IMO stop and have the walls skim coated before painting I think worth every penny to get smooth walls . Then I like matte for all walls and either semi gloss or satin for trim. I like ceilings ans walls the same when the color is very light it gives the illusion of a bit higher ceiling. I applaud you for getting the paint you wanted I encounter this often with builders wanting to use the paint they get a kick back from. The matte finishon the walls will minimize the look of the orange peel but not make it smooth.

I wouldn't recommend Advance in semi-gloss anywhere. It's really shiny. The Advance Satin is as shiny as you'll want. We had our kitchen trim done in the semi-gloss and then after seeing it asked the contractor to do the other room they were painting in Satin.

When DH paints he just uses Ben. When we had a contractor do two rooms earlier this year they wanted to use Aura. DH used the leftover Aura on the foyer so now he's used both. He said he thinks they cover the same. You can get away with one coat if the new color is very close to the old color (check for holidays after it dries), but if you're covering darker colors you will definitely need two and some people on this site have reported needing three coats in some instances.

The end result in Aura looks a little better, but I don't know if it's worth the price difference. That's something you'll have to decide for yourself. We used Aura in matte. We have used both plain Ben and Aura Bath in bathrooms. I think if you don't live in a damp climate year round and have (and use) exhaust fans, regular Ben will hold up fine in a bath. Maybe consider Aura in public rooms and Regal Select in private rooms and on ceilings to save money. Also, after having one room done in each, evaluate it to see whether you perceive a noticeable difference in appearance that is worth it to you.

Update: my painter said not to get BM Advance Satin for the trim/doors/baseboards. He said to get BM. Satin Impervo instead. It looks like this might be discontinued? Or it's oil based and will turn yellow very easily? We do not want that. What am I misunderstanding about Satin Impervo?

@Kate Spadaro, have you thought about Patricia's advice to have the walls skim coated to make them smooth?

Are you already living in the house? What about the ceilings - are they smooth?

I totally agree with using BM paint over SW.

I also agree with your painter about not using BM Advance.

But when it comes to painting bath or kitchen cabinets, does your painter have LOTS of experience doing those? What is his prep? Does he spray? I'm going to guess not, as the better cabinet painters are using 1k and 2K products which have much higher solids, and test much better for wear and tear.

We used a 1K product from Centurion for some cabinetry. It "meets or exceeds KMCA" standards.

There is not a BM product that compares.

Regal and Aura are both good quality paint. But you mentioned several times about "saving $$".

One of the best ways to "save $$" is to do the job with the right materials.

The highest cost for painting will be the labor, so using the best product is the most cost effective, even though it probably won't be the cheapest.

Have you looked at the Scuff X line from BM?

We used the Scuff X Matte for all the walls in our lower level about 3 years ago. It's been great!

We also used Scuff X Satin for all the trim work, and really like it as well.

Other questions to ask your painter - how do you prep the trim? What primer do you use? How many coats of paint? Brush, roll, spray?

There is always a balance between $$$ and desires. I grew up in a small town in PA where most of the homes seem to have non textured, smooth walls. I moved to Southern California where most of the homes seemed to have orange peel walls and 30 years later moved back to PA.

I prefer smooth walls, but only because it is less challenging to get straight lines and to patch walls when they are smooth.

I had popcorn ceilings in the home I owned in CA and they had to go. Hated the popcorn ceilings.

The texture on the walls seemed strange at first, but after painting them and living with them for a bit, I found that I really didn't notice it anymore. It was only while painting that it was on my mind.

Other than when I had to patch a hole or when I was painting with two colors and needed to get a straight line, I didn't really think about or notice the texture. There are some heavy textures that I couldn't live with and would bother me, but orange peel isn't that big of a deal and would not be enough of an issue that I would go through the expense or work to skim coat all my walls.

As for paint, I have used a lot of different paints and have helped others pick paints for their homes and quite frankly, no one is going to walk into your home and notice what paint is on the walls. I have used Miller Paint, C2, BM, SW, Devine Color Paint when manufactured by Miller and when manufactured by Valspar, I have always used one of the two top tier lines when I painted because I want something that will be more durable. I don't want to have to repaint any time soon. Reality is that no one is going to walk into your home and look at the walls and think 'Wow - this is cheep paint' or 'OMG -they used Aura'. These are walls. As long as they aren't a terrible color or super shiny or look like they were painted by a 4 year old, no one is going to notice the difference.

I was actually really surprised when I helped someone who was moving last spring. They had purchased their home in 2004 and were moving to an assisted living apartment. They had planned on re-painting the walls that were painted with a SW builders grade paint, but life got in the way and 18 years later they still had the original paint on the walls. With their health issues they didn't have the time or energy to have everything re-painted to sell, so they asked me to come in and do a few patches and touch ups before listing.

I thought I would be in trouble. They had cans in the basement from when the house was built, but I thought the walls would be too discolored after 18 years to be able to patch and not have the patch scream at you.

I was wrong. After 18 years I was able to patch and repair 3 places.

This is what commercial grade SW paint looked like 18 years after being painted:

Can you find my patch in this room?

It was a 1' x 1' patch on the wall with the light between the two vents.

Her new apartment was painted by the facility and she could only pick wall color. All trim was painted Extra White. I am sure they used a commercial grade paint line. Walking into her new apartment it looks like she has eggshell walls in a pretty, neutral color (she was tired of white after 18 years). I can't tell what grade paint was used to paint the walls.

I am sticking to my old ways and continuing to paint my current home interior with BM Regal Select and exterior with SW Duration. I helped my niece pick paint for her home and the color she picked was a SW color - we got SW Emerald. I am using BM Advance on my trim, and my niece used Emerald Urethane Enamel. I tested Aura, but was happy with Regal Select and didn't see a reason to pay the premium price. I would love to test Scuff X, but my local ACE hardware doesn't carry it and it would be a 40 minute drive to the closest BM Store that carries it.

If I had endless money I might try F&B or Fine Paints of Europe, but for now I would rather spend a bit less on paint and use that money toward some of the kitchen upgrades I want.