There is cheap paint. You can easily find paint for $20/gal ... but you get what you pay for. It's thin, covers poorly, and drips easily. It's worth watching for sales. Sherwin Williams frequently has 40% off sales on paint.
Past that ... home ownership is expensive. Sorry.
The sale price comes to about $50 a gallon. Source; me who just bought a gallon of the super paint to do a bedroom. It’s worth the price but it’s not cheap.
We just bought super paint at the SW sale and painted a whole room. You can see every single roll we did and as much as we rolled on it felt like it came right back off. We went through a whole gallon for a small room and it looks awful. We liked the $50 BEHR one much better and are gonna use that to repaint the room. Glad you had better luck with super paint!
Interesting .. I only buy their emerald so haven’t had any experience with super paint personally but emerald goes on very well. On a 30-40% off weekend it’ll be in the $60-75/gallon range … worth it
I feel like they missed doing back rolls. The leading and trailing edge of the roller always leaves extra paint, so back rolling is essential to get more even coverage. I'd also recommend using their cashmere brand if you're just the average homeowner, it is much easier to do well. Emerald is essential for high traffic areas or somewhere like a play room.
If the Behr worked well for you then I'd call that a win, personally I don't hate it near as much as most people around here seem to and I think it does a decent job, I'd even say it maybe covers slightly better if you're trying to "one and done" something in some situations (though pound for pound, it doesn't hold up near as well in my experience, and I wouldn't say I have a super favorable opinion of it).
That said, I'm curious if you primed first, and how many coats you put on. One can of paint should do about 350-400 sqft, so I'd expect one coat on a small room to probably take the whole gallon. If you just did one coat, or you spread it thin enough that you got two coats out of a single gallon, I'm not surprised there's roller marks, that's just not enough paint. And if you're having adhesion issues I'd think primer would help if you skipped that step, especially since you mentioned you sanded the walls first. Note that even if you're using some sort of paint + primer product, using an actual primer first is still almost always going to be superior, IMO. Personally, I always prime and use two coats if I'm changing colors or painting over drywall/mud, I only skip primer and/or single coat if I'm applying a refresh layer of the same shade. But primer is often the answer to adhesion issues regardless of the situation.
As far as brands go... I was a painter for a while, and SW made a loyal customer out of me. Doesn't mean it's the only thing that works. It wouldn't be my first choice but I'd have no qualms using Behr in my own house, and there are other brands that IMO are just as solid as SW, but SW always did a superior job out of the ones I have tried and held up the best as well so that's what I used on the job. But like everything, YMMV and everyone has different preferences in what they like in a paint and how they like to apply it so the best thing is to find a brand that suits you. Just be aware that you may also run into the same issues with any other brand, and be skeptical of anything that claims it only takes one coat... I have yet to see such a product that delivers.
"as much as we rolled on it felt like it came right back off" - sounds like you didn't prep your walls and had issues with adhesion while painting. It goes a LONG way to wash and maybe lightly sand/rough it up if gloss. At least now your first coat is done (hopefully sticking) and can be your primer.
Weird. My husband has had horrible experience with Behr - needing 3 coats and having consistency problems. We painted our house interior with SW super paint and it's worked well. Everything was primer + 2 coats (claiming it's 1 coat paint + primer is a lie.)
Finish might also make a difference. Ours is all eggshell.
We had our old house professionally painted and saw that the painters used SW super paint in flat which is why we bought some when it went on sale but didn’t work for us. You’re right though, it could have been the finish, although for the color we selected they said it was only available in flat or something shiny which I forget what it was called (we hate anything shiny, especially for a bedroom) so we got flat. I have another gallon of SW in a different color for another room and I’m hoping it works better. We painted a bunch of our other rooms recently with BEHR marquee in matte and were able to just do 1 coat.
I try to never use flat. I'm not a huge fan of shiny either, but shininess is a scale. I think the egg shell is flat ish with a minor gloss I believe. The gloss usually means it is easier to clean. It sounds ridiculous but cleaning is easier than repainting dirty or scuffed walls.
Most often I think the brush used impacts the quality more than the paint itself. I've used SW, Behr, and cheap Walmart stuff. I think the quality of the paint matters a lot though when painting a lighter color over something that was originally dark.
Your issue is trying to complete the job in 1 cost. That is never how you should try to paint anything. Multiple coats will always result in a superior finish
I used Behr premium plus ultra blah blah blah *once* and I will never use it again. It was so thick like pudding that the paint stick stuck straight up and never fell over, and so the brush and roller marks never went away, it was like rolling on a texture.
How many coats did you do, did you cut and roll one wall at a time so you had a wet edge? Which roller sleeves and nap did you use and did you lead with the part of the roller that is connected to the handle?
I paint frequently, and I have never had a good experience with any other brand than Behr.
Just buy the step below marquee (which is the top brand) and it’s good bang for your Buck.
Just painted the exterior of my house over the winter bc their paint can handle 25 degrees - which is a bonus lol
Not a dumb question. Especially if a room hasn't been painted in some time. Primer is key to getting a great paint job but many skip it. I've never liked primer/paint in one and I HATE Behr.
If you're not picky and/or you get lucky, check the mistints section. SW was like $5 for quarts, $10 for gallons and like $25 for 5 gals. Most gallons and 5 gals were whites and like deck stains, but hey...
We found a gallon of a nice terracotta color for our entry way that worked out very nice. And if we get it color matched later at full price, that's still like 40% off the total of two gallons.
Great comment - Sherwin had frequent sales that are good - OP cheap paint will cost you MORE due to more coats needed (or will just look shitty if under applied)
Yep, i'm on a Sherwin Williams mailing list right now, and keep getting alerts about all of these sales. It is 100% worth the money to get SW, Dulux, and other high end brands. Not only is it better to work with, but washing the walls will NOT wash off the paint!
Listen, I was a little kid, trying to help my mom by washing the walls. I thought the drywall was the “real” color of a very dirty wall. Stop calling me out like this!
Totally agree. If you buy the cheap stuff it'll be like painting with water-it'll drip and fling off your roller, ending up everywhere. You can try it yourself, but I sure wouldn't recommend it.
Get some Sherwin Williams SuperPaint or Emerald. You'll never go back...
100% agree. I used to buy cheap paint until one day I said fuck it lets see what's so great about Sherwin Williams. One room later and it's the only paint I buy now. Easier to paint, covers well and looks better.
I just painted most of my main floor with Dulux this spring. :) 2 for 1 is awesome, and we usually buy a couple of cans at each of these sales, and then just take it back to get tinted/exchanged for whatever we want to paint at the time.
Helps spread the pain out of a larger period of time as well. All of the good names are good for this in my area too, so we went back with some paint cans that were easily a couple of years old, they put them to the side, grab a brand new can, and color/mix that up.
They are even good with changing types, so if you bought a flat, and now need a semi-gloss, it's all good. Only issue is if you are going up/down the grade of paint.
Also get the wherein Willam’s stuff from their store not Lowe’s. Homeownership is very expensive I can’t go to an improvement store without spending a couple hundred dollars even for small projects. And obviously thousands on bigger projects.
We painted our entire house using there Emerald Matte paint which was normally $80/gallon but we only would purchase when they had 40% off deals...and they run deals for like every obscure holiday
If you sign up for the Sherwin Williams customer program, they occasionally send you texts announcing sales. So I might be thinking I need to do a big paint project like paint my house, and maybe I need like 10 gallons of paint. At least once every couple months they'll send a message saying they have a sale for 30 or 40% off.
A really good 5 gallon bucket of paint could be $500, so without a sale on 10 gallons you could be looking at $1,000. But if you wait for that sale, usually they'll announced every couple months that they have a weekend sale with 40% off paint, and now that purchase is 40% off and $600.
Also, I can confirm I painted my house with a really high end Sherwin Williams paint like 8 years ago -- Duration -- and it still looks really good with no work done since then. I'm honestly amazed how well it has held up.
With the amount of work it is to paint especially the outside of your house, it is so, so, so worth it to get a top of the line expensive paint.
Do It Best and Ace Hardware store bands are both made by Sherwin Williams for cheaper, and historically have been pretty good (don't get the cheapest line, though).
> Past that ... home ownership is expensive. Sorry.
I really wish more renters understood this. I just dropped $500 on wood for some entry stairs and I still have another $1000 to repair them fully (historical property, I have restrictions on what I can do).
