I have used the cheaper paint in the past and when we painted all rooms in this remodel we used BM Aura. Hands down the best quality paint I have ever used. So yes... in the big scope of things the extra $15 a gallon or so is worth it IMHO.

I haven't had success with getting BM color matched, even at Sherwin Williams (haven't tried the big box stores, but I wouldn't be optimistic). For walls, I usually buy the Ben brand at BM, one of their less expensive lines but still with the same color formulas as Aura I believe. It's very good paint, and only about $30-35 for an eggshell finish.

Premium paints have a different composition than bargain brands. They contain much more pigment (% by weight) than cheaper paints. That's one reason they're tough to color match. You will get more coverage out of a gallon of the good stuff than you would out of the cheap stuff too. In the end, you'll save money and time with the higher quality paint.

DH had never painted with BM before this reno. Now that he's painted every room in the house at least twice, he tells me he's very impressed with the paint. It covers better and lays down better. He choked at the price of the Regal gallons we used as he's used to cheap HD paint, but he's a believer now. My BM store owner said unless someone in the house has smell sensitivities, he recommended the Regal over the Aura for a better price. We weren't living in the house for most of the painting, so I went for the cheaper!

Nimbus is such a pretty color. You'll love it when it graces your whole room. And don't worry about the questions. We've all BTDT.

Oh, did you see Flatwater's kitchen with Nimbus cabs?

My painter prefers BM and thinks the time it saves him makes up for the extra cost.
We just painted our kitchen and hallway using BM's regal select which allows a flat or matte finish and washability. I didn't want a sheen so this was the perfect answer for us. Regal select isn't as expensive as aura but still very well liked by my painter and covered well. I never noticed a smell with the paint either.

I hate to paint so, I don't do it anymore.

But my painters do. And they will not guarantee a job if they cannot use either BM or SW.

What does that tell you? :)

Doc

I haven't painted a lot, but I know from trying to find "perfect" color matches, pretty impossible.

Just get what you want and realize that the words "as good as" just aren't.

Get out the wallet. The dh used to be peripherally involved in the paints & pigments industry (attorney) and yes, you are getting what you pay for with BM -- from a chemical, color, and proprietary standpoint. It's not just a hefty price tag. It matters when you use it, and it really matters when you stand back and look at it. I'd penny pinch on a lot of things -- and I do -- but paint isn't one of them. Good luck with the project.

I will be the voice from the other side. I have painted 4 entire interiors of homes in 4 years. I used the regular Behr from Home Depot in three of them and BM Regal on the 4th. Both brands provided good coverage. One Behr house I sold so I can't tell you how that has held up. One Behr house is my daughter's and it has been over a year and half and the paint looks beautiful and cleans up well. Her husband loves to cook and even the area behind the stove (no tile backsplash) cleans up well. She chose a variety of fairly deep colors.

The BM house is the one I am currently living in. It looks great too. The living room and hall are BM Thunder color matched into Regal paint. I have painted in Aura paint for a friend's kitchen and although it covers great, I really don't care to paint with it so I had them mix the Thunder in Regal. Got a great match.

The 4th house is the one I am currently renovating and moving into shortly. Due to the fact that BM didn't blow me away or prove to provide better coverage or clean up, I just completed painting all 1900 sq ft in the regular Behr paint. I had the majority of the colors color matched from either their more expensive Behr line (they have great new colors and huge color chips), Martha Stewart or BM. I chose two BM colors, a deep gray blue for a bedroom and Thunder for the kitchen to reuse in this house. First Home Depot I went to mixed me two gallons of the Thunder color match and they couldn't get it. Their match was too blue. They told me it was a bad match and I was under no obligation to buy the paint and I verified they were correct. Second Home Depot I went to mixed me another 2 gallons of Thunder color match and got it dead on. It was perfect and looks great on the wall. Home Depot has the formulas for most of the BM colors (not the Auras) in their computer and they don't even need to color match. They mixed the BM Blue I got by the formula in the computer.

Out of all those gallons of paint in 4 houses, I only had one gallon go on lousy and splotchy. It was in the house I am currently living in and was a light grayish green. It was just a bad gallon of paint and happened to be BM. That in no way implies Behr is better, it was just a bad gallon.

Sorry this is long but I paint a lot! 22 gallons this summer. I did the house I am currently living in in BM because the paint store closest was a BM store and I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about on BM paint. Not enough of a difference to justify the extra cost in my mind. I actually prefer the way Behr flows on my brush for cutting and trim over BM and I can't tell the difference between the two rolling.

Thanks to all for helping me with another decision. I'm definitely going with BM paint. Onward and upward!

Thanks to all for helping me with another decision. I'm definitely going with BM paint. Onward and upward!

