I'd go semi gloss because I think it cleans up the best for in places like the bathroom.

Another vote for semi-gloss. You could go down to satin if you're worried about that large an area of shiny paint, but I think I'd stick to semi-gloss to tie-in with the trim.

Thank you everyone!

I prefer semi gloss because I already have the white semi-gloss paint we've been using throughout the house, and if I can avoid buying a gallon of satin just for the bead board, that's great.

DH's first instinct was for satin, but I don't think he cares enough to fight over it either way ;) I just wanted to be sure the GW experts wouldn't all vote for something else - that would make me rethink my plan :)

We used BM waterborne satin Impervo on the bead board in the 2nd bath.

Here is a link that might be useful: BM Satin Impervo

Natal - did you use the waterborne satin impervo on the other trim as well, or just on the bead board?

Yes, all trim was done with satin impervo. We did an addition about 5 years ago that included the 2nd bath and all the doors and trim were painted with satin impervo. The rest of the house has semi-gloss. We're hoping to redo the original bath later this year and I'd like to use satin impervo in there too.

The semi-gloss will dull down a bit as it ages, and if you have it and like it, I think you should use it.

I used semi gloss, not too dull and not too shiny. All of our trim is semi gloss plus it cleans up easily.

Funny you should ask (just saw this post)...My painters just finished painting the beadboard in my bathroom yesterday. I snapped a picture of the paint can this morning because theirs was empty and I wanted to remember what they used because it is beautiful. It's BM Satin Impervo, but the can is different from Natal's can. I'm not sure what the difference is, and would be happy to snap a picture of the beadboard tonight.

And their can was a quart size.

Here is a link that might be useful: Satin Impervo Alkyd Low Lustre Paint

Library, your painters used oil (alkyd) vs. the water-based.

Oh, so that's the difference. (not to hijack this, but OP might need this info too) Do you know if you can paint water-based on top of oil based? Because the last time I was at BM, they said they can't sell oil based for interiors any longer. So I don't know if I should try to buy some for 'just in case' or if I could switch to the water-based if I need touch ups.

The alkyd will still be available. Here's info about the difference between oil and alkyd.

Here is a link that might be useful: alkyd vs oil

I take that back. I'm not sure if the alkyd is being phased out or not. Faron would know.

BM now sells it's original oil-based alykd (in a petroleum oil base), a water-clean-up alkyd (in a mineral oil base), and latex paint. They tell me that the water-clean-up alkyd is almost as good as the oil-based alkyd but I'm skeptical, so I went with the original oil base when I painted the inside of my exterior doors recently. The original oil base is supposedly going to be phased out (it already has been modified so much to eliminate VOCs that it isn't nearly as strong as the oil paints were "back in the day"). The water-based alkyds will remain available. This info is all per the owner of my local BM store and current as of 2 weeks ago when I bought my paint.

As far as painting latex over oil goes, you CAN do it, but you need to prep well and use a bonding primer. I've been doing it (my whole house was oil based on the trim) for a couple years now by washing the oil paint on the trim to remove the dirt/grime, painting one coat of a bonding primer like Zinsser 123, and then painting 2 coats of latex topcoat. It's been fine.

If you put latex directly on top of oil with no primer, it won't stick. The PO's did that in a couple of the bedrooms here, and I was able to literally PULL most of their paint off with my hands (I had to use a scraper in a couple spots, but for the most part, it came off in big sheets!) to get back down to the oil paint, which I then primed and recoated with latex. Yeah, that wasn't fun. So if you're gonna put latex over oil (or even the waterbased alkyds over oil), I'd definitely spend the time doing a coat of bonding primer -- better safe than sorry.

Hmm. I put Latex semi-gloss directly on top of high gloss oil. However, I did some good hand-sanding between those two different paints. Waited until the latex coat thoroughly dried, tested adhesion with both 80 & 100 grit sandpaper & all was fine. So I was able to do two finish coats without yet an earlier one for primer. To each her own...