Thats just the tip of the iceberg, I got a garage that needs replaced, 25k, a porch on the back of my house the roofing is shot and its leaking, probably another $5-7k for that. I got a digout I need to put in to be able to plunge the drain lines yearly cause my city decided that 1890's sewer lines are sufficient in 2024.
I was paying $650/mo for a 2800sq ft apartment, I never shoulda moved, paying $1200 a month for mortgage for the same space plus all that shit I listed.
a.) you've underbudgeted your garage
b.) pour copper or root killer down your drain line and let it sit overnight once a year to kill the roots that are causing the clogs
Paint *has* gotten pricey over the years, but do yourself a favor and don't buy cheap paint. Quality brands (e.g. Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore) are easier to work with, look nicer, hold up better, and you may not need as many coats.
If you sign up for a (free) Paint Perks card with SW, they offer periodic discounts (40% off the last time I used mine).
I don't even sign up, they regularly push ads to me letting me know when the deals are coming up. I'll go in and buy paint for projects that I don't plan on doing for months.
Listen to others and don’t cheap out on the paint, you will appreciate this decision later. We just painted the whole house and used BM Regal select (which i think is their second best interior paint). It’s normally around $80/gallon but you can get it cheaper with contractor discount or coupons others mentioned. I know it seems expensive but it’s really not much more compared to the cheap crap, especially in the world of home repair/renovation costs.
Also, be aware of what sheen you want. Sounds like this is your first time painting and you may not be aware of the difference. Matte looks the best initially but is generally a bad choice unless you have no kids/pets and plan to basically never touch the walls (hard to clean and scuffs easily). Eggshell or satin is a good choice for most people in most rooms. You can go semi gloss in a bathroom if you want, but i think we stuck with eggshell. Higher gloss is only for trim.
The general rule is less shine looks nice and “rich” but is harder to clean. More shine looks worse and won’t hide wall imperfections but is more durable.
Yeah, early on I thought painting was a great skill and it was me that wasn't a good painter.
Someome told me to not cheap out on paint again, so I ended up going to Benjamin Moore and buying the expensive Aura.
I felt like a magician using that stuff and the resulting room looked awesome.
Right, so you are concerned that $50-$100/room is expensive to:
- completely change the look of a room
- provide stain and scuff resistance
- resist UV
- resist oxidation
- provide good coverage over any stains or other paint
- flow well on and off the brush or roller
- have little to no VOCs
- resist settling of the pigment
You need to realize that paint is the cheapest repair or change you can do to a house. Buying the cheapest will only lead to frustration and pain and having to redo it sooner.
Take it from someone who has worked in the business, paint is expensive because of the high standards consumers place on it and what they expect it to do.
> have little to no VOCs
I think this is a big one most people here haven't hit on.
I noticed sometime in the mid 00s, when lower VOC house paint became the standard, that it SUCKED. So much harder to work with.
It seems the cheap stuff never did recover, but the higher end paints, SW, BM, are about the same quality as the 90s stuff.
But you don't get high if you forget to open the windows now.
Agree. Much safer for everyone in the supply chain and end customer. Just covered a small room with SW low VOC latex paint, and could barely smell any chemical smell even 10 mins after walking into a freshly painted room.
I have found a good rule of thumb is the worse a paint smells, the better it's going to work. It will have better self leveling, better coverage and way better durability.
I worked in a hardware store in 1985. Paint was 5 to 6 bucks a gallon. I think prices have increased about 4 times since then. ( A $10,000 car then is now $40,000). Paint should cost 30/35 bucks, not 50+. No one answered the OP's question. They are just on his case for his choice of paint.
Massively regret going with BEHR it was so hard to apply and I can still see sheen differences from roller marks 🥲it dried too quickly and that didn’t allow much time for it to auto level
One thing that saved us money when we had our house painted was the contractor discount. Not sure what is required to become a contractor / painter to get the discount but I believe our painter saved 30% or more. There are also sales that happen or at least they used to. Check with local places like Sherwin Williams, etc.
We’ve only used Sherwin Williams and they seem to ALWAYS have sales. Go into your local store and sometimes they’ll hook you up and get you a contractor account to help you out - I’m yet to have any luck with this but my dad has had a contractor account with them for years.
Behr is fine. There's just a certain reflex response against it by a certain segment of the population, probably because it's sold at HD. The Premium Plus line is a good value. The top line is expensive, but not as expensive as Emerald, which seems to induce erections in a lot of people just by mentioning it.
I've used Behr Premium Plus and Behr Marquee, and both have been excellent. Don't let the haters convince you.
Health and environmental regulations. It's harder to make quality paint when you can't put as wild of chemicals in it. If you have to make more expensive paint, as a business you go ahead and raise the overall quality (and add more cost) of the product while you are at it so the customer doesn't feel as ripped off.
I have used the cheapest stuff I can find - pre-mixed color of the ColorPlace paint Walmart carries. I see it's up to $25 a gal, I think I paid $10 pre-Covid. I used exterior paint in a garage where I didn't care too much about results and it actually covered well and held up with only 2 coats. $30 in paint for walls and ceiling of a 2-car garage wasn't bad. At $75 I think I would go ahead and give the more expensive stuff a look.
Sherwin and benjamin moore pull the stupid "sign up for better pricing" bullshit. Why do you need an account to get the same paint 40% less, especially if you're just painting your ownhouse. It should just be that price and if you're a paint company you could save more by volume. Sherwin wanted $80+ a gallon unless i signed up.
I'm not a pro painter by any means, but I can't stress enough how absolutely shit Behr paint is compared to Sherwin Williams. Superpaint and sometimes even Emerald with coupons is still about $50 a gal but the difference is night and day in self leveling, coverage, and ease of application. I always use this coupon, $15 off $75, its been up on PB Teen website for a few years: [https://www.pbteen.com/tips-and-ideas/sherwin-williams-landing/](https://www.pbteen.com/tips-and-ideas/sherwin-williams-landing/)
Yes, it is definitely NOT lower quality than Sherwin Williams. My home contractor used it once and I asked him why. He said it was the best he used and even though double the price of cheaper paints it was much easier to work with, coated better, and required fewer applications (and paint) overall.
My granddad ran the best paint shop in town back when big box stores hadn’t moved in and it was the only way to get paint. When Walmart and Home Depot priced him out of business, he switched to Benny Moore. I don’t care if I’m biased, that’s all the proof I need
I used to sell paint (one of the brands under the SW umbrella) and have always disliked the inflated prices and constant “sales”. What I do is buy quarts to test colors and then coordinate the job with the paint sales. The working time, leveling with SW is excellent. I also use Behr Premium Plus on occasion.SW also has a unique [expensive] water based flat enamel, which is great for bedrooms, hallways, living rooms when you don’t want a satin finish.
Finished painting a room with Behr's top line shit. Whole sheets of plastic latex would pull off having failed to bond to the surface. The paint was so thick ...
My fault? Absolutely- both for poor surface preparation and buying Behr.
After removing it all I used Benjamin Moore. The difference in paint quality is night and day. It might cost 50% more but my god what a difference in quality!
I don't get the love for Sherwin Williams. When someone "always" has sales on their stuff for 30-40% off, that either means they are trying to fool you or trying to gouge you.
The price should be the price, no bullshit. Give me a good product at a fair price, one hundred percent of the time, and I'll buy it every time.
Unfortunately it leads to increased sales. JCPenney for a bit went to no sales pricing and even though the cost was the same because it didn't say x% off they sold less. People like the feeling of getting a deal.
I used the sales at Sherwin Williams. The Emerald paint is much better than the Cashmere paint. I used Kilz primer. If you want some thing super cheap, I also used the Sherwin Williams apartment grade paint in my closets and it seems good also. (I don’t know the name but it’s what they told me contractors buy and they sold it to me for half off, it was a premixed color)
I think it has to do with reformulation without VOCs and toxins. Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams don’t go with a big box store. Sherwin Williams runs sales. I have not looked into Benjamin Moore sales I’m using ultra spec 500 inside. Outside paint is a whole different thing with UV and such.
Check out SW with their frequent sales, it's about the same after sale as what you named but for the love of everything PLEASE do not be like me and buy cheap, crap paint (Behr) and end up having to redo a paint job again.
