One coat of primer and two coats of finish. You are not looking at BM's best primer if it is only $10 per gallon. I usually use the Super Spec primer and even with my painters discount, it still costs me $16 per gallon. Their general purpose primer and Fresh Start are more towards top line than Super Spec so those would cost even more.

I always used Benjamin Moore Super White or Sherwin Williams Extra White not realizing that Benjamin Moore White is easier to paint with and is white enough. I think last time when I had the trim painted, the painter said he accidentally picked up white so I used it. Which is a nicer white to paint with and if you want a bright white on the trim: Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace or Benjamin Moore White? How do they compare with Sherwin Williams Extra White?

Out of the choices Above I'd say BM is your best bet. Behr products are too watered down and their white is more of a gray so that effects the way the colors comes out when tinted. Stay away from SW they are a bit better than behr but they over price for the amount of TITO in their paint as well. BM offers a beautiful color selection and has an exellent product. HOWEVER I would love to put Dunn Edwards in the running here. We have an amazing selection of nearly 2,000 colors (not mention custom color mathces we can do), a superior paint product and a FREE Professional Color Advisor service (that's me) . Plus we have a ton of "kill test" listed on our website and in our store comparing each of our products to the competition. (: but like I said BM is a nice choice!

We arrived at Aura after mulling over Ellen Kennon paint chips and looking at websites of other full spectrum paints. We found good reviews of Aura on the painting forum (yay GW!), tracked down a store 55 miles away and bought some samples. We fell in love with the earthy palette and the richness of the colors. We settled on Masada to bring together our new maple kitchen cabinets, our brick chimney wall and some dark furniture & blinds in a large open plan space: At the same time, we were buying sample after sample of SW for various other projects, and were not happy with the color selection or even the SW sample paint quality. I tried color matching Aura "Kona" in Duration but they put in so much colorant that it was overly runny (don't ask!). We ended up with a drippy and flat/over-saturated mess on our laundry room wall. Repainted with Kona and, voila!, instant depth and richness--and works beautifully when viewed from kitchen. The eggshell paint even worked on our cabinets!