Aaaahhh yessss-

I know this well!

It's the new ACE paint, to be sold alongside the "normal" ACE-Royal brand. Yes...ACE finally joined the "P & P" bandwagon. They took their dear old time developing this one.

It's a Ceramic-microsphere based paint. Like all the others out there, it's "not really" a SEPARATE primer that's magically in the can!!
>>> The new film forms a slightly "tighter/denser" film...THAT ACTS LIKE a primer ACE points out on the label that there ARE a few instances when separate priming IS called for.

I've worked at a busy ACE for many years now, and know their stuff well. Some dealers were kinda "rolling-their-eyes" when they heard this was coming out....

It IS a good can of paint though!!

Faron

That's actually funny. I was in an Ace the other day and the clerk there pointed that stuff out and gave me the whole 'primer in the can' schtick. I wasn't wearing my painters attire. I am sure you must have to approach homeowners differently than painters when dealing with this new marketing mess that all paint makers seem to be pushing now. I rolled my eyes and he noticed. I really feel sorry for some of these paint store clerks that have to peddle this nonsense to people that actually understand paint, and then turn around and have to sell it to some homeowner. I guess this is why you need 2 hats.

Well, I bought a quart of the C & K paint to see how it does on the trim. The Ace manager promised me that if I didnt like it he would buy it back and replace it with something else. I plan on painting the trim tonight so I will report back on how it does.

I am painting over paneling but have already primed separately so this will not be a true test of its "priming" ability. I have used the Ace cabinet and trim paint before so I hope it is as good.

I only recently had to buy paint. I went to Ace Hardware as usual and was surprised they switched brands. But I bought a color very similar to the exising color in the bedroom to be painted. This bedroom is 11x12. I found the Clark-Kensington to be terrible. It didn't cover in one coat even though the shades were very close. It ran and in places where I needed to use a brush for trim it needed three coats.

First of all, you don't need a primer unless the substrate is in poor condition, stained, etc.

Clean and dull and you're good to go with two full coats of quality acrylic enamel.

Two coats of C&K with or without primer, will cover just as well as any other paint of comparable quality. Whether it's SW, Behr, ICI, etc.

Professional looking paint jobs are usually done by professionals. :)

Yes, preparation is vital if you want a gorgeous wall. However, so is quantity. DIY'ers would gasp if they knew how much paint a pro applies to a sf of wall.

We used this brand paint on a historic house 3 1/2 years ago and have been very disappointed. Before we painted our house, we painted a garage building with Benjamin Moore paint and it has held up just fine. However, the house needs painting again. We hope to have the C&K Representative come by our house (ACE is less than a mile from our house) to see why their paint hasn't held up. You are better off sticking with BM of SW.

I absolutely and unequivocably do NOT recommend Clark & Kensington. I used it in a room and it supposedly had primer in it. I painted over a light khaki color and it took two coats -heavy coats to cover it, and it was still thin in a few places. This was not my first rodeo, either. Cutting in was a nightmare, as this paint is so thin the coverage is awful. Every time I came back to the can (maybe an hour in between at most) there were white bits separated from the paint and it had to be thoroughly mixed all over again. I've used several other brands including Sherwin Williams, Behr, and Benjamin Moore as well as Valspar and never have had such a poor experience. I love my local ACE Hardware, but what were they thinking??

There is NO primer in paint, never was never will be

I bought 3 cans of Clark and Kensington paint for my bathroom. It rates up there with Valspar as being the worst paints I have ever used. It does not cover in one coat and the white was so thick it was like painting with glue. I have beadboard on the lower half of my walls, drywall on the top divided by a molding and baseboard along the bottom which I used the white . I bought the satin for more durability. Back to buying Glidden or some other cheaper paint!

tmagoon69@gmail.com

For me i love c+ k paint.. and i also test for furniture .. wow look nice.. good for me and i love it.