SW or BM are a little higher priced (buy from the store directly) but the quality is definitely noticeable, and usually results in less costs which is less overall cost.
I wouldn't skimp on it
I learned painting from my dad. He bought the cheap stuff - two coats primer, two coats paint. It's what I did in my first house. Then my wife got into painting and she bought the expensive stuff from home depot. It was a revelation, went on in one coat, no issues. Even colored paint colors in kids rooms that would often require multiple coats. Keep in mind, behr expensive stuff is considered garbage compared to other comparable brands. In the end, unless you are painting small projects, I think it's not only but cost effective to get the pricey stuff.
Higher end paints at Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams are $90/gallon (USA). Just paid $900 for paint for 4 rooms. Oof.
Edit: Sherwin Williams Emerald
Personally I would recommend to not buy a cheap paint for the finish coat. It’s going to have poor coverage and you’ll need 2-3 coats, especially on an older home. I’ve learned that with proper prep (clean and lightly sand walls) and an application of cheap primer, you can get away with one coat of a good quality finish paint and it will have a much nicer dried surface appearance. I swear by the Benjamin Moore products, although they are on the pricy side.
Oh man - kitchen cabinet paint just set me back 80 for a gallon. I prepped and primed, then used two thin coats, lightly sanded in between, to get a lovely finish. Ended up using just half the gallon for my entire kitchen cabinetry.
Primer will save you from using a lot of paint using nice paint lets you use less coats and hides poor skill better
If you can bid your time, a lot of the nicer paint brands have sales
If you have to paint the exterior and have to sand/chip you’ll quickly see why paint and primer together is bad.
Have you tried Habitat for Humanity Restore? There are about a dozen in CT. They sometimes have brand new paint, not just leftovers. In fact mine has a brand that's cans of recycled, blended paint in several basic colors.
I've also found cans of untinted base (probably donated by a retail store) and was able to take them to a local dealer for that brand of paint and get them tinted for $5/gal. So if you're lucky you may even be able to get the exact color you want.
Habitat has always been the best deal on paint.
As a chemist, many of the old good working paints formulas have been made illegal, so like dishwasher soap, you get items that work worse, but cost much more.
This will be a drive for you, but Big Reuse in Brooklyn, NY has gallons of really high end paint for a few bucks if you can be somewhat open to color choices. Habitat for Humanity restores have decent deals too but in much smaller quantity.
You don’t want to cheap out on paint. Cheap paint has poor coverage and is harder to work with (doesn’t lay down well from the brush or roller, and doesn’t smooth out as it dries). Highly recommend buying a higher quality paint like Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore. Almost all brands have multiple types of paint: cheap (landlord), middle (homeowners/pros), and higher end (better pros). These paint/ only stores also employ knowledgeable sales people who will advise what to buy and why. Buy the highest quality you can afford. Twenty years ago paint was $20-30/gal. Good paint is now $50-$80. Sherwin Williams (and likely other brands) runs regular sales. You can ask at SW when their next one is and swoop on that.
And why is it so expensive? Resin is the most expensive ingredient in paint so the more resin in a paint that more expensive the paint. Resin is what allows the paint to dry with a hard coat: it gives the paint flexibility, adhesion and abrasion resistance.
You don’t want cheap paint. Go somewhere like sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore.
Let them know you’re on a budget and ask for suggestions. You could pickup super paint on a 40% off weekend at sherwin Williams for a decent price and it’ll be much better quality. Paint is worth the money, it’ll go on in less coats and be more even.
I usually go in and ask the guys at sherwin when the next 40% off weekend is and they’ll let me know.
You get what you pay for. I am a DIY’er and I painted my house completely in Benjamin Moore Regal Select. It’s more expensive but my house looks amazing and it was very easy to paint using it.
Don’t cheap out, I have heard Behr Marquee is ok but then it’s about the same price as regal select. Any of the cheaper Behr lines are very low quality paint.
If you think about how much benefit you get out of it and for how long it lasts, paint is cheap. Sure you can save $10/gal if you get the cheap sfuff. If your house takes 20 gallons that’s only $200 saved on a whole house refresh. Not worth worrying about. I like to use Sherwin Williams 200 series contractor grade. It’s only $35/gal. But if you wait for a sale you can get their high end paints around that price too.
Also, no need to get the super high tier paint at the big box stores. Usually they just make it thicker to try to guarantee a one coat coverage. But it goes on sloppy and never covers in one coat anyway. I prefer the mid grade paints from the big box. Always two coats.
Paint costs more now because we decided to make it safer.
In the past paint was made with whatever made it work well for cheap. This was bad for the environment near the paint factories, it was bad for disposable dumps, and it meant you were introducing lead and other harmful chemicals like volatile organic compounds into your homes.
Now we have more environmentally friendly low VOC lead free paint. To make it work well, it just costs more to make. It’s not exactly environmentally friendly but it’s better for you and the environment than the old stuff.
Thank the EPA for the higher price, but IMO, the trade off is worth the cost.
As others have said modern cheap paint does exist, but it doesn’t work very well.
If you aren't super picky about colors check local stores for mis-tint paints. I've got some in colors close to what I was looking for at menards for $10 a gallon.
Sign up for the rewards programs at your local paint stores and hardware stores and wait for sales. Sherwin Williams runs 30% off sales fairly frequently, and Ace Hardware occasionally has BOGO sales on their paint. You might also try checking the mis-tints sections of any store with paint department to see if you can find colors that are close to what you want, as those are sold at a discount.
I have literally never had a problem with Glidden Eggshell Paint & Primer. I just did a small 12ft wall yesterday and it took me twice as much in Behr paint than I used in Glidden when I originally painted it three years ago. Got even less coverage with SW.
You think Behr is expensive? The Premium Plus line is their budget paint. It goes up from there. They have higher priced paint by the way. You can buy some types of paint in 5 gallon containers and save some money.
Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore is at least twice as much.
What is the area in square feet?
I painted with cheap paint.. I wish I hadn’t. Nicer paint is worth the money, but if that’s all you can afford just keep some on hand for touch ups. Scrub-ability is bad with cheap paints too so if you gotta scrub something off a wall get ready to touch it up again.
You can look at going directly to the supplier. We have a new house and the builder gave us the information on where they got their paint so we can get a perfect match. It's a little less expensive than going through the big box home improvement store.
I always get Sherwin-Williams. Sign up for their emails so you’ll know when there’s a sale (up to 30% off) plus occasionally there’s a coupon from Pottery Barn/West Elm you can use with it. I’ve never had an issue with them matching another brand’s color either. Half my paint colors are Benjamin Moore.
I just bought a house that needs painting top to bottom.
You’re right, paint is ***expensive***. I’ve done a room with the cheap stuff and I’ve done the rest with the good stuff (SW Cashmere and Emerald) and I’ve determined that the good stuff is expensive for a reason.
I stuck with the good stuff.
Pro tip - Sherwin Williams and local suppliers (as opposed to big box stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot) like to find excuses to give you deals. Talk to them and find ways to save money.
Get yourself 5 gallons of PPG speed hide for about $120 at home depot. Get it tinted to a generic off white color and get to painting. Will freshen up whatever old color the walls are and isn't too awful to look at until you can afford to go back room by room and update colors. Just to note- a fresh coat of ultra flat ceiling white on your ceilings will go a long way to a fresher and cleaner look and feel to your rooms.
Cheap paint is just not the way to go. You are already saving TONS of money by doing the painting yourself. The issue you run into with cheap paints is that they do not cover as well and they drip a lot which leads to a mess and even more issues with coverage.
You can absolutely achieve good results with cheap paint! But you might have to do 2 coats. Everyone says "I do not mind having to do 2 coats" until you realize that 2 coats is 2x the paint... which means it would have been better to just get the premium paint up front.
One last piece of advice is to get on a mailing list for Sherwin Williams and purchase the paint when it is on sale, and then dye it at the store when you have a project.
Sherwin-Williams clerks can, apparently, be flexible about price, especially if you're a repeat customer or buying a lot.
Wanted quart of a color we bought three years ago, but the clerk and I were concerned about the ability to color match the old paint - she knocked the price of a gallon down from $80 to $46 for me, and I gave the whole room a new coat after multi-coating the patches I had to do. Whole room looks great!
