We wont recommend nothing we have try ourselves... Sherwin is the best paint for all projects.

Benjamin Moore hands down.

Sherwin is better...

Someone mentioned earlier that finish is based on prep. While this is true if your walls are in bad shape, DIYers should know that the more expensive brands are very forgiving to subpar prep and less than perfect paint technique. FYI - I swear by Benjamin Moore Aura. I have been able to add a second coat in as little as 45 minutes. I use a lot of matte paint and when my 8 year old gets his grubby hands on the light paint a shot of diluted simple green and a quick wipe makes it disappear. Retouch is also virtually invisible.

Like the painting contractor wrote above. Don't use Behr ceiling paint!! Their ceiling paint is a very poor quality. 4 coats using the M method and everything else you could imagine and I still have streaks.

Dunn Edwards, without a doubt. Incredibly durable and as someone mentioned up-thread, they will mix the color to match whatever sample you might have.

I was not happy with my Sherwin Williams paint. It was their HGTV line, sold in the SW store, but still expensive. It is now peeling, less than 6 months later. I would like to be a paint snob and say that I will only use SW and BM, but I had much better results with Behr and Valspar. Both look like they were painted yesterday.

I don't know what happens with their HGTV line..We used SW 7 years ago, throughout the entire house...it still looks good..no chips or any other problem

I love using both Sherwin Wms & Ben Moore for their colors, and they are all good paint (as is Valspar, Behr, etc). However, for a long-term, no-fade paint, I've been very happy with BM.

The person doing the prep and their skill set can be far more valuable then what brand paint. With that said, if all prep is equal I prefer BenMoore. I have used Valspar, and Bher in pinches or by request, and really saw durability and application differences. I never used the Arua from BenMoore, just their standard flats and egg shells.

It really depends on the job. If you painting a garage or a country club house you probably won't use the same paint grade.

As a professional painter, I can tell you that every paint manufacturer has good brands and bad brands. Paint is one of those products where you get what you pay for. There are very few "hidden bargains" where an inexpensive product is better than the expensive one. As someone else mentioned above, you can get any good paint store to match any color you bring them, although it's hard to match a fabric swatch than a paint chip.

I've also learned to stay away from hardware store paints. Most of them sell very good paint. Most of them are also staffed by people who are more familiar with plumbing supplies and cutting keys than they are with paint. I have a few horror stories about trying to get the same color multiple times from Lowes. Finally I learned that saving $100 on the product wasn't worth losing $500 on labor.

Look into the benefits of No-Voc paint. Great for your health and better for the environment. Benjamin Moore's No-Voc paint comes in all the original colors.

I've tried many of the brands listed; I liked for interior Clark+Kensington, Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams. I do not like Olympic, Valspar, or other cheap brands. I am going to try Behr soon.

However, for my money for interior paint I like Kilz Casual Colors the best. It is really thick [lots of solids in the paint, which is important], covers well, lasts well not only on the wall but in the can. It is also inexpensive. I have a can over 10 years old I still use for touch up. It blends right in and you cannot tell where I touched up! This also tells me that the sheen on the wall [satin] and color have not changed as some paints do. Consumer's Reports has also given it great reviews. However, the problem I have is that Wal-Mart quit carrying it a few years ago, so it is not available in my area.

For exterior, I buy Pittsburgh [PPG] Sunproof. I have a huge 2 story wooden shed and it does well on it.

FYI--PPG has bought up many paint brands: Dulux, Porter, Glidden, Olympic, AkzoNobel [who makes WalMart's Color Place], Devoe, Martha Stewart, and others, plus its own PPG. California Paints owns Pratt & Lambert, Benjamin Moore & Coronado [and others I think]; Valspar owns Devine; manages & makes Clark + Kensington and Ace for Ace Hardware, and Sherwin Williams owns Dutch Boy & bought Valspar this year. So there are a lot less paint companies than you may think.

Whoa--this just in--Walmart is now carrying a new product: Kilz Select Look paint. I can find no info about it, even on the Kilz site. Hopefully Consumer Reports will test it!

How about the comparison of Kelly Moore VS. Dunn Edward for bathroom walls and ceiling? Which one is better?

Saying which is best to compare is difficult because each brand sells different qualities. If I'm painting I want quality paint. We use the best one Valspar offers, and it has always been perfect. Covers great and glides on beautiful. Great color selection themselves and can also mix any color sample brought in.

