hi - i am in the middle of a bathroom remodel (see my blog page below if you're interested) and we are ready to prime/paint. we have new drywall on about half of the walls & ceiling, and i assume builder's white on the other walls & ceiling. our new "ceiling" is really a big soffit of sorts, over our tub and a skinny "beam" where the 2 rooms used to be divided. we did it this way so that we wouldn't have to match the texture on the original ceiling... plus it adds some character. this new ceiling is flat new drywall. the original ceiling is textured - not popcorn/cottage cheese, but more like they put wet drywall mud up there & smooshed it with something round, then pulled the round thing off & left some peaks & valleys. not sure what that's called... but we figure it should be repainted to look cohesive, but i don't know if that needs to be sprayed, if i can do it cleanly diy or if a pro should do it. i am having a pro do my living room/hall/kitchen walls because of all the different cutting in & heights it requires, so i'll have him in the house anyway. ceilings & "beam" will be some kind of white; walls will be dark blue. so that was another question... i bought the zinsser bulls eye primer, at least for the first coat. should i get a tinted primer & do a second coat of primer since it's new drywall? or just the zinsser? i found my blue at lowes, so i thought i'd go ahead & use valspar... do i just ask for mildew-cide in it? thanks! lisa here's a glimpse of the new & old ceilings Here is a link that might be useful: my bathrooms forum blog

I used RL suede paint in a couple rooms three houses ago. The walls were in horrible shape. The two exterior walls were plaster over hollow-clay block, and the interior walls were patchy plaster and some drywall. And these were meant to have a fairly smooth texture (1926 plaster smooth, so some natural texture)). The other room was the powder room, which also had a lot of old patchy plaster that only got worse as I peeled off some hideous wallpaper. I found that the suede paint did what I wanted it to do -- it gave a consistent look to the rooms, but wasn't obnoxiously "faux finish" like many things that were happening in 2003 when I did it. I used a fairly dark paint, which I think helped, too. It was about the color of SW Grandiose (SW6404).

I have satin/eggshell on all my orange peel walls and prefer it over matte. But, I have to admit I'm not a fan of matte, especially with the overcast days we have here in the PNW. I've also lived with the knock-down texture in previous homes (in Calif.) and agree with linelle that it appears to have more sheen, but I find the orange peel texture gives different results when painted with satin. I'm sitting here in my office and the only place I can tell the walls are not matte is where the two recessed lights are shining against the vertical wall. But even with that, it looks more eggshell.....not glossy. I suggest you paint a large section with the paint you have, then decide.

This was after painting the entire wall (2 coats) and using killz as a base coat. It’s almost like this furniture never left this spot and therefore the texture is different? Obviously, we are not planning on using a large tv stand like what was previously there.