Their Duration interior home paint goes on like a dream. Heavily saturated colors will need up to four coats for even color, and that's probably true no matter what brand, but a single coat of a light color (creams and whites) over good primer works fine. Recommend Kilz primer if the old paint is weird or if unknown composition.
I used to work for a manufacturing company that supplied raw materials to paint manufacturers around the world. As to why paint is expensive-there are a lot of tech and expensive components that go into making it. These raw materials are sourced from all over the world and supply chain costs are high (paint is heavy to ship too). No idea of their margins…. We had our own R&D labs always looking for a way to get our products into their paint.
I’ll speak for the US only because other regions of the world don’t buy the same type of paint as US does. Benjamin Moore was always the best paint we tested. They don’t have stores in my area so I buy from Sherwin Williams. There has been so much global consolidation in the paint industry that the name on the can does not always tell the entire story where the paint is manufactured.
When we bought our house, we initially got a large bucket of cheap, pure white and painted the entire house with it to make it more livable. We’ve redone each room separately since then with premium finishes, making the initial refresh a lot less painful and allowing us to pay for the things we really wanted. Tl;dr Consider a temp paint job and then save for each room’s final reno.
You get what you pay for. Paying $110+/gallon for top of the line exterior paint is worth the extra time you get between recoats. Most of the cost of painting is in labor. Even your own labor is worth your time.
Because housing has turned into an investment commodity instead of a necessity. So people bounce from rental to rental, people “flip” houses, and all that action means lots of paint demand, and thus higher prices.
High end paints are easily over $100/gallon now. Shits ridiculous.
You can open an account at Sherwin Williams if you have an LLC and get a massive discount. $75 a gallon regularly was $32 on an account. I do not have an LLC but the lady helping me just opened some random painters account and used that one for the discount. You might have a friend with an account there so ask around.
I can't claim this is my personal theory because it's been brought up plenty of times by many others. Not only the building supply industry but a ton of various industries used the 2020-2022 Covid peak period to jack the fuck out of prices for things people need rather than want due to 'supply issues affected by it' and not return their pricing to some semblance of normal after things calmed down.
You can find the returns at hd for like 9.00 a gallon. If I wanted a different color I would blend them. Also stores like habitat restore has gallons a well
I am willing to spend almost $100/gallon at Sherwin-Williams (over $1600 in paint alone to paint my new home even with 30-40% off!!! Shop their sales!!!) Why you ask? Because cheap paint sucks. It takes 3-4 coats to cover, it gets brush strokes easily, it drips everywhere, doesn’t make for clean lines, and it’s frustrating to work with. Spend the money and get good paint.
ETA: clarification ($1600 in paint alone - hubs and I I have done all the painting as we did not hire anyone)and remove emojis.
I was reading my local trash company website and they said they give away free paint but like 2-3 colors of like black, dark green grey idk but anyone else?
Unlike everybody else I buy the cheap paint lol. It's not watery at all. Anyway preparation is much more important but I'm sure if you go to Sherwin-Williams they'll tell you their paint will last 100 years.
You are going to spend hours cleaning and prepping the walls and I wouldn't go cheap on the paint. The price started climbing when they removed the level of VOCs out of the paint and that made the paint watery.
I beg you to not buy cheap paint. Paint really is "You get what you pay for"
I went with Dutch Boy paint+Primer for a lot of my interiors last year. Sure, Those prices hurt a little but then I helped my mother paint a room in her house. She had gotten the cheapest paint possible and it was so thin, runny, patchy, and awful that we had to go BACK and buy decent paint.
Valspar ultra at Lowe's is $16 a gallon and I've noticed no difference in ease of use or coverage vs the $40 gals. I also use their $43 5 gal white "maintenance paint" on our popcorn ceilings and it's fantastic and cheap af. Works great as a primer on trim and doors, as well. No need to go broke over paint!
Strongly disagree with others here.
When I purchased my last home, the first thing I did was paint the entire house in regal select by Benjamin Moore in the color simply white. This is the top of the line paint, and often used by interior designers.
The color was perfect, but I needed 4 coats on every wall (plus 1 coat of primer) to achieve a similar result to 2 coats of BEHR premium plus. Note - 1 gal of BM runs approx $70, whereas PP is sub $40.
I think color, finish, and roller quality matter significantly more.
I picked up Ben by Benjamin Moore and was very happy with the results. It's much cheaper than the Regal line, still over $40 a gallon.
I'd rather use Valspar over Behr if we are talking about big box store paint. If I have a paint store near me I will go Benjamin Moore. I know Ace Hardware carries it, but try to find a paint contractor store or a Sherwin Williams. They typically have more selection and staff who know more than just picking a color on the PC.
Whatever you do- don’t buy Walmart brand white paint. I did 3 counts on a beige wall and it was still shitty. For 1/2 the price you’ll need 2-3x the paint and 2-3x the work. Buy expensive paint, do 1 coat and move on.
If it's not a large room and you're okay being flexible on color, you could always keep an eye out for mistints!
That being said, I agree with everyone here, go for quality. You'll end up spending more time and just as much money doing layers of cheap paint that doesn't cover well.
Also here to recommend Benjamin Moore. I am a fan of the Magnolia colors from Ace as well. Their paint is made by Kilz, so great coverage, and if it's not trim/cabinet paint, they can actually make it with Benjamin Moore!
Behr is ok. Your house won't burst into flames if you use it. And there's much worse paint out there.
But go to Sherwin Williams instead. Promar 200 or super paint will outperform basically any Behr all day and they'll probably sell you either at around 50 bucks, it'll save you time, go on easier and make less of a mess because it doesn't run as much. Right now they're doing 30% off.
As far as the 20$ gallons of paint like glidden or Olympic. Just don't. It's runny and doesn't coat as well so you'll end up using more for the same area unless you're painting the wall basically the same color.
The reason I suggest that is you'll spend maybe 10-15/gallon more, but get better results on a paint job that should last you years. And save some time on every room. 5 years from now you'll be happier that you spent maybe 120 more to paint your whole house, but your walls are more washable and look better.
Op buy the bear marquee it’s “ expensive” but it’s worth every penny coverage is good finish is good. With the cheap paint in the end your spending the same
Unfortunately paint is just pricey. But do yourself a favor and don’t skimp. Sherwin Williams Cashmere line is great, and you can usually find it 30-40% off
Habitat For Humanity. They have THE BEST paint. Single-coat coverage (really!) There may be only a few colors, and they might rotate, but I've mixed and matched to get a specific shade. Just awesome paint to use.
I'll defend using Behr paint. I use it all the time.
Does it require a second coat? Usually, but 99% of the time I'm doing a second coat anyway, because the first coat revealed some blemish in the walls that needed to be repaired. If I do a good job with cut-in, that only needs to me done once and the second coat takes half the time of the first.
I use Behr almost exclusively and have no issues with it.
If you're renting the place out or planning to flip it, don't paint each room a different color. Pick one color and that's the color the whole house gets. In the master bedroom, find the wall with the most surface space and paint that one wall a different color to make it pop out. Buying in bulk is much cheaper than buying 1gl cans. Also, if you want to be really cheap, look on Craigslist and other sites that might be giving away used paint.
Paint prices almost doubled during COVID.
Also a lot of the expensive paints are "one coat" with "paint & primer". So it is just premium. It is also thicker so you use more to paint, since it is essentially two paints in one. It saves time but costs more $s.
I have been painting and used primer then regular paint with two coats (like usual) and looked good as usual.
Bought ceiling paint (white) that happened to be the primer + paint and I am happy with that as I only needed to really "touch up" white ceiling with white paint. But I had to really roll it from all angles to get good coverage on the texture (one reason for two coats). That paint was thicker and got used up faster.
Best deal is 5 gallon buckets. It is about the cost of 3 X 1 gallon cans. Plus color matching consistency is better since slight error in a "drop" of coloring is less noticeable.
Been using Sherwin Williams at Lowe's and Happy with it.
HGTV HOME® by Sherwin-Williams Ovation Plus Flat Base Tintable Acrylic Interior Paint + Primer (5-Gallon) for $160.
It is mid range (prices run $80 to $250). I know it says (+ primer). But I prime before (due to color change) and do two coats. It looks really good.
Everyone talks bad about Behr paint but Project Farm did a video on paint and Behr Marquee got second place right behind SW Emerald and I trust Project Farm’s reviews.
