I have several DIY clients who use Valspar from Lowe's. I've used it too. Valspar Premium is what I think it's called now. Used to be American Traditions, but when they expanded into Canada, they changed the name. I think it's great stuff! Success rate with my DIYers has been stellar, meaning lots of people can paint with it and do a good job. Great selection of colors too. Haven't really done much color matching out of Lowe's, seems like everyone finds their colors in Laura Ashley, Eddie Bauer or the Martha colors. Lowe's doesn't carry the actual Laura Ashley cans of paint. Some small hardware stores do though, like the Do It Best stores. That's great stuff too if you can find it. Generally speaking, I think it can be a good idea to just buy the color in the brand it comes in. As long as it's a *good* brand of paint and you buy the best grade of paint you can get you hands on, it will probably be a-okay. :-) I'm not so hot on Behr because the sheen levels are a little strange and it can be difficult to paint with -- seems like it doesn't suit a broad range of painting skills. As far as sheen goes, that's a pesonal preference. I like matte these days, which has just a snidge of sheen over a flat. And, lots of the mew mattes are scrubbable. After that I'd have to say eggshell. ICI's Lifemaster in eggshell is a really pretty finish, IMO. Don't know why, but I've found that brand and finish to be especially appealing lately. Sheen is hard because the color you choose can play apart in how shiny the walls end up looking. Never seems to be enough examples of sheen levels in the stores to really get a good idea.

We used a Valspar paint in Summer Gray in DS's condo garage. Please note that I do not recall which line of Valspar it was. We used it because DS received a gift certificate for Lowe's. We also used the primer recommended by the paint counter customer service person. The walls were finished about six months before, I believe. Pretty much builder grade everything. The Valspar paint we used was horrible. Spattered, required three coats and still wasn't great coverage-wise. It was thin, messy, smelly, and saggy. I'm nothing like a pro painter, but I get uniformly great results with Farrow and Ball, and I have done fine with certain SW lines, although I dislike the odor. (Oh, and a pro painter who was my GC's sub and used SW exclusively put the wrong color labeled with the right name in a guest house and no one made good on it--so paint mix goofs do happen, even in the expensive stuff). I have used Frazee happily in the past, too. Perhaps because we told the paint guy it was for a condo garage, he recommended the junkiest paint. I don't know. To spend so much time and effort for such poor results . . . I won't go near Valspar again.

Hi! Maybe what I was trying to describe is not called a switch loop. Maybe I should have given an example of what I am talking about. Let's take my brother's "den + 2 bedrooms" circuit. The power comes from the panel to the ceiling fixture box via a 14/2 loomex. From there another 14/2 loomex goes to feed the outlets in the den, and another 14/2 loomex goes to bedroom #1. Also, a 14/3 loomex (bare ground + white + black + red) goes to the switch for the den light. At the fixture box, the whites are wire nutted together, and the bare grounds as well, which are also attached to the box and has a pigtail for the fixture. The blacks are wire-nutted together and the red wire (from the switch) is alone. The hot wire from the chandelier is connected to the red wire and of course the neutral from the chandelier goes to the whites marretted together. The hot black wires are just standing there. Then at the switch (which is mounted on the wall separating the den from bedroom #2), there is the 14/3 from the light fixture box and another 14/2 loomex that goes to bedroom #2. In the den switch box, all grounds are wire-nutted together and attached to the box, all whites (neutrals) are wire-nutted together and the two blacks are wire-nutted together with a pigtail that gets attached to the switch. The other leg of the switch is attached to the red wire that goes to the chandelier. I hope this description makes it clear. Please note that I live in Montreal Canada and I have seen this wiring technique at my aunt's house (built 1964) and also at other friend's houses where I helped with wiring or installing light fixtures. Can someone please tell me if it is still allowed, and if I can use more than one fixture wired this way per branch circuit? Thanks a lot.

i bought it because it was supposed to be durable and washable but it marks up like crazy and nothing gets marks off. i have touched up the paint every couple of months to covered marks from daily life. i have had behr, olympic, valspar on my walls and the emerald is by far the least dirt resistant/durable. btw when i bought it i was told it had a lifetime guarantee so i could come back to get the same paint for touchups if needed. when i did that, i had to fight with them to get a can and they acted like i had circus animals in my house because they couldn't believe their paint marked up! they were awful! this wall was just repainted 3 weeks ago and someone rubbed against it and of course it left a mark. and yes we have dogs, kids, cats but againcheaper paints have withstood our household better.