I'm a huge convert to Ben Moore paint. We used to use Behr. DH choked at the BM price at first, but now agrees that it's much better paint. We've never painted with oil-based paints in all our years.

Our ceilings in the whole house are painted with their standard ceiling paint in whatever shade of white that comes in. The finish is flat. We used BM Regal paint in eggshell for all walls in the house (except bathroom as we didn't do any work in there when we reno'd the whole house). The off-gassing smell wasn't as bad as with the Behr we used to use.

We installed all new trim, doors, and cabs in the house. All of those are painted with BM satin Impervo waterborne paint. The satin is nice--a lovely light sheen but not shiny like semi-gloss.

Be careful with color matching. Our BM paint dealer is excellent at it. Others are not, or just rely on the computer to match it. The computer isn't always right. Our guy makes tiny adjustments by eye after the computer gives him a match to make sure it is perfect.

And be sure to prime very well with that fresh, thirsty drywall!!

I too have used Benjamin Moore for a long time. In fact, when I first moved into my house, 8 years ago I used a different painter (regular guy was not available). He talked me into Behr with an eggshell finish in living room, hall. HD did match to the BM color. After the fact I used BM with a matte finish on other rooms. 8 years later, my husband agrees, the BM paint is much better. We just repainted our kitchen with a BM low voc paint. I recommend using the matte finish. I love BM paint both for the durability ( I only use matte) and for the color saturation.

In my experience, the glossier the paint, the more it will show imperfections.

FYI, Consumer Reports rates Behr paint as the best. BM is 2nd, but at more than twice the price. And paint companies reformulate their paint all the time. So you can't go by results from years ago. We have always used Sherwin Williams in the past. Just recently used Behr due to the CR report. It's been great so far. My only experience with BM is using their Advance paint on some cabinets. It was not good paint.

There is no reason to use oil paint. So much harder to work with and clean up, yellows over time, and more prone to chipping. Water based all the way. For the walls, flat paint looks best IMO. But it's harder to clean. If it's a high traffic area, I would use 1 step up from dead flat (may be called matte or eggshell depending on the brand).

Consumer Reports also seems to heavily weight what they perceive as value and essential function. Unless it's a car. Then they like the luxury models.

I've attached the ratings. Behr did slightly better in gloss change and surface smoothness. Behr and BM tied in every other category. This is for satin and eggshell paints. The other sheens have similar results, though BM scored a bit lower.

Do not use oil paint for walls. I'm a big BM fan. I used their flat & satin paint for walls and it made painting so easy. I prefer flat paint because you can touch up and not see where the touch up is. Satin is a good choice for walls because there isn't too much sheen but you can wipe off walls. They say flat paint can't be wiped down (?) I will wipe down anything that needs wiping. Anything with high gloss will show imperfections. AND, if you touch up a spot, you'll need to repaint the entire wall, otherwise the touch up will stand out with gloss paints.

We've painted almost every room in our house since we bought it ten months ago. Valspar Signature in an eggshell sheen has been our go-to, though mostly for convenience (Lowe's nearby with great service). That said, we've been very happy with the colors, the finish, and the durability of it.

We used to be big Behr lovers, but we did one room in this house with it and found their eggshell too shiny, the coverage only fair, and the durability awful (in fairness, it's in my kid's room, but still).

I've heard raves about Benjamin Moore paint, but we've been happy enough with Valspar that we've felt no need to switch.

Old thread but the BM Aura line is my absolute favorite paint---over SW- (emerald--don't think I've tried their cashmere paint), Valspar, and Behr. It's by far the easiest to work with and holds up great. Goes on like velvet. Superb coverage. I will say that I'm not as in love with the Advance line. I found it harder to work with--- coverage was thin. Hard to get a smooth finish. Bubbles with high density roller and brush marks and sagging with a brush. Took more coats than I preferred to use. It's what I used to paint my cabinets with and after four years, I have a few chips here and there on edges. Not sure how a "regular" paint would have held up. However, it hasn't yellowed even in my natural gas house.

Flat paint is the most forgiving to imperfections in the wall. But I hate it. Last time we repainted the entire house, we hired someone for the first time. He said flat would be best on our old plaster walls. Maybe so. But in my bedroom I went with a dark reddish brown and a darker green in the "man cave". Everywhere I touch those walls with anything, it leaves a lighter "scuff" mark. I hate them, can't wait til it's time to repaint. Eggshell is what we should have gone with.

ETA, just realized old thread, but info still pertinent, so leaving my post.

Flat will be the most forgiving with imperfections, but it can be a real pain to clean. I really really despise SW flat. It's not washable at all. They may have a new washable formula now. I do like the BM washable flat, but it's really more like an eggshell finish. We have a combo of Porter Paint, BM & Valspar in our house right now. In bathrooms I always use semigloss. Everywhere else I have eggshell & washable flat.