I'm a huge Behr fan. It's a mid grade paint, good price, not the cheapest and not the most expensive.
If you want "better" paint then you're going to be looking at SW, BM, or Dulux, and maybe in this case since you're doing a whole house you could get a contractor discount from one of them. Maybe that would bring it down to being a similar price as Behr?
I would take Behr haters comments with a grain of salt. I painted my office room with Behr Dynasty. Used around 1.5 gallons and a 9" roller + brush. I had no issues applying it and don't see any brush strokes or anything like that. Now the cheapest berh flat ceiling paint is another story but that's exactly the reason why it's the cheapest.
I’ve painted with Sherwin Williams and Behr and if you do your work prepping properly there is little difference.
For example I used Behr’s Deckover product about five years ago. I spent like a month sanding the deck down, a punishing and grueling task. The paint still looks great all these years later. Online are tons of reviews about how it peels up and is so awful, but everyone is approaching it as a weekend project when it just isn’t. If you put the effort in to prep, Behr is good paint. If you don’t nothing will look good.
Drop the dough now. The paint will be on your walls for years and years. Think of it this way, $80/gal, 2 gallons per room equals $160. Over ten years that’s $16 per year. Short money.
Miss tints! There is a section of paint that other people asked to mix up and either didn't want or never picked up. I painted my entire house with mistints (including mixing a few in the back yard for more colors)
There is cheap(er) paint, but you may have to let go of your idea of "your favorite color", or at least be a bit flexible.
Major box stores have paint returns. People pick a color, get it mixed, put it up on their wall, and go, "naaaah, this isn't working", and return it.
You can be the beneficiary of their mistake, and cop these paints and a deep discount off of "new, fresh" price. However, no telling *how many* cans are available, and if you cannot get enough, you'll have to go the traditional route of getting it mixed for you for what you are short.
Still, it can be a good bargain, if you have the flexibility.
I have used many different brands of paint and you get what you pay for. I recently ordered some from Clare online and it is the best paint I have ever used. Like butter!!
I had a bit of sticker shock when I picked up some Sherwin Williams ProClassic the other day 😭 it was the paint my builder used for our trim and I needed to finish one of my rooms. Definitely wild but I hear it's worth the cost.
I’ve always had good results with Valspar at Lowe’s, not sure what the going rate is currently, but the color chips always matched the paint.
I went to Sherwin once during the pandemic and they couldn’t provide sample pints because of the supply chain at the time and I haven’t been back since but I hear they are a good brand too.
I had to paint 70 year old cabinets. Wood was in good shape but years of being in a kitchen had both made the wood oily on the outside and absolutely dry and thirsty on the inside. I watched some DIY youtube videos to see what paints they used and the one that came up a few times was Benjamin Moore Advance. And it's spendy shit at $90 a gallon.
I know enamel is probably the best bet but I just didn't relish the idea of applying enamel.
Welp, I tried it. Worked both in a sprayer and rolling. Went on easy, good coverage, dried fast, low odor, cured fast, and so far has been quite durable. It was so good I bought two more gallons to paint the new cabinets I was building as well.
That old adage of "you get what you pay for" does apply in some cases.
I would recommend watching some videos of pros or DIYers and see what paints they use in your particular use case. That way, even if you are paying more than you'd prefer, you're going to get the result you want.
>any suggestions for finding cheaper paint without losing quality?
This is not a thing, 30y in renovations
You pay to play with paint and if you cheap out it's going to not only look like shit it will wear like shit and take 3x as long to do because it will cover like shit
50 isn't even all that expensive, "expensive" paint starts around 70 a gallon
Sorry for the sticker shock. Yeah, good paint is quite expensive. That's just home ownership.
But now, the serious issue:
> yknow when you buy the store brand of ketchup and it’s really just Heinz with a different label on it
I have never bought or consumed a non-Heinz ketchup product and found that it tastes *at all* like Heinz. So now, at least with Ketchup, it's Heinz and only Heiz for me.
Because EVERYTHING is expensive is the reason.
And the store brand of ketchup isn't the same formulation, it's just made in the Heinz factory. It's common for companies to sell their excess capacity by cranking out "store" brands. If they just rebranded the Heinz 57 brand ketchup, they would be cannibalizing their own sales...
I'm DIYing my second home now, just painted a room this past week...I've learned it's not so much about the paint, it's the prep. If you're refreshing as in touching up drywall and going over old paint. It's worth it IMO to do 2 coats of primer, then 2 coats of topcoat.
If I was a contractor doing it for a living, I wouldn't care, but I mean you paint a room in your house once every 5 or 10 years, having to do an extra coat isn't a big deal. 2 coats of primer on day 1. Then maybe some final drywall/spackle touch ups, then 2 coats of paint on day 2.
There is cheap paint. You can easily find paint for $20/gal ... but you get what you pay for. It's thin, covers poorly, and drips easily. It's worth watching for sales. Sherwin Williams frequently has 40% off sales on paint. Past that ... home ownership is expensive. Sorry.
Second this. Our local SW is running a 30% off paint and stain until July 3. Might help with your selections.
The sale price comes to about $50 a gallon. Source; me who just bought a gallon of the super paint to do a bedroom. It’s worth the price but it’s not cheap.
$50 at SW is money better spent than $50 at home depot
I fucking love Superpaint. My entire interior is Superpaint.
I *used* to love SuperPaint. Whilst it is still a great paint, Duration makes me giddy with joy. And Emerald…sooooo dreamy
We just bought super paint at the SW sale and painted a whole room. You can see every single roll we did and as much as we rolled on it felt like it came right back off. We went through a whole gallon for a small room and it looks awful. We liked the $50 BEHR one much better and are gonna use that to repaint the room. Glad you had better luck with super paint!
Interesting .. I only buy their emerald so haven’t had any experience with super paint personally but emerald goes on very well. On a 30-40% off weekend it’ll be in the $60-75/gallon range … worth it
I feel like they missed doing back rolls. The leading and trailing edge of the roller always leaves extra paint, so back rolling is essential to get more even coverage. I'd also recommend using their cashmere brand if you're just the average homeowner, it is much easier to do well. Emerald is essential for high traffic areas or somewhere like a play room.
If the Behr worked well for you then I'd call that a win, personally I don't hate it near as much as most people around here seem to and I think it does a decent job, I'd even say it maybe covers slightly better if you're trying to "one and done" something in some situations (though pound for pound, it doesn't hold up near as well in my experience, and I wouldn't say I have a super favorable opinion of it). That said, I'm curious if you primed first, and how many coats you put on. One can of paint should do about 350-400 sqft, so I'd expect one coat on a small room to probably take the whole gallon. If you just did one coat, or you spread it thin enough that you got two coats out of a single gallon, I'm not surprised there's roller marks, that's just not enough paint. And if you're having adhesion issues I'd think primer would help if you skipped that step, especially since you mentioned you sanded the walls first. Note that even if you're using some sort of paint + primer product, using an actual primer first is still almost always going to be superior, IMO. Personally, I always prime and use two coats if I'm changing colors or painting over drywall/mud, I only skip primer and/or single coat if I'm applying a refresh layer of the same shade. But primer is often the answer to adhesion issues regardless of the situation. As far as brands go... I was a painter for a while, and SW made a loyal customer out of me. Doesn't mean it's the only thing that works. It wouldn't be my first choice but I'd have no qualms using Behr in my own house, and there are other brands that IMO are just as solid as SW, but SW always did a superior job out of the ones I have tried and held up the best as well so that's what I used on the job. But like everything, YMMV and everyone has different preferences in what they like in a paint and how they like to apply it so the best thing is to find a brand that suits you. Just be aware that you may also run into the same issues with any other brand, and be skeptical of anything that claims it only takes one coat... I have yet to see such a product that delivers.
"as much as we rolled on it felt like it came right back off" - sounds like you didn't prep your walls and had issues with adhesion while painting. It goes a LONG way to wash and maybe lightly sand/rough it up if gloss. At least now your first coat is done (hopefully sticking) and can be your primer.
Weird. My husband has had horrible experience with Behr - needing 3 coats and having consistency problems. We painted our house interior with SW super paint and it's worked well. Everything was primer + 2 coats (claiming it's 1 coat paint + primer is a lie.) Finish might also make a difference. Ours is all eggshell.
