Not my favorite paint--the colors aren't at all true. I tried some periwinkle color that turned out to be bright pink--pretty awful. I took it back to HD, and the woman accepting the return said that RL paint was really no better than any other paint, just more expensive.

I've used lots of different kinds of paints and still prefer Behr and Benjamin Moore.

If my clients have to go to Home Depot for paint, I tell them to at least get RL. I like it. Have had good results with it, low fail rate with my DIY client base which is important to me.

I'm particularly fond of the colors. I think they are worth the price and I think they do a good job of separating themselves from the rest of the paint pack. The RL palette rocks, it's small, but it's quality. RL colors rarely translate well to other brand's bases. If you want a RL color, then buy RL paint. Period. Not worth the few extra bucks to monkey with it.

Faron, I think you explained once before about how much colorant the RL bases allow for -- several ounces more than *other* brands. Even tho the same colorant is used in RL and Behr color, that extra bit shows up in the light of your room. But, you all know I'm always about the quality of the color first...

Love the colors and the nuances found in their palette not offered by other brands. I've never had trouble with the colors not coming out right. Maybe it was human error? Yesterday I ordered a particular color of BM Satin Impervo that came out completely off. The paint guy said maybe someone put a previously tinted can back on the shelf...Or maybe he made a mistake. But those things can happen with any brand.

We really like Manor Gray...Everyone sees it as a different color when it's on the walls...Is it gray, tan, or green? --Seems to be a chameleon. You'd never guess how great it is from the little card. I had a hard time finding the right burgundy for our kitchen cabinets, but Picture Gallery is just the color I had in mind. Other colors we're using on walls: Sahara, Urban Living, Lincolnshire Olive, and Edwardian Burgundy.

I sure like RL's primer for bright and dark colors...The same tint as the paint instead of mixed into white, like Behr. --Painting burgundy over what turns out to be light pink (the Behr) is not that much better than over white.

I like their suede paint for its texture.

However, overall I'm not fond of their paints. I find them too thick and it seems to take a ton of paint to cover. I also don't find their colours to have the same richness and depth to them as Benjamin Moore, for example.

I think they're overrated and overpriced. BM offers much better value for the money IMO.

I know the original post was way back in October but I had to weigh in here. Recently I've been using Behr paint, but have used many other brands in the past. I'm a pretty experienced painter, having painted the interiors of two homes on my own, so I feel like I know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, yesterday I bought RL paint in "Impressionist" - it's a few dollars more per gallon but WOW - I'm only buying this brand from now on. The color is a Robin's Egg blue and I was covering a very dark ugly brown/green color in my bedroom. I kid you not, the RL paint covered in ONE coat - now, normally no matter what the paint brand claims, I use 2-3 coats of paint to get the best finish possible - but I found with the RL paint that it covers amazingly well, shockingly well.

I don't know what to attribute the great coverage to, but I am now stuck with an additional gallon of paint that I don't even need because my 400 sq. ft bedroom didn't even use up a full gallon. Great stuff. An NO - I don't work for HD, I'm just very happy with this paint and wish I had found out about it sooner.

Wow! I forgot about this thread of mine!!

Bubbam...

To tell ya the truth, I'd put on the 2nd coat!! Even if you're the best painter on Earth, it's impossible to get any paint completely even. Plus, there's always variation in wall absorption since it doesn't sound like you primed.

>>> Your color...Impressionist, RL #VM129 is very nice! I've made it a couple of times.
>>> When fully dried, your sheen may vary some if you don't.
>>> ICI makes RL, Devoe, Glidden, & others.
>>> RL & Devoe are the Top lines.

Rhomes colors are some of our more popular RL colors!!
(You MUST have good taste...;-) !!)

Separately,
Early in Jan. '08...I'm gonna be ordering our Spring/Early-Summer stock of "JUST" Ralph-Lauren...SEVERAL hundred gallons probably...
(Dear Lord...C2 needs to be ordered again too!!)
(Also makin' progress thru our ACE-Royal gallonage...over 2000 gallons received in Nov...)

Hopefully our Tinters/Computers don't wear out!!!!

