Aura Matte or Regal Flat on ceiling

last year

We are painting our interior Simply White by Benjamin Moore. we want a seamless look between wall and ceilings so both are the same color.

Our painter painted a sample room with the ceiling done in Regal Flat and we found it looks much brighter and more stark than the walls which are painted Aura Matte. The ceiling looks like a different color. We then put a sample of the Aura Matte and it is much closer to the walls which are Aura Matte.

So we think we want to do the ceiling in Aura Matte so it is rhe same as the walls. the wuestion is whether this works? the painter is concerned the Aura Matte will show imperfections in the ceiling (BTW the ceiling is pretty good in general - we had a dry wall guy smooth it out using a side light.).

any suggestions?

Featured Answer

kpyeatt

last year

Chispa - Aura does NOT come in a flat. The lowest sheen It comes in is matte. That is why your painters used matte. Regal comes in a flat.

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Comments (7)

PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
Why are you usung 2 differsnr paints if you want seamless Usee the same paint on the walls and the ceiling and your painter is an idiot if he thinks flat is better at covering than matte
Jennifer Hogan
last year
Imperfections on ceilings show when the light reflects off the points and valleys differently,

Lower sheen means less light reflecting off the surface so you don't see the imperfections.

Here is a flat vs eggshell picture with a ceiling that has texture. It shows how the peaks and valleys are enhanced by the sheen. (sometimes we want to see the texture).

In your case we are not comparing eggshell to flat, but flat vs matte.

You can look up the sheen levels on the BM website.

Regal Select Flat has a sheen of 0-3 at 85

Aura Matte has a sheen of 3-6 at 85

Eggshell has a sheen of 15-20 at 85

Matte is slightly shinier than flat, but not near as shiny as eggshell. I wouldn't think Matte would highlight the imperfections enough to make them really noticeable unless you had some pretty obvious issues.
John Galt thanked Jennifer Hogan
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John Galt
Original Author
last year
Thank you. Plus with Simply White I assume it would be even less so compared with darker colors.
chispa
last year
We used BM Aura in Chantilly Lace for our ceilings and trim in our new construction. The trim is semi-gloss and the ceilings were supposed to be Aura flat. Our painters misunderstood and did the ceilings in the Aura matte.

We left it as is, since we needed to keep the project moving along, but it would not have been my first choice. The matte has a very very slight sheen that shows up on the ceilings more than on the walls, maybe because we have many large windows and sliders that cause the shine/glare to show up on the ceiling.

Down the road I might repaint some of the ceilings to flat ... once all the other "to do" projects get finished in the house!
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Lori A. Sawaya
last year
last modified: last year
He's right. It will.

Matte on a ceiling is unnecessary and overkill.

Because it doesn't require the same degree of durability -- and color on the ceiling looks different than color on the walls because of the angle at which you see it.

But..... If Aura matte on the ceiling is what you want, he'll need to use a top tier primer first and fingers crossed for 1 finish coat but you all need to be prepared for lap marks which a 2nd finish coat *usually* takes care of with Aura matte on the ceiling.
Bettina Hooper
last year
My ceilings are white, Aura Matte. Funny story; I've built several houses and right now have one of the best electricians I've ever seen...except one tiny thing- he moves from one task to the next without washing his hands! Even the flat/matte versions of both Aura and Regal are eminently washable but there are some construction compounds you just can't wash off. My husband spent an entire weekend hauling around a ladder, bucket of soap with scrubbers and can of paint with brush to clean around all the ceiling light fixtures. He called me into one of the bathrooms to ask how the heck a full grey handprint can be 4 feet away from the ceiling fixture. We laughed.

The electrician will be back to install a few more fixtures next week. I have a gift for him: a 3 pack of jobsite hand wipes I found on Amazon....on second thought, it may actually be a gift for my long-suffering husband.