This thread came up when I did a search for Benjamin Moore Natura. I have always done my own painting (for 30 years) and consider myself an fairly experienced DIY painter. We're at the tail end of completely repainting the home we moved into 7 months ago. My husband picked up paint for me today, and I made the mistake of not specifying which paint I wanted. He brought home Natura. I shouldn't have tried to paint once I stuck my brush in it and realized the consistency, but I did. This is the thickest paint I have ever seen. It's like trying to paint with Elmer's glue. It has no flow at all, and cutting in against my crown molding with it was just a mess. I never did try rolling it, I can't imagine what that would be like! I'll be back at the paint store in the morning to exchange it for "real" paint. I've never returned paint in my life, this stuff is that bad.

I many cases, the higher the window line in a brand; the better the window quality and durability. But it only as good as your installer skills or lack of, however. I am in the windows shopping mode too; since my original windows which are over 30 years old and are "builder's spec" quality windows have lasted so long. I open the window interior trim and my builder seem to install the windows first follow by stuccoing and then the drywall. The gap is about 1/8" in most windows openings and you cannot see the slimming job because the drywall. I went from going shopping the middle lines in a brand to now the top of the lines because I wanted 3 pane glass for noise insulation and low U factor and better air leakage numbers. I also found that some lumber yards if you ask for a customer discount; they will look up your account history with them and if it spans over 35 years like my does; they bend over backwards to give you the best deals because of your loyalty to the company! I have been surprise at the discount that I quoted, making top of line brands more affordable and desirable, just for the asking of the manager for the best discount for a long time customer! The more you shop; the more you learn about windows! There should be no rush to you to replace your windows until you are certain you are comfortably with your choices of windows and installers. There are a lot of bad service and products in this window replacement industry!

I don't color match from brand to brand and I don't try to customize, personally. Since I have tended not to fully repaint, ever, in a different colors (I've moved first, I guess) --I want complete reproducibility, because I do touch up. I couldn't find exactly what I wanted in Benjamin Moore for particular room this time and that's when I went to Fine Paints of Europe, there, and that meant buying a fandeck, too. What this means is, if I am committed to using a particular paint brand, and I can't find exactly the shade in say, Behr, that I would prefer in Benjamin Moore, I will use the "close enough" in Behr. (This would be if I were picking paint for someone else--I would use BM or FPE but many people will not spend the money). Because quite honestly, I don't think that you can really tell the difference between two subtle differences in paint color if an entire room is painted in it and you are not comparing one swatch to the next. If you have no point of reference to what the exact color is, I don't think anybody could walk into a room that had one of two very close paint colors and say "this is X, not Y" And I get an almost perfect score on those color discernment tests where you have to separate and line up different shades in order. However, if you custom mix or have had color matches made that are not a specific formula within a paint brand, it can be almost impossible to get a match from mix to mix if you need to touch up.

Thanks Lori, I know others mentioned this. I guess I was thinking that with how far paints have come technology wise with color retention and fade resistance that they would hold on to their sheen better too. Maybe people just get over it more than the actual sheen dissipating but what do I know as I've only painted 1 house before and that was many, many years ago. I have been by some recent housing developments in the area and they still look pretty shiny. There is a house several blocks away who painted their house in Seattle Seahawks colors. The blue looks to be SW Naval along with green and gray accents and it is s shiny as the day they did it about 3 years ago and a few houses away another house that was painted a navy blue (maybe Hale Navy) last fall and it is still shiny although not as much as the Seahawk house. I guess that is what is giving me pause as Hale Navy is an intense color. But they may have used satin instead of low lustre. I thought the hardest part was choosing the color. With my gray roof and concrete driveway and river rock I was afraid to pick a gray color as their would be no contrast. We tried Gentlemens gray which is a beautiful color but it felt a little to intense teal color to me although my husband saw it more as gray and I've heard other people read it as navy. Funny how different people perceive color differently. Tried spellbound too because I was trying to find something mid range but just not finding it. At first I tried White Dove for the trim, gutters and garage door but it read way to yellow to me but SW Snowbound hit the sweet spot and matched the color of our vinyl windows. By the way the front of my house is usually not that bare. We have beautiful potted plants out front but I moved them to take a picture so I could upload it to BM and SW sight for color preview but it was so hard tracing window trim and gutters I gave up. I want to change out the light and get a new front door and put some proper trim around it and the garage door as I think that would help a lot for curb appeal. I loved this house that was from Fixer Upper because the color is cheerful but overtime I try to match the color its too aqua or too turquoise. Of course they don't say what color it is :( I will say Hale Navy is a great neutral. I have a lot of directions I can go with as far as pops of color for potted plants, front door light, cushions on bench and greenery really pops against it. Anyway, thanks so much for your insight Lori. By the way, great website you have!