Faron

Faron, I keep looking at the walls trying to find areas that it didn't cover well - I even asked my husband to look at it closely for me today and let me know if it needs a second coat because right now it looks perfect. I normally ALWAYS use at least 2 coats when I paint, regardless - but I keep standing back, then getting up real close to see if there are any uneven areas and I can't find any. However, when finishing up the project tonight, I might consider doing one more light coat just because it doesn't seem right to have only one coat. Also I didn't prime the walls, but did a light sanding prior to applying the paint.

BubbaM,
Don't fall into the "a 2nd light coat" theory!!
>>> Do two full coats!! The everyday "wear & tear" resistance, color-depth, & sheen-eveness are all increased by the 2nd coat.

(Reviewing my figures again today...my RL order is topping 1,000 gallons...Oh my achin' back!)

Faron

Paintguy, maybe we should have him design some painter's whites with the Polo insignia on it? After all, he's rated a "lifestyle" brand. I'd prefer Funcolors on my shirt though. :)

RL is at HD here. Which makes it a sub-standard recommendation for a pro to offer. It screams...D I Y.

Michael

I've never used RL paint and I'm not fond of paying extra just for a "designer label" but I give this line credit for a very strong and definitive color choices. They seem to have certain colorways that no one else offers; there is a certain panache in their color.

sky

Yeah...a Polo/Funcolors' logo...that'd be kinda cool!

I wish RL wasn't at HD. It does "dilute" the brand image, ESPECIALLY when spotty advice & many lesser-experienced staff just crank it out.
(This is EXACTLY why C2 started out!!)

Faron

I have a fondness for Crabapple. I had it in several rooms in my last house and it as a GREAT color. Very calm and cool, with just enough color... and it seemed to look different in each room (which is partly why I was confident using it in so many of them).

Outside of that... I also used Ghurka and Horse Heath. Two very nice browns.

Creek,
I forgot about Crabapple, #NA02! Our Decorators often use that one....very popular here. Between that & Cottonwood, I've memorized those formulas!

Faron

Hi Faron, why am I surprised to see you on this forum? No 'crankin'out'the music goin' on here. LOL

I've used RL paints and loved 'em! I think the colors are from the Thoroughbred collection~Balmoral Red and Bone Black,both in an eggshell finish. I used a charcoal gray primer under the red, and only needed 2 coats. The black I used on several pieces of furniture and it covered very evenly~I rather use a brush than a spray, but maybe i'm doing something wrong.

I would recommend it to anyone who wants to try a different brand of paint.

SW is a bit cheaper, great colors and coverage too, if you're doing a whole house~sorry Faron. ;o)

Hello "Patty C"!
How do you know...I may have a CD blasting "The Crue" right now...?!?!?! (hee-hee)

(SW...SW?!?!? What's that.....wink-wink!)

I've probably said this b4, but we don't let anybody out the door here without a Gray-primer under most "Reds"! I agree, that RL Thoroughbred-collection has very handsome colors.

>>> Anybody else...good or bad with RL????
>>> Suede or River-Rock experiences anyone?!?!

Thanks,
Faron

Hello "Patty C"!
How do you know...I may have a CD blasting "The Crue" right now...?!?!?! (hee-hee)

(SW...SW?!?!? What's that.....wink-wink!)

I've probably said this b4, but we don't let anybody out the door here without a Gray-primer under most "Reds"! I agree, that RL Thoroughbred-collection has very handsome colors.

>>> Anybody else...good or bad with RL????
>>> Suede or River-Rock experiences anyone?!?!

Thanks,
Faron

hi faron,

i wanted to not like these paints, just because it seemed like overpriced logo-fied paint. however, their beauty won me over; i love their colors and the finishes they offer, so i use it quite a bit. here's my experience with it:

i used river rock in reddish burgandy over a red from another line that didn't have the depth i wanted and i loved it. my girlfriend used the tan suede in her study and it looked great. i just used the metallic bronze gold in my built-ins last weekend and it looks great. especially nice with a soft light on it.

i'm considering using a reddish version of the suede in my LR, but I am fending off the nay-sayers who think I don't have enough light in that room to do terracotta red color. if you have any advise about application of suede, i'd sure like to hear it! and if you've seen the red suede up and have opinions?

