Well, Missy........you already know the mantra.....you can do anything you want, and you should do what works best in your own home for your own lifestyle. I leave my toaster and my coffeemaker and my knife block on my very small kitchen counters, even though decorating rules state very clearly that these things should be put away for beauty. I need my coffee, to reach for a knife, (to kill the rats in my kitchen!) and DH only cooks toast, so he needs that toast-cooker out! But there are quite a few paints that clean up quite nicely in lesser sheens than semigloss. I have satin on my bathroom walls and really would rather even have eggshell. Love the flatter finish and would rather cope with the cleaning. I don't think you have to do the semi to get a good wall finish. I even like the Ace Sensations Matte flat finish, it is now in my kitchen and wipes off nicely. Of course, I have a real backsplash so don't have to worry too much, but over by my trash can, there can be some cleanup issues where I think my DD probably throws coffee grounds against the wall! Keep in mind that you have a mess on a flat finish. Even upgrading your finish just a little will relieve that. And you are using mascara. Good for you! I think all is forgiven in pursuit of facial beauty! Red

I can't do all the trim in the rest of the house SuperWhite because it was just painted with the Decorators White. We had to cover the White Dove or Linen so Romy, I know exactly what difference you are talking about. The painter felt that going to the SuperWhite would require more coats and cost more money than going to the Decorator's White. But at the same time, he said that I wouldn't really notice the difference between the Decorator's white and the SuperWhite and that maybe all the molding should be Decorator's White to have one color. Good idea to have him test it. Maybe one version is just the cabinet molding SuperWhite, satin sheen and the adjacent Decorator White Semi-gloss. The different sheens might give the illusion it is the same color but just a different sheet. I could also try all Decorator's White Semi. There is some of the Decorator's white on the door to the dining room which borders the kitchen cabinets but the lighting isn't very good there to compare the two colors side by side. Thank you! Thank you!

This post is timely because we're going to repaint our kitchen and family room within the next few weeks and I'm debating what kind of paint to use. We last painted these rooms in 2006 (yeah, I know) and we used SW Whole Wheat in flat because that's what the painters recommended. We had a lot of patch work to be done and we were painting over watered down builder's beige. I don't remember what line of paint we used, but it was when the low VOC paints first came out. This paint was terrible. I couldn't clean it at all. My kids were young and there were hand and finger prints on one wall in particular where you would turn from the kitchen to the front hall. It was also very icky around the light switch. We recently finished our basement and went with eggshell because I wanted a bit of sheen on the walls and I'm happy with the choice. But it doesn't get the same traffic as the kitchen so I'm afraid of how it would hold up over the long term, especially because we want to use low/no VOC paint again. We used eggshell in our foyer a couple of years ago and I'm not thrilled with how it's held up. Interesting to read the responses.

It depends on the look you want. When you have level 5 walls you can have any finish you want! Not knowing what the design of your home is and what your designer wants the look to ultimately be it’s hard to say you should do a certain finish over another! I generally don’t like shiny walls unless it’s part of the overall design plan. Matte can be a great choice instead of flat as it is a bit easier to clean and has a soft velvet finish.