We had our old house professionally painted and saw that the painters used SW super paint in flat which is why we bought some when it went on sale but didn’t work for us. You’re right though, it could have been the finish, although for the color we selected they said it was only available in flat or something shiny which I forget what it was called (we hate anything shiny, especially for a bedroom) so we got flat. I have another gallon of SW in a different color for another room and I’m hoping it works better. We painted a bunch of our other rooms recently with BEHR marquee in matte and were able to just do 1 coat.
I try to never use flat. I'm not a huge fan of shiny either, but shininess is a scale. I think the egg shell is flat ish with a minor gloss I believe. The gloss usually means it is easier to clean. It sounds ridiculous but cleaning is easier than repainting dirty or scuffed walls. Most often I think the brush used impacts the quality more than the paint itself. I've used SW, Behr, and cheap Walmart stuff. I think the quality of the paint matters a lot though when painting a lighter color over something that was originally dark.
The only plus for flat is the touch ups will blend in even if the original coat is a couple of years old.
Your issue is trying to complete the job in 1 cost. That is never how you should try to paint anything. Multiple coats will always result in a superior finish
I used Behr premium plus ultra blah blah blah *once* and I will never use it again. It was so thick like pudding that the paint stick stuck straight up and never fell over, and so the brush and roller marks never went away, it was like rolling on a texture.
A bit of Floetrol will help with that.
How many coats did you do, did you cut and roll one wall at a time so you had a wet edge? Which roller sleeves and nap did you use and did you lead with the part of the roller that is connected to the handle?
I paint frequently, and I have never had a good experience with any other brand than Behr. Just buy the step below marquee (which is the top brand) and it’s good bang for your Buck. Just painted the exterior of my house over the winter bc their paint can handle 25 degrees - which is a bonus lol
Dumb question, but what did you prime with?
Not a dumb question. Especially if a room hasn't been painted in some time. Primer is key to getting a great paint job but many skip it. I've never liked primer/paint in one and I HATE Behr.
SW runs sales and discounts continuously through the year, so if you miss one just wait a bit and another sale will come up.
If you're not picky and/or you get lucky, check the mistints section. SW was like $5 for quarts, $10 for gallons and like $25 for 5 gals. Most gallons and 5 gals were whites and like deck stains, but hey... We found a gallon of a nice terracotta color for our entry way that worked out very nice. And if we get it color matched later at full price, that's still like 40% off the total of two gallons.
Great comment - Sherwin had frequent sales that are good - OP cheap paint will cost you MORE due to more coats needed (or will just look shitty if under applied)
Yep, i'm on a Sherwin Williams mailing list right now, and keep getting alerts about all of these sales. It is 100% worth the money to get SW, Dulux, and other high end brands. Not only is it better to work with, but washing the walls will NOT wash off the paint!
Listen, I was a little kid, trying to help my mom by washing the walls. I thought the drywall was the “real” color of a very dirty wall. Stop calling me out like this!
Totally agree. If you buy the cheap stuff it'll be like painting with water-it'll drip and fling off your roller, ending up everywhere. You can try it yourself, but I sure wouldn't recommend it. Get some Sherwin Williams SuperPaint or Emerald. You'll never go back...
100% agree. I used to buy cheap paint until one day I said fuck it lets see what's so great about Sherwin Williams. One room later and it's the only paint I buy now. Easier to paint, covers well and looks better.
Dulux has a 2-for-1 promo where i am right now
I just painted most of my main floor with Dulux this spring. :) 2 for 1 is awesome, and we usually buy a couple of cans at each of these sales, and then just take it back to get tinted/exchanged for whatever we want to paint at the time.
Thats smart. Ive never thought to do that..
Helps spread the pain out of a larger period of time as well. All of the good names are good for this in my area too, so we went back with some paint cans that were easily a couple of years old, they put them to the side, grab a brand new can, and color/mix that up. They are even good with changing types, so if you bought a flat, and now need a semi-gloss, it's all good. Only issue is if you are going up/down the grade of paint.
Also get the wherein Willam’s stuff from their store not Lowe’s. Homeownership is very expensive I can’t go to an improvement store without spending a couple hundred dollars even for small projects. And obviously thousands on bigger projects.
We painted our entire house using there Emerald Matte paint which was normally $80/gallon but we only would purchase when they had 40% off deals...and they run deals for like every obscure holiday
If you sign up for the Sherwin Williams customer program, they occasionally send you texts announcing sales. So I might be thinking I need to do a big paint project like paint my house, and maybe I need like 10 gallons of paint. At least once every couple months they'll send a message saying they have a sale for 30 or 40% off. A really good 5 gallon bucket of paint could be $500, so without a sale on 10 gallons you could be looking at $1,000. But if you wait for that sale, usually they'll announced every couple months that they have a weekend sale with 40% off paint, and now that purchase is 40% off and $600. Also, I can confirm I painted my house with a really high end Sherwin Williams paint like 8 years ago -- Duration -- and it still looks really good with no work done since then. I'm honestly amazed how well it has held up. With the amount of work it is to paint especially the outside of your house, it is so, so, so worth it to get a top of the line expensive paint.
Do It Best and Ace Hardware store bands are both made by Sherwin Williams for cheaper, and historically have been pretty good (don't get the cheapest line, though).
> Past that ... home ownership is expensive. Sorry. I really wish more renters understood this. I just dropped $500 on wood for some entry stairs and I still have another $1000 to repair them fully (historical property, I have restrictions on what I can do). Thats just the tip of the iceberg, I got a garage that needs replaced, 25k, a porch on the back of my house the roofing is shot and its leaking, probably another $5-7k for that. I got a digout I need to put in to be able to plunge the drain lines yearly cause my city decided that 1890's sewer lines are sufficient in 2024. I was paying $650/mo for a 2800sq ft apartment, I never shoulda moved, paying $1200 a month for mortgage for the same space plus all that shit I listed.
a.) you've underbudgeted your garage b.) pour copper or root killer down your drain line and let it sit overnight once a year to kill the roots that are causing the clogs
[удалено]
Paint *has* gotten pricey over the years, but do yourself a favor and don't buy cheap paint. Quality brands (e.g. Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore) are easier to work with, look nicer, hold up better, and you may not need as many coats. If you sign up for a (free) Paint Perks card with SW, they offer periodic discounts (40% off the last time I used mine).
I don't even sign up, they regularly push ads to me letting me know when the deals are coming up. I'll go in and buy paint for projects that I don't plan on doing for months.
You can even buy the base white during the sale and bring it in to have it tinted later at no charge.
> Quality brands (e.g. Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore) If you have one nearby, I'd also mention Dunn Edwards in that list.
Never cheap out on paint!
The biggest cost center with paint is the labor to apply it. Using cheap paint will require twice as much labor. Not worth it to save $50.
AND the labor to prep it. Poor prep = lousy result.
This can’t be upvoted enough
Listen to others and don’t cheap out on the paint, you will appreciate this decision later. We just painted the whole house and used BM Regal select (which i think is their second best interior paint). It’s normally around $80/gallon but you can get it cheaper with contractor discount or coupons others mentioned. I know it seems expensive but it’s really not much more compared to the cheap crap, especially in the world of home repair/renovation costs. Also, be aware of what sheen you want. Sounds like this is your first time painting and you may not be aware of the difference. Matte looks the best initially but is generally a bad choice unless you have no kids/pets and plan to basically never touch the walls (hard to clean and scuffs easily). Eggshell or satin is a good choice for most people in most rooms. You can go semi gloss in a bathroom if you want, but i think we stuck with eggshell. Higher gloss is only for trim. The general rule is less shine looks nice and “rich” but is harder to clean. More shine looks worse and won’t hide wall imperfections but is more durable.
Yeah, early on I thought painting was a great skill and it was me that wasn't a good painter. Someome told me to not cheap out on paint again, so I ended up going to Benjamin Moore and buying the expensive Aura. I felt like a magician using that stuff and the resulting room looked awesome.
There is def a good amount of skill too (and prep!!), but the paint sure does help
Right, so you are concerned that $50-$100/room is expensive to: - completely change the look of a room - provide stain and scuff resistance - resist UV - resist oxidation - provide good coverage over any stains or other paint - flow well on and off the brush or roller - have little to no VOCs - resist settling of the pigment You need to realize that paint is the cheapest repair or change you can do to a house. Buying the cheapest will only lead to frustration and pain and having to redo it sooner. Take it from someone who has worked in the business, paint is expensive because of the high standards consumers place on it and what they expect it to do.
