Hi there. We'd like to help. Could you please send us a message with your contact information and the store location you visited? Thank you.

I’ve used both, and much prefer SW paints. I’m wondering if perhaps your store made a mistake. Streaking doesn’t sound typical for their paints.

Well, we used it for our shed outside too and a year later the caulk we used to fill the nail holes is showing through like big brown polka dots, so we now have to repaint it as well. Two different situations, two different stores. AND what was weird Heidi, is that the master bath had new drywall. We primed first, then painted 2 coats with SW Sea Salt, but it was way too light, so we redid it with 2 coats of Comfort Gray. We were so meticulous and still Streaks EVERYWHERE...ugh...

And not to beat a dead horse, but when I was in line for the shed paint, I was talking with the woman in front of me and she said she had problems with streaking as well in a kids bedroom.

I have the Consumer Reports 2017 Buying Guide here, and it has ratings of exterior paints (only). Behr Premium Plus Ultra Exterior at $39 a gallon is rated number 1. Clark + Kensington Exterior (Ace) at $35 a gallon is rated #2. SW Emerald Exterior at $72 a gallon is rated #3.

I recently re-painted my powder room with SW Emerald, and was not impressed with the coverage at all. When I did the adjoining pantry, I bought Behr Premium Plus Ultra, and the difference was amazing - it was great.

Sherwin Williams has really great sales several times a year. I have used both Behr and SW and they are both the same as far as hardiness. To me both are nice to work with. Behr paint does have a stronger paint smell. If you are personally painting many rooms yourself and are a tic sensitive SW is slightly less stinky. They both have nice colors but I always go with SW if looking for shades to mesh with mid century. I go with BM if looking for historic shades and Behr for all else.

My most recent paint job was with SW an we were very happy with the color, service at the store, application and finish results. That's been a year or so. We were reluctantly using SW after our source for BM stopped carrying it and the only other two within a reasonable distance offered very poor service and were difficult to deal with just looking at the paint. I have used Behr in the past and been happy with it too. I really only remember one paint in the last 20 years that we haven't been happy with and that was a gallon of trim paint that streaked like it was intendded to give special effects. I can't tell you know what brand it was, but we had used other paint in that brand -- just got a bad can or something as far as we know.

I think their prices are comparable, too, although Behr has good sales which makes for a lower price. As for performance, I used to like them equally well, and have been happy with how they each applied. I did have a problem with SW earlier this year. I painted a small powder room Naval, and it looks great. Problem is that any water splashes have stained the navy wall. (People wash their hands at the pedestal sink and then move to the right a few inches to use the hand towel; water streaks run down the wall below the towel.) It is a very little used powder room and typically only by guests. The paint cured long enough before we used the room, so that isn't the issue. I took the can back to our local store and was told it has several ounces of pigment, and they recommended I try another color, because it will likely happen again if I re-paint with Naval. Ugh. Which means I have to prime the walls and then re-paint two coats. Dragging my feet....

I'm not sure how the costs compare, but I've used SW Duration and BM Regal and have been very happy with both. The SW used throughout most of my former home still looked great when I sold several years after painting. SW has better sales.

@Bluebell, if it's any consolation, I recently painted our powder room with BM Newburyport Blue with whatever their most expensive paint is (but not the bathroom paint). Same issue with streaks under the towel bar. I think I should have used a glossier paint.

Recently painted every surface of my inlaws new house. They wanted to use Behr.

I used the Ultra. Great paint, good price.

A pro on the paint forum once remarked that amateurs make 2 mistakes. They don't use enough paint, and they overwork it. The Behr ultra has been VERY forgiving.

It is somewhat thin, which I don't mind but some ppl like a thicker paint. It stays wet longer.

Coverage is good, except on the darker accent wall. That required 2 coats to paint over. Otherwise all like shades covered in one. I do 2 coats on the woodwork after priming but that's me.

I usually do my own painting, but I had it done professionally on my new home. They used SW Promar 200 inside. Big mistake, sorry to say. I should never have allowed it as the architect specified a different paint. But I was tired of fighting for everything and let that go.

Good luck.

We had similar issues with SW Duration Home Maison Blanche in Satin looking streaky and having uneven coverage. DH has done many paint jobs and he's sworn to never use SW again because it was so hard to get even coverage when rolling. We were so disappointed with how impossible it was to get a smooth, even coat with this paint. Our trim is SW Pro Classic whitetail (semigloss) and it also brushed on rather thin and streaky. It had a tendency to drip and run very easily, slumping downward on the base molding rather than staying put. We were still seeing through the paint after 2 coats and really should have done a third coat. This was on freshly primed new drywall, primed pine molding, and recently painted white base molding.

(Edited after I checked which versions of each paint we used.)

How does the middle of the line on each brand compare? Cost per gallon?

It's more useful, arguably more accurate, to price it out price per square foot, not per gallon.

Read the label to find out how many square feet the manufacturer says the gallon will cover. Divide the price by the square feet.

Coverage and hide are not the same. A gallon may cover "x" number of square feet, but the color selected will determine how well it hides.

It's really not fair to make all-encompassing judgments about a specific brand of paint because many things contribute to how well a gallon performs. Every brand has positives and flaws.

The color dictates a lot. In other words, the same color in another brand would not hide any better - so it's not the paint, it's the color.

Prep of substrate also makes a difference. If prep isn't done correctly, doesn't matter what brand you use, it's not going to end well.

Bathrooms are notoriously difficult environments for any brand of paint. The streaking is normal; it's called water whitening. It happens with lighter colors too you just can't see it like you can with darker colors.

FYI

"Water-whitening" can sometimes happen with latex-based coatings. Enough moisture makes its way into the coating film to swell the polymer particles, which normally are not 100% fused even though the pant has dried, resulting in micro-gaps which scatter light, thus causing the whiteness. It of course is not noticeable with white paints, but it can be with clear latex films, and with medium and dark colors. Tinted paints are generally made with more surfactants (soaps) than are white paints, which increases the tendency, because the surfactants increase water absorbancy by the dried paint. When the streaks dry out, the light scattering drops off, and may disappear altogether. As the shower is used over time, and condensation extracts the surfactants from the paint, whitening tendency will decrease."

Source: John Stauffer, Technical Director, The Rohm and Hass Paint Quality Institutewww.paintquality.com