i gave my contractor rl swatches for my kitchen remodel and both things he painted (cabinets and walls)looked completely different. i could have sworn he didn't get the right paint, but he promised that he got the rl paint from the chip i gave him.

i've been through a few custom new builds, and picked out paint for them all...plus having moved over 20 times in my life. suffice it to say, i've had plenty of time to make a lot of mistakes. by now, i usually at least get the colors right in terms of getting what i wanted (not to say that what i want doesn't change later:-)).

i suspect that either the store messed up the mix or the contractor got the paint from another source.

how often do you think either of these two problems happen to the average consumer who thinks they picked the wrong color or that the paint sucks? i'd really like to know the answer to that one!

Hi Decorpas!

The Suede...
It's a pretty easy technique. One of the main "tips" is to use light-to-medium pressure with your roller.
* Because of the texture, this paint doesn't "level" the way most paints do. A "ridge" from your roller will be hard to blend out later. Suede starts setting fast.
* A light ceiling-to-floor sweep of your "paint-columns" will even out the film some too.
* Also, you've gotta put plenty of paint on the wall! Suede only goes 1/2 as far as traditional paints.
* The 2nd coat needs a 3" or 4" brush, using the x-brushing pattern.

With the deeper Suedes & River-Rocks, use a primer tinted to almost the topcoat color. I haven't seen the "Red" Suedes anywhere, but our Decorators have...and it can be pretty striking they say! "Subtle Sophistication" I'd call it!!

>>> What RL colors/paint-series did you use for your Kitchen?
>>> What leads you to think the paint was not correct??

I've got some "horror-stories" for ya...regarding contractors who didn't use what they were supposed to!!!
* Vague hint here...
"Yes, we used the RL (or any companys') color specified"
* BUT...it could very well have been matched (and sometimes not very well...) into a so-so at best contractor-grade.
* THEN....if the paint and/or color don't perform well, AND the customer doesn't know their color wasn't used in the brand she thought she chose....guess who's fault it usually becomes....the Paint store where she got her chips!
* When in fact, the store had nothing to do with it!!
(ask me how I know this....!)
* People often ask if we can match C2 colors "down" into a lesser-brand....No. It never works. They may get close, but...let some other store have THAT headache!

Faron

faron,

Haven't been reading this forum till recently, so my questions have probably been answered somewhere :). But can you please tell me who it is that makes the Ace paints? Also, would the RL website tell me if there are different dealers selling their paints locally than HD, which is over 60 miles either direction?

I haven't used RL, but just saw a home where the whole downstairs used 5 RL colors and it looks very nice. They also had wainscoting and trim painted.

I also have experienced contractor 'changing' paint requested. I learned to do the ordering directly myself with the paint store and, even then, this last time the painter and store employee took extreme liberty to change things! They both caught it from me, I refused the paint and the store ate it. I then went directly there myself, dealt with the manager and brought the paint home with me. It was for an exterior job.

TIA for any info.

hi faron,

thanks for the tips!

for the kitchen, i had picked cottonwood for the cabinets and i was going to use the tea stained glaze over it, as shown in a picture i can't find right now. the walls i had done in a few colors and none of them worked. the first was nantucket white. it was green and not a green that worked. then i tried ivory (can't remember color name) but it is pink. so now i am thinking of going in a new direction. thinking about hampton court or an lincolnshire olive i found from rl collection. have you seen those with the cottonwood? i got samples and painted the wall with them before picking the colors. it just seemed like something was off when i would come home from work to see the walls after the contractor had been painting them all day...and not a paint can in sight (ha ha).

the reason i wondered if i was getting the colors i picked is they were so OFF. i am looking at the nantucket white chip right now and i can see a barely gold-ish undertone, but it was like yellow green on the walls. the cabinets look close to the color, but they are so dark overall that i can't see how a glaze would work over them.

an any rate, i learned my lesson and will get my own paint from now on.

the river rock i did in red was really great-- in fact, i think you can see it (barely) in the link below. i am new here and still learning how to post pictures....these are super small, but you can see the overall color and how pretty it is because of the variations.