There is no real primer in paints that say paint and primer in one. They got by on a certain ingredient in the paint that made it legal to say there is primer in the paint. Nothing takes the place of using a primer.

What a mess! This paint when tinted a dark brown was a FAIL. Tried it on pre primed doors. It was terrible! It dried splotchy and was a gummy mess. Waited for it to dry for days and it finally did and then the work began on the doors to get it off. Tried with chemical to get it off...sanded some and what a mess. Finally off. Tested paint on a steel door, sample wood, primed & not primed, mdf primed, mdf not primed, tried rolling it, sprayed, DIDN'T MATTER! It was a mess. Talked to the ACE store many times. Took a door to them so they could see it. Told me it had to be the sprayer, the roller, ANYTHING but A PAINT FAIL. EXASPERATED I started my research. THE PAINT CANNOT HAVE SO MUCH TINT ADDED TO IT BECAUSE IT RUINS THEIR FORMULA. IT WILL NOT WORK! IT WAS NOT MY SPRAYER TIP BECAUSE I TRIED 3 TIPS, ROLLED, BRUSHED.... WON'T WORK WHEN DILUTED WITH SO MUCH TINT COMPOUND! BEWARE!!! TRIED WITH 8 DIFFERENT CANS, ALL WITH DIFFERENT BATCH NUMBERS...ALL THE SAME!!!! DON'T USE C&K when tinted dark....TOTAL PAINT FAIL!!?!!?!!?

I've used many different brands of paint over the years; from the cheapest junk to the crazy expensive "best of the best" and everything in between. In my experience, even the worst paint will look decent if you know what you're doing and can adapt to the paint you're using to make it look its best.

Of course, that doesn't mean that I like using paint that's difficult to work with and only looks decent when I can use a paint that goes on flawlessly and looks spectacular. So what's my favorite paint? Clark & Kensington. Seriously. There's no competition as far as I'm concerned. This stuff is the best and I just don't understand the negative reviews. What are people doing to get such poor results? I could understand if they were talking about Behr. I most recently used Behr while helping a neighbor paint their doors and trim and while the end result looks great, it took WAY too much effort and care to get it to look that way. Behr is hard to work with. Clark & Kensington is a breeze!

All of my walls and trim are painted with Clark & Kensington. I even recently discovered that touch ups can be made ten years after painting and they will blend in flawlessly with the old paint. I was shocked because the room I tried this in is bathed in bright sunlight and the color is dark. I thought that surely the color would have changed a tiny bit after ten years. Nope. No color change and no difference in sheen between the old paint and the new.

The bottom line here is this; if you're a good painter and you love using a quality paint, give Clark & Kensington a try.

Oh, and never take the paint and primer in one claim literally. That's just a marketing claim for gullible people. Always use a separate primer on walls that need it.

Surprised to see this old thread again!!

Mid-April will mark my 20th year "In Paint" at this ACE store!

Can't even COUNT the number of ACE-Royal and Clark+Kensington cans I've made & advised over the years......

But complaints?! Ummmmm.......maybe......3??!?!?

Faron

I was given a can of K&C in gloss, I'm not sure if it was diluted for spraying or not but it was thin paint. This paint runs and has many drips if you are not careful. It seems to cover well but it is hard to get a nice even, shiny coat out of it when brushing. I've painted for over 20 years and find that only Behr has a consistent quality and feel to it. Would not buy it.

We recently painted our open concept foyer, kitchen and dining room with K+C paint and I was impressed with it. It was thicker than other paints we have used which worked well when trying to cut in around the kitchen cabinets as well as the posts and beams in our timberframe home. We are not professional by any means and I feel that we had fewer issues with drips and runs. Overall, I would buy this brand again.

Just used K+C to paint a set of brand new, light gray, pre-primed, steel exterior doors. Two full coats by brush and it is still very splotchy. Letting it cure for a couple weeks then going over it again with Benjamin Moore. Not worth what I paid for it for sure.