell for the interior and BM Aura Bath & Spa paint for the bathrooms. BM Ultra Spec 500 is a contractor paint but it's not the junk builder grade SW ProMar 200.
 
Tdbo said:
I swore myself off of Sherwin Williams paint after repeated poor experiences in their stores locally.
In other words, if you are not a contractor, they want nothing to do with you.
So I started buying from a nice family owned store that specializes in Pittsburgh paint.
Been using that almost exclusively for years.
Last I used was Pittsburgh Paramount. Good stuff.
But for $50. a gallon, it ought to be.
Click to expand...
To save hassle, and take advantage of the 30% off sale, I ordered on-line, for in store pickup. Time from order to "ready for pickup" was 23 minutes, for two 5 gallon pails and one gallon of primer. Pretty sure the response relates to the individual store, and how busy they are, but in my case, great service!
 
I use Ben Moore BEN and Ultra Spec quite frequently. Impervo for trim. There's plenty of good paint out there, but I use BM because the decorator's shop (and an Elder's ACE) are convenient to me. I get great service from either retailer.
 
I always buy sherwin Williams paints. The folks behind the counter are helpful and always seem to know what I need paint wise when I explain my use case.

It does cost more but it covers great, goes on easier and just holds up better. The emrald green can urethane trim pain hardens so nice for trims. Excellent stuff.

I’ve tried to cheap out on cheap paint for some projects and it gets old after the 3rd coat and I still see spots that didn’t cover well.
 
skyactiv said:
If you ever get something on the wall the best way to clean it in my experience is using Krud Kutter and a sponge, don't use a paper towel as that can change the sheen in that spot.

I had a home built in 2022. I specified Benjamin Moore Ultra Spec 500 low sheen eggshell for the interior and BM Aura Bath & Spa paint for the bathrooms. BM Ultra Spec 500 is a contractor paint but it's not the junk builder grade SW ProMar 200.
Click to expand...

I honestly wasn't that impressed with the Ultra Spec 500. It definitely isn't as good as the old Super Spec I used to use. I feel the Ultra Spec 500 is on par with Valspar 2000. I've painted with both, and they felt similar.

The Ben line is decent, but closing in on $60 a gallon now. I did buy a gallon of semigloss Aura for the trim in the house and it was over $90 :oops:
 
I painted my entire house myself starting with bare drywall. I bought so much primer/paint that I moved to the Home Depot bronze paint rewards category. My favorite paints are Sherwin Williams Emerald and Duration. If you buy them with the 30% off, they are much more affordable. I specifically love the "Matte" finish as it hides any sins in the wall finish. I have tried the various paint lines from Lowes and Home Depot too. I don't find them to cover as well and found myself needing to use way more paint. Quality control with the box stores was another issue. I had several batches of Behr Dynasty that had a bunch of solids in the paint.
 
Well, everyone has an opinion on paint based on their own experiences. Here's mine:



Behr Premium Plus is surprisingly good for a "budget" paint. My last experience with it was in 2018 and it was similar to the above video. Good coverage, easy to use and it has held up very well and has been easy to clean. However, it doesn't seem to be as cheap as it used to be so it's not an automatic recommendation anymore.

In 2024, I tried Sherwin Williams Duration since the price, when on sale, was not significantly more than Behr Premium Plus. This paint was also one of the few matte paints that could be used in bathrooms. The painting "experience" (ease of use, coverage, etc) was not really any better than my last experience with Behr Premium Plus.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Question about exterior paint job
Replies
15
Views
2K
ArrestMeRedZ
9
  • Locked
Trim / baseboard painting - what to use?
Replies
9
Views
2K
CarLuver
M
A week with a 2021 BMW X3e (hybrid)
Replies
10
Views
2K
edyvw
L
  • Locked
Interior paint - what to use?
2 3
Replies
41
Views
8K
nthach
D
  • Locked
Help choose Sherwin Williams paint
2
Replies
28
Views
13K
diyjake
Back
Top Bottom