If I may add something I feel is more important then Brand....

Correct and consistent prep work is more important then loosing sleep over paint brands. Incomplete prep will take an expensive can of Aura from Benjamin Moore, and make it look like garbage. Likewise, effort in the prep can take a builders grade Behr or Valspar and make an amazing finish.

- " But Joe, I'll cover the prep with great paint!"

My answer would be an analogy:

"Would you bake a bad cake with the best frosting"? or "Would you put expired Old gas in your new car? The cake will still taste bad, and the car would run bad!

Two things to purchase and not hold back on: Best roller cover and best roller. Period. Don't try to save money here. A high quality 1/2" nap roller cover for latex paint will have a better "lay" to the paint. The roller it self should be stiff. If it flexes then you will tend to get lines in your paint. Sometimes these lines wont be visible until after it dries!

Regarding finishes:

Flat - Easiest to touch up

Egg shell, satin, and Semigloss are for ware and tear. Does not have to be in the Kitchen or the Bathroom. Sheen finishes tend to have a hardness to them that allows you to clean with a sponge. Typically reserved for trim and doors. (Trim gets touched often, base molding gets kicked and nicked, doors get touched.)

Sheen finishes are difficult to blend when touching up. Specific technique is needed or a entire wall to repaint. Otherwise, you can see the touched up area stand out in some light and some angles (Not the case with flat - I touch up areas in my home yearly and can't see anything)

Don't fall for one coat coverage; please ignore that. Anything can one coat with the right conditions. (Think about how MPG in cars gets calculated; "the right conditions")

People ask "Whats the best for this room?" That is a loaded question for a few reasons:

1. Kitchen - are you a cook? Do you have back splash, or is your back splash just a painted wall?

2. Bathroom - Is it a half bath or a full? Do the users tend to take hot showers with a lot of steam? How is it vented?

3. Do you have people in the home who unknowingly touch the walls? Adults do this as much as children!

Personally, I two-coat everything except repainting a white ceiling. I never use anything contractor grade

I have used Behr, Valspar, and Benjamin Moore in my own home.

I hope someone can benefit from my tips!

Joe

Directsinks

Thanks Joe. Good info. My paint rollers are not in good shape so I will update them! Update/corrections on my post from Sept.: California doesn't own Benj Moore [my error], but Bershire Hathaway owns Benj Moore, Axalta, & Coronodo. Kilz and Behr have the same parent company Masco, and Kilz informed me their new paint is not as good as Casual Colors. Diversified Brands owns Sherwin Williams, Krylon, and Pratt & Lambert, Dutch Boy and Valspar.

I had couple of problems with Resene in NZ. So far I prefer to use Tikkurila paint for interior. They are just the best. They did a great colour match for my walls.

Our firm only specifies Benjamin Moore. I am a designer and my business partner is an engineer, and initially I used BM because I was able to find the right color (especially shades of red) more often than with any other paint. When she reached the same conclusion from the technical side we decided to make it our brand. However, we did a project in Kauai and had to use Sherwin Williams, and I was very happy with the selection and results from them too.

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This thread was a great read. But each of these brands has quite a few different "lines." How to know? Are people perhaps comparing high-end SW to lower-end BM? I guess I have no way of really knowing...

Thank you all for your input/recommendations, I'm a rookie DIYer planning to use Benjamin Moore for my first project: spray paint kid's bathroom vanity cabinet. If happy with the results I plan to paint my Kitchen. Wish me luck!

I like benjamin moore regal select but depends on the project

Used clark & kensington on our beehives … that stuff is durable for many many years out in the elements here in wisconsin with our weather extremes

sherwin williams has a nice product too

what happened to pratt & lambert? they have some lovely colors!!!

those paint samples you buy aren't actually paint…or at least not the SAME paint that you purchase in the big gallons….. they are COLOR samples … read the can carefully …. trust me, do not mix the samples with your full gallon of true paint you will skew the integrity of the end product dont ask the store reps, they are clueless…read the can its a COLOR sample, not a paint sample for a reason

ive used Behr in a pinch for a basement wall … it wasnt bad, but we were selling

and yes there are different tiers of paint quality from each brand … oranges and apples