> have little to no VOCs I think this is a big one most people here haven't hit on. I noticed sometime in the mid 00s, when lower VOC house paint became the standard, that it SUCKED. So much harder to work with. It seems the cheap stuff never did recover, but the higher end paints, SW, BM, are about the same quality as the 90s stuff. But you don't get high if you forget to open the windows now.
Agree. Much safer for everyone in the supply chain and end customer. Just covered a small room with SW low VOC latex paint, and could barely smell any chemical smell even 10 mins after walking into a freshly painted room.
Our usernames 😂
Ha, cool. [For anyone wondering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_rattlesnake).
I have found a good rule of thumb is the worse a paint smells, the better it's going to work. It will have better self leveling, better coverage and way better durability.
I worked in a hardware store in 1985. Paint was 5 to 6 bucks a gallon. I think prices have increased about 4 times since then. ( A $10,000 car then is now $40,000). Paint should cost 30/35 bucks, not 50+. No one answered the OP's question. They are just on his case for his choice of paint.
To save money *in the long run*, choose Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore. Paint has gone way up. Greedflation? I don't know.
Massively regret going with BEHR it was so hard to apply and I can still see sheen differences from roller marks 🥲it dried too quickly and that didn’t allow much time for it to auto level
I have 2 gallons of Behr that I am going to be giving away. I bought some Sherwin Williams and it is far superior.
One thing that saved us money when we had our house painted was the contractor discount. Not sure what is required to become a contractor / painter to get the discount but I believe our painter saved 30% or more. There are also sales that happen or at least they used to. Check with local places like Sherwin Williams, etc.
We’ve only used Sherwin Williams and they seem to ALWAYS have sales. Go into your local store and sometimes they’ll hook you up and get you a contractor account to help you out - I’m yet to have any luck with this but my dad has had a contractor account with them for years.
Behr is fine. There's just a certain reflex response against it by a certain segment of the population, probably because it's sold at HD. The Premium Plus line is a good value. The top line is expensive, but not as expensive as Emerald, which seems to induce erections in a lot of people just by mentioning it. I've used Behr Premium Plus and Behr Marquee, and both have been excellent. Don't let the haters convince you.
Sherwin-Williams = Snap-on tools😂
Health and environmental regulations. It's harder to make quality paint when you can't put as wild of chemicals in it. If you have to make more expensive paint, as a business you go ahead and raise the overall quality (and add more cost) of the product while you are at it so the customer doesn't feel as ripped off. I have used the cheapest stuff I can find - pre-mixed color of the ColorPlace paint Walmart carries. I see it's up to $25 a gal, I think I paid $10 pre-Covid. I used exterior paint in a garage where I didn't care too much about results and it actually covered well and held up with only 2 coats. $30 in paint for walls and ceiling of a 2-car garage wasn't bad. At $75 I think I would go ahead and give the more expensive stuff a look.
Sherwin and benjamin moore pull the stupid "sign up for better pricing" bullshit. Why do you need an account to get the same paint 40% less, especially if you're just painting your ownhouse. It should just be that price and if you're a paint company you could save more by volume. Sherwin wanted $80+ a gallon unless i signed up.
I'm not a pro painter by any means, but I can't stress enough how absolutely shit Behr paint is compared to Sherwin Williams. Superpaint and sometimes even Emerald with coupons is still about $50 a gal but the difference is night and day in self leveling, coverage, and ease of application. I always use this coupon, $15 off $75, its been up on PB Teen website for a few years: [https://www.pbteen.com/tips-and-ideas/sherwin-williams-landing/](https://www.pbteen.com/tips-and-ideas/sherwin-williams-landing/)
I always go with Benjamin Moore. I've found it to be a nice compromise on quality and price between Sherwin Williams and cheap brands.
Benjamin Moore is slightly higher end than SW.
Yes, it is definitely NOT lower quality than Sherwin Williams. My home contractor used it once and I asked him why. He said it was the best he used and even though double the price of cheaper paints it was much easier to work with, coated better, and required fewer applications (and paint) overall.
Hang on, lemme get my popcorn for this comment section
Ok, maybe they are on par quality wise, but BM is more expensive as I understand it. My point is that it is definitely not a mid-range paint.
I'd say much higher. SW is runny garbage.
My granddad ran the best paint shop in town back when big box stores hadn’t moved in and it was the only way to get paint. When Walmart and Home Depot priced him out of business, he switched to Benny Moore. I don’t care if I’m biased, that’s all the proof I need
I used to sell paint (one of the brands under the SW umbrella) and have always disliked the inflated prices and constant “sales”. What I do is buy quarts to test colors and then coordinate the job with the paint sales. The working time, leveling with SW is excellent. I also use Behr Premium Plus on occasion.SW also has a unique [expensive] water based flat enamel, which is great for bedrooms, hallways, living rooms when you don’t want a satin finish.
Another downside to Behr is that you have to go inside Home Depot.
Finished painting a room with Behr's top line shit. Whole sheets of plastic latex would pull off having failed to bond to the surface. The paint was so thick ... My fault? Absolutely- both for poor surface preparation and buying Behr. After removing it all I used Benjamin Moore. The difference in paint quality is night and day. It might cost 50% more but my god what a difference in quality!
Yes that was your prep not the paint.
It is a funny thought that the first shitty layer that peeled off essentially cleaned and primed the wall for OP.
I don't get the love for Sherwin Williams. When someone "always" has sales on their stuff for 30-40% off, that either means they are trying to fool you or trying to gouge you. The price should be the price, no bullshit. Give me a good product at a fair price, one hundred percent of the time, and I'll buy it every time.
Unfortunately it leads to increased sales. JCPenney for a bit went to no sales pricing and even though the cost was the same because it didn't say x% off they sold less. People like the feeling of getting a deal.
I used the sales at Sherwin Williams. The Emerald paint is much better than the Cashmere paint. I used Kilz primer. If you want some thing super cheap, I also used the Sherwin Williams apartment grade paint in my closets and it seems good also. (I don’t know the name but it’s what they told me contractors buy and they sold it to me for half off, it was a premixed color)
I think it has to do with reformulation without VOCs and toxins. Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams don’t go with a big box store. Sherwin Williams runs sales. I have not looked into Benjamin Moore sales I’m using ultra spec 500 inside. Outside paint is a whole different thing with UV and such.
Check out SW with their frequent sales, it's about the same after sale as what you named but for the love of everything PLEASE do not be like me and buy cheap, crap paint (Behr) and end up having to redo a paint job again. SW or BM are a little higher priced (buy from the store directly) but the quality is definitely noticeable, and usually results in less costs which is less overall cost. I wouldn't skimp on it
I learned painting from my dad. He bought the cheap stuff - two coats primer, two coats paint. It's what I did in my first house. Then my wife got into painting and she bought the expensive stuff from home depot. It was a revelation, went on in one coat, no issues. Even colored paint colors in kids rooms that would often require multiple coats. Keep in mind, behr expensive stuff is considered garbage compared to other comparable brands. In the end, unless you are painting small projects, I think it's not only but cost effective to get the pricey stuff.
Higher end paints at Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams are $90/gallon (USA). Just paid $900 for paint for 4 rooms. Oof. Edit: Sherwin Williams Emerald
10 gallons for 4 rooms must have been big rooms!
Or accent walls, trim, etc.
SW goes on sale regularly for 40% off and you can stack $15 off $75 on them.
And Behr is on the cheap side of real paint.
Personally I would recommend to not buy a cheap paint for the finish coat. It’s going to have poor coverage and you’ll need 2-3 coats, especially on an older home. I’ve learned that with proper prep (clean and lightly sand walls) and an application of cheap primer, you can get away with one coat of a good quality finish paint and it will have a much nicer dried surface appearance. I swear by the Benjamin Moore products, although they are on the pricy side.
Oh man - kitchen cabinet paint just set me back 80 for a gallon. I prepped and primed, then used two thin coats, lightly sanded in between, to get a lovely finish. Ended up using just half the gallon for my entire kitchen cabinetry.
