I also wrote an earlier post about PRIMERS and how important they are--so, for the sake of this posting, let's also assume that you've got your prep done also--and it's perfect. (I'll write more about the various steps and stages of a great paint job in a future post.)
So, with those two assumptions out of the way, lets talk about BRANDS for a minute.
Sherwin Williams, ICI, Monarch, Ralph Lauren, Pratt & Lambert, Behr, Benjamin Moore, Olympic, Valspar... the list of choices (like the varieties of toothpaste and underarm deoderant) seem endless.
Obviously I'm not a scientist or an expert on the chemistry of the various paints. And, to be fair, though I've used hundreds--if not thousands of gallons of various brands of paint over the years, I've never done any "side by side" comparisons or any scientific long term studies (I'll leave that to the propellerheads over at Consumer Reports--who've done various excellent studies of paint brands over the years). But I have learned a thing or two about paint over the past 18 yrs and I'm going to try to organize them coherently and share them with you here.
First, brand doesn't really matter.
I'm sure that will raise the hackles of many Mercedes driving, Starbucks drinking, Versace wearing folks out there--to whom brands are their raison d'etre. And of course there's no question that some paint formulas are better than others and that certain types of paints are better for certain specific applications than others. But for the average consumer, painting the average house, under average conditions, brand is pretty much a non-issue.
If you've got the color right, if you've got the prep right--just about any ol' paint will do the job effectively. Ralph Lauren isn't better paint than America's Finest just because it costs 4 times more per gallon. They are both made by ICI (now Azko Nobel), the largest coatings company in the world. And They are both sold at Home Depot--along with their Glidden / Ultra Hide brand (http://www.akzonobel.com/brands_products/global_brands/decorative_paints/glidden.aspx).
But at the end of the day, Ralph Lauren is just a BRAND (http://www.akzonobel.com/brands_products/global_brands/decorative_paints/ralph_lauren_paint.aspx)--just like Martha Stewart (http://www.akzonobel.com/brands_products/global_brands/decorative_paints/martha_stewart_living.aspx) and Dutch Boy (also Sherwin Williams)--and Levi's and Coca Cola. And people buy them because of MARKETING, not quality.
There may be small differences in formula but if you've every bought a "designer" shirt or jacket that cost a fortune, looked great for about a week--then fell apart after a few uses--you've experienced exactly what I'm trying to convey here. "More expensive" does not always equal "better".
"Designer", in life--as in paint--usually means only "expensive" with the implication of "exclusive". I promise you that if you hire a house painter and tell him that you want a paint job that is warrantied for ten years and that you're willing to pay a little more for that warranty--and you let him choose the brand of paint--he's not going to show up with Ralph Lauren or Martha Stewart paint.
So... which brand of paint will the painter choose...? The answer that really depends on the painter and the region--but in Houston, where I live and work, more often than not the answer is going to be either ICI or Sherwin Williams. (And the reasons for that aren't just "quality" of course.)
*Part of that choice is convenience: There are Sherwin Williams and ICI stores all over the city.
*Part of that choice is PRICE: Sherwin Williams and ICI give paint contractors special, flexible pricing that the big box stores can't always meet or beat. If you are buying 5 gallons of paint for your DIY home improvement project, you might not think twice about paying $10/gallon more for a brand you saw on TV. But if you buy 1000 gallons of paint a year, even $1/gallon savings really ads up!
*Part of that answer is consistency: Sherwin Williams and ICI have been around for a LONG time and have the same basic product mix--in a much wider variety of options--than the big box stores. Home Depot & Lowes have a finite number of square feet in which to cover all the home improvement bases. ICI's entire warehouse & storefront is devoted to coatings. So, they are more likely to carry a few gallons of an odd or low volume product for a customer that buys it from time to time.
*And part of that answer is quality and service: Sherwin Williams and ICI (like many if not all paint specialty stores) have above average quality paint and great service. Go into a big box store once a week and you never know who'll be behind the counter mixing paint. They won't know you and you won't know them. Go into an ICI or a Sherwin Williams (or any other specialty paint store) every week and it's usually the same guys behind the counter... they get to know you and you get to know them and you get treated like a real mensch instead of just another weekend nameless, faceless customer in a long line that never ends.
Second, the right sheen is more important than the grade (quality) of paint. When I first started building and remodeling I obsessed about which grade of paint to buy... should I splurge and get the "top of the line" or pinch pennies and get the "builder" grade. Foolishly, for many years, I did the former, wasting thousands of dollars on bells and whistles that I didn't really need. Paint an apartment with really expensive, high-quality paint, and two years later, when your tenants move out, you're probably going to have to repaint most-if-not-all of that apartment again anyway--and you'll probably hate that color by then. So who cares if it had a "lifetime warranty"? (The lifetime of most paint jobs isn't really that long when you think about it.)
