Hmmm...ok I see there is a paint forum that I've come across in my googling. I will see if I can find the answers there :) But it's just boggling my mind that 99% of the credited paint (at least on the photos I find appealing) seem to be BM!

BM has a long history of good colors. Any brand of paint can probably do a color match if you give them the name (I know HD will for Behr paint if you give them the BM name.)

That said, I did find that BM paint went "further" than HD paint. It is thicker too. And, the primer, though outrageous, also did a better job of sealing than the cheap stuff at HD.

You get what you pay for... plus, paying a little extra at BM. See if you can get some sort of discount if you'll be buying lots from your local BM store. I was able to.

I know several professional painters.

They all use Sherwin Williams exclusively.

I've done some painting---for myself and as a paid painter. I've used almost every brand of paint easily available. SW beats them all.

But, you choose what you want---because the prep work before painting is more important than the final coat(s).

When the prep work is correct, almost any brand paint looks good.

BM's Aura paint seems to come out of my hair easier than other paints but otherwise I don't see the advantage.

The professionals I've used use Kelly Moore or sometimes SW. There is probably a reason. I, too, find it weird that people toss around BM paint color names like they're meaningful. But the pros here don't use it.

If you sign up for email at the SW website (or just monitor it), you'll find that they often have 40% off paint sales which makes their stuff reasonably priced.

Hi, You now have a great opportunity for your husband to increase his painting expertise. Why not paint one room with a good paint and discover the difference for himself.
Say the paint cost 300.00 and last 10 years the cost is 30.00 per year, 2.50 per month, and 8 cents a day .Pretty cheap way to learn anything.
Good Luck Woodbutcher

Bm is popular because it is high quality, nothing more, nothing less

IMO, paint is mostly marketing hype. It's a commodity, like potatoes. Many of these paint brands are owned by the same company.

Having said that, really cheap stuff - well you get what you pay for - to an extent.

You will find that some paint lines have warmer colors / cooler colors - it's your preference.

We are avid DIYers. I have used BM, SW, Valspar, Behr, and some other cheap no name type brands. IMO, there is a level of you get what you pay for, then there is the your paying for name brand marketing. After painting a bunch of my own walls in places we were renting we have setting on using Behr in our own house. I think BM is overpriced for what they offer. While a lot of colors are given by designers in BM terms (wonder where all the free paint is getting paid for that goes to designers who recommend their product publicly) you can get the same color in the Behr line matched, and they do have a great line.

You should check out linen white in Behr. I used it for all my trim and ceiling in our last rental condo. It is a beautiful creamy white. We had deep earth tone colors for all our walls and it was a beautiful compliment. I am using it again in our house. I will never do a stark white ceiling again with the exception of our bath with is white on white tile.

More pigment per unit volume and better coverage-- often getting a good result with one coat where a "cheap" paint (including BM's contractor line) would take two. Better/different surfactants that keep the paint on the roller (ie little fly-off of droplets as the roller spins) until you transfer it to the wall and then easier, more uniform spreading characteristics, ability to load a lot more paint onto the roller. Holding a line better when cutting in. With cheap paint I'm usually covered from head to foot with paint splatters at the end of a days work (particularly when painting overhead), with better paint, almost none.

That said, I used the best Behr line (they offer ~3 different quality levels at HD) on my basement and garage and was pretty impressed with its properties, but then it wasn't that much cheaper than the BM Regal. I'm not sure there is that much advantage of Aura over Regal. The "pro line" or whatever they call it is cheap junk.

There is no difference in colors available from any of the suppliers as long as you have a competent person in the paint store who knows how to match colors. The BM dealers tend to have real painters behind the counter who provide solid advice and good matching. At the Borg, maybe, maybe not.

The best paint I ever used was Pratt and Lambert, but I can't get it in my area anymore. Fifteen years later my LR and DR looked like it had just been painted. My next favorite is BM, followed by SW, then Behr. I think Lowes Valspar is the worst...I will never use it again. In rooms that get heavy use--kitchens, baths, family rooms...I use top quality. In other rooms, I use SW on sale or Behr.

Of course there is marketing hype to some extent but as you have discovered, there is a quality difference in the paint.

I have used a lot of cheap paint in the past, and when we bought our current home I used BM "Ben" paint their mid-line. I was so much better, it covered almost everything in a single coat including dark red over white. I did a second coat and it was perfect. It went on smooth and the color is beautiful. I could definitely tell the difference between it and the cheap Behr paint I used in the past!

