SW Duration washes well. I am currently painting with SW Duration in the matte finish. Matte is flat and eggshell has a bit of sheen. Matte gives a very nice finish and hides inperfections better that a paint with more sheen. For walls I would stick with either matte or eggshell.

I like SW paints and use them in my house. I have used Behr but SW and BM are so much better. I am currently painting my boss' office and he bought BM Eco-Spec and it is going on very nicely.

For a regular room (living, dining), eggshell/satin is fine. You don't really need to go into the gloss area unless you want an more modern look.

I've used both SW and BM paint in the last year. While I personally prefer working with BM Aura, it's quite expensive and the BM store doesn't have anywhere near the service that my SW store does. I think SW Duration or Harmony would be excellent choices.

BTW, Duration is low-VOC and Harmony is no-VOC.

I like them both for different reasons. I enjoy painting w/ both (might prefer BM slightly more). I like the small business atmosphere of our BM dealer. They know me and my kids (can you say "Paint too much?)! Very friendly.

On the other hand I feel that the SW store near me offers up more options right away. They can darken or lighten a color. I like the option of their larger samples & the fact that they have so many other brands of paint in their computer so that I can also sample other brands in larger amounts.

We just used over 100 gallons of SW paint on our new house. We chose Duration in semi-gloss for the trim and Superpaint for the walls in satin. Wonderful stuff! We have 3 little boys, so scrubability was important for us. We've also used BM before and were pleased with their paints as well.

We would have been happy with either paint, but SW gives fantastic discounts to contractors. That could be why your contractor is pushing SW over BM.

Yes, the contractors usually get a much better deal on SW. Our painter passed on the savings to us.

We used SW's Cashmere base. It washes well and still has a velvet look to it.

Isn't that funny--I've recently struck up a *great* relationship with my local BM store, and I've become a true Aura believer (see the thread about Aura paint--anyone else disappointed?). I *love* that it is self-priming so that I don't have to do everything twice at least, if not three times (trigger thumb, incipient arthritis), and they custom-mixed a color for me with no complaint whatsoever. Not *all* BM dealers have been like this, but these guys have earned my patronage by their great advice and respect rather than contempt (which I have gotten when I've asked to custom-mix colors at other places). I also love the Waterborne Satin Impervo for trim, although I love the Aura exterior semi-gloss as well, which doesn't seem to be getting such positive reviews. Some professional on the paint board has said that Aura is tougher than the Satin Impervo on cabinetry, fwiw. Aura at a contractor price also ends up less expensive than other paints plus primers.

We're using matte for the first time, and DH loves it already--I'm pretty close to loving it--it definitely visually smoothes out the silly west-coast "textured" walls rather than calling attention to the bumps. The Aura Matte is scrubbable as well, supposedly.

The one thing about the colors in Aura is that the particular waterborne colorants will always grey out any given color; I had opportunity to compare a regular Regal sample of a color with the same color mixed in Aura, and you could definitely see the difference. So be aware of that and prepared, if you are going to have other colors mixed in it.

Thanks for the replies! Okay, a couple more questions. I'll probably go eggshell on the walls above the beadboard. But what about the beadboard? I'm thinking semi-gloss on that. Thoughts? BTW, my dh thought eggshell was a color and did NOT want it. LOL.

I have the full color thingy here, but nowhere does it say "Superpaint." What exactly is superpaint? Is it how they mix the paint? I've heard a lot of good things about superpaint, so do I pick a color and say I want it in "superpaint?"

I'd say semi-gloss.

Fly - thanks for the tip about the color variation between the two BM lines.

California Paints is another brand to look into. I've been very happy with their products and will be using them for our renovation. Love their historical color palette. Our local paint store carries their line along with BM, but the paint mixer there said he thought CP was superior to BM.

An online discussion of California Paints in link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: discussion here

Super Paint is a SW base. They have Super Paint, Duration, Harmony, Color Blends, and Cashmere (maybe one other). I think any color can be made out of the different bases.

I like SW a little better than BM, but if you have Porter available in your area, it is hands down better than the others. We have just repainted most of our rooms. They hadn't been painted since 1986, and really didn't need it now, Porter is that good. But I wanted to change the colors. I like flat, if you have a great quality paint, it will clean up nicely. Flat hides wall imperfections better. Of course in a bathroom I'd use a satin.

Semi-gloss for beadboard it is. Okay, does eggshell clean well? I guess I'm asking if I have "superpaint" in my color, does that clean pretty good? The only little fingers I'm anticipating is from my brand spanking new grandson (my first grandchild) who's only 9 weeks old. I plan on kidnapping him quite frequently since they're only 20 min. away. From raising all boys, ALL they do is keep their hands on the wall. lol I have a tiny handprint that's 25 years old above the mirror in the back bathroom that I'll NEVER paint over. :) I think I digressed!