I also obsessed a quite a lot about the SHEEN (flat, eggshell, satin, semi-gloss, etc.)--too much so. After wasting a ton of time, energy, eye squinting, and money, trying to pick "the perfect" sheen for every single application, this is what I've boiled it down to:
90% of the walls, closets, and ceilings in your house should be plain old flat, latex paint. (I ALWAYS paint closets and ceilings flat, un-tinted white. More on that below.) The shinier the paint, the more attention it draws to every flaw on the wall or trim. So, unless you've got perfect walls, flat's the best call. Also, flat paint is the CHEAPEST paint at the paint store. So, if you end up changing the color in a week or a month or a year--the cost for the paint both times will be minimal. (A typical bedroom takes about a gallon of paint to cover all four walls.)
Trim, doors, and cabinets should be painted with an oil-based (alkyd) semi-gloss paint whenever possible. Gloss is usually way too shiny (see flaws above) and can appear almost plastic-like. Satin works in some applications but all paints are going to "dull-down" a bit over time as they get dirty and worn--so semi-gloss starts looking more like a satin in a few years... and satin starts looking more like eggshell or flat. So, I've found that semi-gloss is the best trade off for trim, doors, and cabinets. (Oil-based paints are harder wearing and more scrubable than water-based (latex) paints, so they're more suitable for trim, door, and cabinets--particularly in the kitchen & bathroom.)
Now for the exception: Bathrooms (which tend to get exposed to a lot more humidity). In Houston--which has ultra-high humidity--I use EXTERIOR, satin, latex paint for the walls and ceilings in my bathrooms (that have tubs and/or showers). Most exterior paints (in the south at least) have a mildewcide in them (from the factory) that resists mold & mildew. And a satin paint is not going to absorb as much moisture as a flat paint on a day to day basis, so when you shower and steam up the bathroom, if you use a satin, exterior paint, you'll be less likely to develop a mold or mildew problem.
Of course, you can paint your bedroom walls gloss purple and your kitchen cabinets flat pink if you want to--it's your house after all. But unless you are VERY rich or VERY stupid, RESALE VALUE should be important to you. So the colors and the types of paint you use can and WILL make a big difference to your bottom line down the road.
I mentioned above that I ALWAYS paint ceilings and closets white. Here's why. As a general rule of thumb, the darker the color, the smaller a room feels. I was restoring a house in the Heights once that had an 80s addition on the back with a huge, out of scale living room with 10' ceilings and a concrete floor. (The rest of the house was a typical 20s bungalow with 9' ceilings and wood floors on pier & beam.) There were only a couple of small windows in the entire room so I replaced those and re-framed the back wall for a set of four 8' tall French doors that really opened up the space. But before we had paint on the walls it looked cavernous in that big white box. So I painted the room with three shades of chocolate-y sepiatone colors--and put a dark slate floor with a dark hardwood inlay in the middle--and once we got the furniture in the room actually felt a little small-ish. The dark colors had visually brought the room down to scale.
Generally, you never want the ceiling to feel like it's coming down on your head. Colors on the ceiling--particularly dark colors--really pull the ceiling down visually. Also, if you just stick to flat white ceilings with colors on the walls only, it's a lot quicker and easier to change the color of the room later. And painting the ceilings is no fun... taping up light fixtures and ceiling fans, covering furniture, removing can light trims and a/c registers... drips and sprinkles of paint all over your head, arms and the floor... so, just paint 'em flat white once and forget about it as long as you live there. I promise you that you'll never lay in bed at night and look up and think, "I hate that flat white ceiling!"
Closets have similar logic behind the flat white color choice. They are small spaces by nature so darker colors make them seem even smaller. And since you only see them when you open the door, there's really no reason to have any color in there. And if you want to change the room color you don't have to empty out the closets and repaint them, too. Just paint 'em flat white the first time & forget about them. Spend your energy, time, and creativity on the rooms and spaces that you can actually see and enjoy every day.
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As I've said many times before, paint COLOR is way more important in most cases than paint QUALITY. If you could have a perfectly executed, horrifyingly ugly living room--with a lifetime warranty--at $35/gallon--or a slightly sloppy, gorgeous living room with a sumptuous color--for $8/gallon... which would you prefer? I've had both and I can tell you, the right color trumps quality every time.
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