BM is not the only quality paint, I am sure you get good quality from any of the major brands SW KM etc.

My general observation is that products in the middle of the price range are usually the best value.

Thank you for all the replies :) I suspected it was probably marketing hype to some extent also, but obviously when you go super cheap you really do get what you pay for!

You get what you pay for going the expensive route also

Benjamin Moore is one of the few companies that uses full spectrum color, and it can be found in their "Color Stories" series.

I am an artist. I learned NEVER to use black when mixing paint because it makes the color dull. When you look at the paintings of fine artists, they seem alive. The color speaks to you. They have mixed their colors from full spectrum, NOT simply adding gray or black to create a color. For instance. Violet and Yellow together make many shades of gold. That gold is alive! You can get gold by adding a little red and black to yellow, but it won't LIVE! Dull gold is what you will get.

I called BM's competitors and not one! not one! uses full spectrum AKA rainbow AKA pure color to mix paints. They cheat and put in grays or blacks., and YOU end up with dull color.

That is the difference between BM and others.

BM and SW make consistently high quality point in their upper end lines (SW has a cheaper line also).

It covers well, splatter less during application, is at least reasonable 'scrubbable' without coming off, and the pallets are huge.

I used an SW color called 'honeybee' in a two story a stair case and was amazed at the color variation it gave from different angles and different light qualities from the second floor landing window.

I used HD Behr primer in my bathroom and will now have to scrape down entire peeling ceiling and re-do. This was about 5 years ago. Will use BM or SW for re-do. Colors in both those lines are nice although HD can color match. BM and SW can also color match to another line. If you live in the Northwest, you might want to check on the Devine line of paints which are *supposedly* created with grey rainy skies in mind. The color refraction into your home can make a difference in the appearance of the color on the walls. I'm in Hawaii so it can be very bright inside.

Try Paint Talk (dot) com if you really want to hear what the pros think.

From what I've read, some of the BM lines are better than others (aura, not so great) but California, Pratt & Lambert, Ball & Farrow, Great Paints of Europe are all incredible lines that are similar in price to some of the higher BM lines. But most pros prefer SW to BM. Some of it will also depend upon what you can get locally (as there are some good regional brands too!)

Good luck.

This post was edited by navi_jen on Sun, Jun 16, 13 at 9:11

I have always used SW and been very happy with the standard two coats. I have never had to do three, ever.

Tried PPG on recommendation from the painting forum here and am really pleased with that also, but it is a little less $ here even using their Manor Hall line (vs higher end SW).

Prep is definitely key with any line, of course. Plus following drying or recoat times. it took a few days to paint my bathroom door, but it came out flawless.

For trim I often run a very fine sandpaper over it before the final coat to knock down any peaks/rough spots. Not a full on sanding session, just running a piece down the surface. Takes just a few minutes per room, then follow with a rag to wipe off dust, then final coat. Looks better than the professional paint jobs I've had. I actually used the sandpaper and added a third coat to the bathroom trim, looks so much better now! Not looking forward to repainting the trim in the not-even-finished-yet kitchen, but I will eventually.

Is "Great Paints of Europe" the economy line of Fine Paints of Europe or vice-vesra?
Casey

My guy is a former pro painter and prefers Sherwin Williams Superpaint. I prefer BM Aura because it's so thick (no splatters and excellent coverage), has no acrid 'paint' smell, and dries so quickly.

I do tend to prefer the Ben Moore colors, particularly the Aura and Color Story lines, and have found that whereas I can have them made up in SW or other brands, there are sometimes pretty large variations depending on store/employee/etc. I've had more luck with SW colors made up in BM paint than vice-versa, for whatever that's worth.

--> To a large extent, paint preference is similar to pencil or pen preference: some prefer it thicker, some lighter, some thinner, some bolder, all depending on one's style of writing. Painting (yes! even painting walls!) is more of an art than most folks realize, and everyone holds the brush differently, covers the roller differently, strokes it on differently, etc.

My best advice is to give final choice to the person doing the painting, *provided* they have experimented with various brands and can confidently claim a favorite. But if one brand is selected just because of its cost, I'd keep trying others, in particular if nothing else has ever been tried.

OK, everything is more expensive here in Manhattan, especially labor and contractor overhead. But a lifetime of experience has taught me one thing:

Unless your time is worth $2/hour or less, do not use cheap paint.

Good paint requires less labor, looks better, lasts longer.

I did use ridiculously expensive full spectrum paint from Kaufman once, and found it no better for my particular use than BM.

