Hi there! I'm a newbie, and here is my first post ever.
It’s time to choose paint, and I’m curious what you guys think between Benjamin Moore’s Regal Select and Aura? I want it to hold up well and be good quality. Also a few other questions below:
A little background:
We are about 1.5 hours North of Seattle, Washington and building a new home that we designed. (It’s our first time building). I know nothing and of course I am the one in charge of picking everything out, eek! I’m learning a lot.
Our house is within city limits, but up next to a little mountain on 2 acres. We are doing a transitional/rustic sort of style. I love the idea of wood & stain on the exterior, but hubby wants Hardiplank, so Hardiplank it is unfortunately. I might be able to talk him into the Hardiplank Artisan line if anyone has any experience with that?
For the exterior, we’ve narrowed the body color down to a couple that are mostly grayish, with hints of brownish/greenish tones around 20 LRV. We are considering matching our trim to our Anderson series windows that are in their Terratone color on the outside, (white on the inside). Their Terratone is a medium brownish (Similar to Sherman Williams Griffin). So the trim would be a little bit darker than the body. Still debating if we should do that, or go a little bit lighter for the trim than the body. We want it kinda rustic and custom looking, but not depressing! So if you have opinions on the trim, I would love to hear them! I don’t like super “contrasty/ modern” pairings though… so no super light body and super dark trims or vice versa. I plan on having rock along the bottom of the house and on the laundry room (can see in the mark-ups). Plan to have horizontal hardi on the basement and main level, and then vertical hardi on the 3rd floor (gables) instead of the originally planned shingles in the elevation drawings. Medium brown staining for the posts that will be at the entry. Garage will be a separate building and come later.
I’m not a fan of most things shiny, and like the look of flat paints. Yes I'm a bit boring J I do want some washabillity so plan to go one level up on the sheen from flat, so Low Lustre on the exterior, and Matte on the interior so that they can hold up a little better and last a little longer. Not sure about wall texture yet for interior, see question #2 below.
Originally I was trying to decide between Sherman Williams and Benjamin Moore paint and am not opposed to doing one on the exterior and a different one on the interior. After reading a bit and seeing that the consensus seems to be about 50/50 on which is better quality, I think I have settled on BM.
The house sits so that front of it faces the SouthEast (Entry/office/laundry/1 upper bedroom/master walk-in closet), and the back of the house faces the NorthWest (kitchen/dining/livingroom/master/2 upper bedrooms/basement). The main floor of the house is a big, open floor plan. Since the house is on the North side of a little mountain in the trees, it tends to be a little dark up there. Because of that, for the interior we will do painted creamy trim instead of stained trim, white windows, and light warm neutrals. Haven’t chosen those yet. I wanted to do warm grays but might just stick to cozy creamy off-whites. https://www.houzz.com/pro/funcolors/lori-a-sawaya I will have to start studying!
For contrast, we will do a medium stained Alder cabinets, and knotty Alder interior doors about the same tones, as well as the same stain on the inside of the panoramic and French doors, all with a creamy white trim.
House Status: The roof, windows, doors, and HVAC are in. Plumbing & Electrical starting soon. The front entryway/covered porch will be started soon… concrete will be poured for that in the next 2 weeks. So the front of the house looks a bit goofy with the covered entry missing.
Since I’m a newbie, I need all the help I can get! I wish I could hire someone to help but everyone around here is booked out for months :(
So here are a couple questions I have right now if anyone feels like giving their thoughts:
#1: The woman at Benj Moore said that there is a $15/gallon price difference between Regal Select and their Aura paint. She said that she doesn’t think there is much difference between the quality of them. I would love to hear your opinions, I don’t mind paying for the Aura if it’s just that much better. Or if it’s better on the interior vs. exterior, or if one works better than the other for Matte/Low Lustre sheen?
#2: Texture: My hubby wants light orange peel, I like the look of smooth when I look at pictures on Houzz. In my area, most everyone uses Orange peel though, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a house here with smooth. I don’t want to date our new house though. Is it kind of a regional thing? Will it look terrible if I do an ultralight orange peel?
#3: Exterior painting: Our paint guy is going to Spray the outside of the house. The woman at BM told me that they should at the minimum have 1 primer layer (she suggested priming it right before we paint instead of having the hardiplank come pre primed since it can wear off? Thoughts on that?), and then 2 coats of the color. She said that the painter should have someone going over the sprayed paint with a brush or roller to “work the paint into the substrate” or the paint won’t last as long. Thoughts on that? Our painter says everyone around here just sprays… they don’t follow it with a roller or brush L I wonder how much $ that requirement would up our painting bid.
Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts, advice, or opinions, I would appreciate all of them!
Thanks for taking the time to read this bumbling long post.
-Kristen
PS> Here are some images to help you visualize. Thanks again!
_sophiewheeler
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