It is not exactly the same match. We just moved into a new house and had everything painted before moving in. There were bookcases bolted to the walls in the family room. The painters painted around the bookcases without moving them. I choose BM Shaker Beige.

After moving in, we decided to remove one of the bookcases. Different painter used SW matched to BM Shaker Beige. The color was different. Not strikingly different, but enough that he couldn't just paint the unpainted wall but had to paint the entire wall with the SW.

The matched color has more green undertones than the BM original color. I do not like it and it bother me each time I walk into the room. Frankly, I hate it! I plan to buy a new gallon BM and repaint that wall again.

Jane

I also used to buy HD paint, but switched to BM (interior) and SW(exterior) on this house and really can't imagine going back!

For many years now I've switch back and forth pretty freely between BM Regal and Home Depot's Behr. I like each equally as well as the other. I buy my BM at a hardware store and the price doesn't seem significantly different than the Home Depot which seems to have gone up in recent years. I'd be hard pressed to choose one over the other for durability or coverage. Recently I've tried out the BM Aura paint, and while the jury is still out on durability (the rooms I painted are only a few months out from completion, so I won't weigh in yet) -- the coverage was pretty amazing, and I was thrilled to skip the priming. But how it will age, and whether it will hold up to scrubbing, etc, or not, I guess we'll see.....

Color-matching for me is all about how much work went into choosing the color in the first place.

If you have thirty-seven swatches of gray on the wall in your quest for the Perfect One, and finally Number 37 looks right, don't color-match, buy that paint and be done with it.

If you're looking for a pleasant color for a baby's room, and the first color you try out is a perfectly acceptable yellow that runs $75/gallon, I'd at least try the color-match in a less expensive line. Why not?

I love BM colors and want to love their paint. The BM store on my side of town has the s***iest customer service you could ask for. It's sad, but I won't ever buy anything from them again. Kelly-Moore (Calif. and I think Texas and OK) is where all the local painters in my area go. Their people are friendly and informative. My house was painted nearly four years ago with KM and when I touch it up here and there with new matched paint, you can't see any difference. They match BM colors with a smile and good advice. I still long for BM colors, but I'm done with their attitude.

If you have Muralo paints available where you are - they are sold in paint stores - I would highly recommend Muralo Ultra Ceramic. It's washable and it goes on beautifully. I think it's comparable in price to BM Aura.

On the Painting forum, many pros recommend Muralo, but I guess it's a regional brand so not everyone can find it.

I agree with Linelle - if you have Kelly Moore try them! My favorite painter swears by them and they have BM colors in their computer. I just brought in the BM names and they looked them up and matched perfectly.

You can save some money by using their SuperSpec paint. I have used it and Regal and I like both. The other thing that helps save paint is buy primer colored to 50% or 100% of the color you plan on painting, it provides a nice base coat and is much cheaper than the paint.

Sometimes you have luck in color matching and others you don't. We recently had Palladium Blue and Manchester Tan matched. The first one didn't work out and I ended up buying the BM paint to get the right color. Even though it was their low VOC it wasn't as low as the one we used from MCCoys for the rest which was no VOC. As for coverage etc. It was the same. for us the no VOC was more important as DH is really sensitive and a lower price didn't hurt, but if the color had been off on that one we would have gone with BM too as we were matching to another area visible and already painted with BM Aura Manchester Tan. That was my first try with BM paint as I'd only used SW until then and frankly like SW super paint better as for coverage and rolling it on.

I agree that one must decide if a match is truly a match. When choosing a warm white for my living area, I must have spent close to $200 on samples, on my walls and boards to move around. When I finally found The One (SW Antique White), my sweet painter asked if he could have Kelly-Moore match it because he had an account with them. I was not convinced it was a wise move. He had a sample mixed and matched and it was identical. I even think I like it better than the original SW, but that may be the difference between sample paint and the real deal. If it's not a perfect match, don't accept it and don't use it.

I would never use any paint except BM aura-coverage and colors are great. The BM store near me(walking distance which is soooo convenient) has a helpful staff, all questions answered plus friendly and nice. I like them so much that I wish they sold more than paint. They matched my cabinet paint(Shiloh soft white) perfectly.

Does anyone know where they may be pictures of flatwaters kitchen? I found several threads doing a google search, but seems like all the photobucket pictures are deleted.
Checked both the new and old KFB and nothing there.

Anyone have any saved? Or Flatwater are you around?

Thank you

I agree with Hags00- I love Behr Premium primer all in one. We painted our house with BM when moved in and yes it is great paint. But this job my GC used Behr and it was color matched perfectly. Honestly their premium paint is not that much cheaper but I have a horrible BM store too so I would rather deal with our very pleasant HD store instead. Plus my BIL,who paints for a living could not believe the coverage he got with this paint. He did our unfinished banquette in only two coats with no primer. He was also very surprised.