I use BM because they are near by. They match any color, and do an adequate job.

Here is a link that might be useful: BM Color Stories thread on AT

We used Color Stories on the ceiling of our Media Room AKA Pub. It's a dark navy blue, and amazes everyone how different it looks from different angles. It's real pure color and it is alive! It reflects all the colors around. Some angles it looks black, others deep blue, others..teal. I love BM Color stories. Gradually, we will paint every wall in our remodel with BM Color Stories paint.

The link below explains why you should only use full spectrum paint. He says it much better than I ever could.

Here is a link that might be useful: Why Full spectrum paint

Ooops! Double Post. Sorry!

Here is a link that might be useful: Why Full spectrum paint

This post was edited by desertdance on Wed, Jun 26, 13 at 10:11

My dh is a paint salesman and has worked for most of the major companies. We also considered buying a BM store at one time. This is what he said when I asked him this very question one time.

BM courts designers and architects from the moment they begin their advanced classes. They sell them on their products before they even graduate from college and continue to concentrate their marketing on them, sending them information packets, color decks, etc throughout their careers. The other major paint companies (Glidden, Kelly Moore, Jones Blair, Sherwin Williams, Pittsburgh/Porter) don't do that. Their targets are mostly on the commercial end and the big contractors.

The best paint I've used is SW super paint. One coat coverage, goes on really well. But they don't have the color selection of Benjamin Moore, so I've ended up using a lot of BM as well, especially the historic colors, which are muted. Another con to using SW is that the stores near me have limited hours. Since I am usually painting on evenings or weekends, it's a pain to run out of paint and not be able to get more. Finally, I've used Behr as well for a lot of rooms and have been happy with their paint. Not as good as the SW super paint, but pretty close to BM without the large color selection.

SW is terrible matching colors. I was forced to use SW because the painters here only use SW. I wanted BM colors. They said it could be made to match. I paid for it and my house is painted with SW and the colors do not look like the BM colors.

Color matching is strictly a function of the guy behind the counter. (or the guy in front of the counter who says OK, it's close enough). Paint brand has negligible effect on the skill and patience of the guy doing the mixing.

I just discovered the web site entitled "Encycolorpedia" which is a fantastic resource. For any color from a variety of manufacturers, it gives it in RGB colorspace, and emission wavelength. It also tells you the closest colors from other manufacturers, and you can compare how close they are. Finally, it gives a gradient from each color to white and black so you can stay within the same color family but move lighter or darker.

Color matching is strictly a function of the guy behind the counter. (or the guy in front of the counter who says OK, it's close enough). Paint brand has negligible effect on the skill and patience of the guy doing the mixing.

I plan on using SW on my remodel. If you have some time, wait for the 5-6 times a year 40% off sale and combine it with the $10 off $50 coupon. Make paints as cheap as Home Depot paints with superior coverage I have read that light colors can often be done in 1 coat

I plan on using SW on my remodel. If you have some time, wait for the 5-6 times a year 40% off sale and combine it with the $10 off $50 coupon. Make paints as cheap as Home Depot paints with superior coverage I have read that light colors can often be done in 1 coat

Sherwin Williams 40% off sale is this weekend. The only color HD didn't match well in Behr of the BM and SW colors is a complicated Plum Brown. I'm taking the $26 loss on the can of Behr, and going to SW to get this color during the sale. I was amazed at how well they did match the other BM colors from BM's classic line.

I found I really do like the Behr paint. I'm normally a SW or BM person, leaning more towards BM when money allows. The Behr was very thick, which is a real help for an amateur. Last time I used SW on a wall, I got a LOT of off spray from the roller - tiny dots of paint all over the baseboard. I had no idea this had happened till I got right up on it later. I know - I should have protected it better. But, this time, after rolling out the Behr and realizing the tape had come off, I inspected and there were absolutely NO dots of splatter to be found anywhere.
I found the same to be true of BM's Aura line.
I used it in flat for my kitchen. 4 years later, it's still gorgeous, and when I have to scrub - NO color can be seen on the rag after scrubbing. When I have to repaint the kitchen I will absolutely use it again. I probably should have used it for the bathrooms too -- but money would not allow this go round.

Does BM paints ever go on sale??

In Laguna beach, Benjamin Moore is recommended due to its higher quality. It is slightly expesive but worthy of its price. We also offer Tex-cote paint (Energy efficient paint) find out more call now 855-751-4663

Here is a link that might be useful: Laguna beach general contractor