Here is a link that might be useful: river rock red

I painted a room with RL suede. The color was Prairie Dog. It turned out fabulous. Not nearly as difficult as I'd heard people complain about, and if you follow the directions you can't go wrong. Certainly it took a lot more paint, but the result was well worth it.

Decorpas,
See my above post please...What made you think the colors were off?

Separately...
Must've went thru 30 gal's of RL-stuff just today...just on my 8-5 shift!!
10 gal's of Cottonwood & 3 gal's of Poplar Island (Eggshell) & other colors, just on ONE order!

Melsy4...
I love that Suede color! Yeah, it sure takes more Suede to do a job, but it's SUCH a nice look!

Faron

hey faron,

i thought the colors were off because the tones were very different than the chips. for example, the wall paint was nantucket white and on the wall it looked green-ish yellow.

i've had good luck with the paint i've bought from RL and applied myself...it was the time i hired a contractor who bought the paint that the colors were off. and it could just be that room-- but it seems like this happens a bit with contractors!

I used a dark color on my bedroom walls,a deep merlot although that is not the name. The problem is that if you touch it or rub it or bump against a wall, it leaves streaks on the paint and if you try to wash it off it only makes it worse. I love the color but the quality of the product is very poor. I have never had a problem with paint like this before and before I buy a different paint and paint over those walls, I would like to know if anyone has a solution to this problem

I did a match to Ben Moore's Alexandria Beige in the Ralph Lauren paint a few months ago and I did it for two reasons. One, I was at Home Depot last thing at night, after work, and needed to get my paint to make a final decision. And two, I remembered that Faron said it was good stuff. So I got it, painted it, and it went on smooth and beautiful in my bathroom.

Red

I forgot about this thread!

Paintgal...
Is your RL "Merlot"-color a Flat?

DEEP tones in many Flats will burnish fairly easily.
Reason:
There's SO MUCH pigment relative to the "coarser" binder-resin that's inherent to a "Flat" paint.
Paints with more of a sheen resist this better.
>>> I'm assuming it's been dry/cured for some time???

RedB...
>>> Make sure you let your paint cure a day or so b4 a load of steam hits it!!
>>> What sheen did you get??
>>> FULL cure for washing is 1 MONTH.

I know Decorpas post was over a yr. ago, but we've NEVER had THAT complaint!!!
...but then again...we're using the ACTUAL RL paint/ACE formulas...not getting it matched down into Super-spec or something...like some painters feel the need to do...

>>> Our RL colors are spot-on!
>>> Many customers need to make sure they SPECIFY the ACTUAL BRAND APPLIED in their painting contracts...IF that's what they desire.
>>> Then there's no doubt about the colors/result.
>>> If colors or tones seem off...it's NOT the store's fault. It's usually a contractor who just took a liberty to match into "their preferred paint"...

I've heard this statement b4...
"We applied the color they wanted & it looks off..."
We dug a little deeper, and lo and behold...it wasn't actual RL paint used!
(I wonder why I have "some" gray hair...;-))

Faron

i thought the colors were off because the tones were very different than the chips. for example, the wall paint was nantucket white and on the wall it looked green-ish yellow.

Wonder if you sampled in the room. Chip is ink printed on paper and can differ from actual gallons / samples. Result is that actual paint color can show with a different nuance from the chip when exposed to inherent light sources.

Has anyone tried Sea Grass ML15? Saw it in "Real Simple" and it looked fabulous!!

I think that RL paint is the best it is so nice a creamy when you put it on. Even though you think you only ned to put one coat on it is best to put two because it makes it look even better. All my family thought i had a professional do it because i used to RL river rock and it ROCKED !!!!!!!!!!! Love this stuff just wish it were a littlw cheaper priced. I usually wait to buy it when there is a sale on it.

Someone help, are the comments true about the smell?

Ralph Lauren's paint is by far the best and actually produces on the textured look as advertised. I've used RL for my apartment and I'm highly disappointed, sadden and overly frantic because I am unable to find RL textured paint or anything partially close. :( :(

We bought RL some years ago (5 maybe) for DD's first house as HD was clearing out the line. What an OMG finish on her walls! Absolutely elegant to this day and she refuses to paint over it.