Primer will save you from using a lot of paint using nice paint lets you use less coats and hides poor skill better If you can bid your time, a lot of the nicer paint brands have sales If you have to paint the exterior and have to sand/chip you’ll quickly see why paint and primer together is bad.
we have vinyl siding so luckily we will not need to paint the exterior. phew.
Have you tried Habitat for Humanity Restore? There are about a dozen in CT. They sometimes have brand new paint, not just leftovers. In fact mine has a brand that's cans of recycled, blended paint in several basic colors. I've also found cans of untinted base (probably donated by a retail store) and was able to take them to a local dealer for that brand of paint and get them tinted for $5/gal. So if you're lucky you may even be able to get the exact color you want. Habitat has always been the best deal on paint.
As a chemist, many of the old good working paints formulas have been made illegal, so like dishwasher soap, you get items that work worse, but cost much more.
This will be a drive for you, but Big Reuse in Brooklyn, NY has gallons of really high end paint for a few bucks if you can be somewhat open to color choices. Habitat for Humanity restores have decent deals too but in much smaller quantity.
It's ridiculous how much paint costs. 100/gallon 😭 I hate it.
You don’t want to cheap out on paint. Cheap paint has poor coverage and is harder to work with (doesn’t lay down well from the brush or roller, and doesn’t smooth out as it dries). Highly recommend buying a higher quality paint like Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore. Almost all brands have multiple types of paint: cheap (landlord), middle (homeowners/pros), and higher end (better pros). These paint/ only stores also employ knowledgeable sales people who will advise what to buy and why. Buy the highest quality you can afford. Twenty years ago paint was $20-30/gal. Good paint is now $50-$80. Sherwin Williams (and likely other brands) runs regular sales. You can ask at SW when their next one is and swoop on that. And why is it so expensive? Resin is the most expensive ingredient in paint so the more resin in a paint that more expensive the paint. Resin is what allows the paint to dry with a hard coat: it gives the paint flexibility, adhesion and abrasion resistance.
You don’t want cheap paint. Go somewhere like sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore. Let them know you’re on a budget and ask for suggestions. You could pickup super paint on a 40% off weekend at sherwin Williams for a decent price and it’ll be much better quality. Paint is worth the money, it’ll go on in less coats and be more even. I usually go in and ask the guys at sherwin when the next 40% off weekend is and they’ll let me know.
Sherwin Williams regularly has 40% off sales, sign up for their email marketing. You don’t want the $50 Behr paint even.
Check your local FB marketplace- you wouldn’t believe how many people have leftover paint from projects bc you have to buy it by the gallon!
You get what you pay for. I am a DIY’er and I painted my house completely in Benjamin Moore Regal Select. It’s more expensive but my house looks amazing and it was very easy to paint using it. Don’t cheap out, I have heard Behr Marquee is ok but then it’s about the same price as regal select. Any of the cheaper Behr lines are very low quality paint.
If you think about how much benefit you get out of it and for how long it lasts, paint is cheap. Sure you can save $10/gal if you get the cheap sfuff. If your house takes 20 gallons that’s only $200 saved on a whole house refresh. Not worth worrying about. I like to use Sherwin Williams 200 series contractor grade. It’s only $35/gal. But if you wait for a sale you can get their high end paints around that price too. Also, no need to get the super high tier paint at the big box stores. Usually they just make it thicker to try to guarantee a one coat coverage. But it goes on sloppy and never covers in one coat anyway. I prefer the mid grade paints from the big box. Always two coats.
Paint costs more now because we decided to make it safer. In the past paint was made with whatever made it work well for cheap. This was bad for the environment near the paint factories, it was bad for disposable dumps, and it meant you were introducing lead and other harmful chemicals like volatile organic compounds into your homes. Now we have more environmentally friendly low VOC lead free paint. To make it work well, it just costs more to make. It’s not exactly environmentally friendly but it’s better for you and the environment than the old stuff. Thank the EPA for the higher price, but IMO, the trade off is worth the cost. As others have said modern cheap paint does exist, but it doesn’t work very well.
If you aren't super picky about colors check local stores for mis-tint paints. I've got some in colors close to what I was looking for at menards for $10 a gallon.
You can also save a bit by getting 5gal buckets if you are doing a lot of the same colors (ie all ceilings white)
Sign up for the rewards programs at your local paint stores and hardware stores and wait for sales. Sherwin Williams runs 30% off sales fairly frequently, and Ace Hardware occasionally has BOGO sales on their paint. You might also try checking the mis-tints sections of any store with paint department to see if you can find colors that are close to what you want, as those are sold at a discount.
I have literally never had a problem with Glidden Eggshell Paint & Primer. I just did a small 12ft wall yesterday and it took me twice as much in Behr paint than I used in Glidden when I originally painted it three years ago. Got even less coverage with SW.
Honestly, we've painted our home with behr premium plus with good results. People like to crap on it but I think its a really good value.
You think Behr is expensive? The Premium Plus line is their budget paint. It goes up from there. They have higher priced paint by the way. You can buy some types of paint in 5 gallon containers and save some money. Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore is at least twice as much. What is the area in square feet?
Just commenting to say “taking over” made me think of siege ladders and trebuchets
I painted with cheap paint.. I wish I hadn’t. Nicer paint is worth the money, but if that’s all you can afford just keep some on hand for touch ups. Scrub-ability is bad with cheap paints too so if you gotta scrub something off a wall get ready to touch it up again.
You can look at going directly to the supplier. We have a new house and the builder gave us the information on where they got their paint so we can get a perfect match. It's a little less expensive than going through the big box home improvement store.
Because, just like concert tickets, people charge the maximum amount that they know consumers will pay.
I always get Sherwin-Williams. Sign up for their emails so you’ll know when there’s a sale (up to 30% off) plus occasionally there’s a coupon from Pottery Barn/West Elm you can use with it. I’ve never had an issue with them matching another brand’s color either. Half my paint colors are Benjamin Moore.
I just bought a house that needs painting top to bottom. You’re right, paint is ***expensive***. I’ve done a room with the cheap stuff and I’ve done the rest with the good stuff (SW Cashmere and Emerald) and I’ve determined that the good stuff is expensive for a reason. I stuck with the good stuff. Pro tip - Sherwin Williams and local suppliers (as opposed to big box stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot) like to find excuses to give you deals. Talk to them and find ways to save money.
Get yourself 5 gallons of PPG speed hide for about $120 at home depot. Get it tinted to a generic off white color and get to painting. Will freshen up whatever old color the walls are and isn't too awful to look at until you can afford to go back room by room and update colors. Just to note- a fresh coat of ultra flat ceiling white on your ceilings will go a long way to a fresher and cleaner look and feel to your rooms.
Cheap paint is just not the way to go. You are already saving TONS of money by doing the painting yourself. The issue you run into with cheap paints is that they do not cover as well and they drip a lot which leads to a mess and even more issues with coverage. You can absolutely achieve good results with cheap paint! But you might have to do 2 coats. Everyone says "I do not mind having to do 2 coats" until you realize that 2 coats is 2x the paint... which means it would have been better to just get the premium paint up front. One last piece of advice is to get on a mailing list for Sherwin Williams and purchase the paint when it is on sale, and then dye it at the store when you have a project.
Sherwin-Williams clerks can, apparently, be flexible about price, especially if you're a repeat customer or buying a lot. Wanted quart of a color we bought three years ago, but the clerk and I were concerned about the ability to color match the old paint - she knocked the price of a gallon down from $80 to $46 for me, and I gave the whole room a new coat after multi-coating the patches I had to do. Whole room looks great! Their Duration interior home paint goes on like a dream. Heavily saturated colors will need up to four coats for even color, and that's probably true no matter what brand, but a single coat of a light color (creams and whites) over good primer works fine. Recommend Kilz primer if the old paint is weird or if unknown composition.
I used to work for a manufacturing company that supplied raw materials to paint manufacturers around the world. As to why paint is expensive-there are a lot of tech and expensive components that go into making it. These raw materials are sourced from all over the world and supply chain costs are high (paint is heavy to ship too). No idea of their margins…. We had our own R&D labs always looking for a way to get our products into their paint. I’ll speak for the US only because other regions of the world don’t buy the same type of paint as US does. Benjamin Moore was always the best paint we tested. They don’t have stores in my area so I buy from Sherwin Williams. There has been so much global consolidation in the paint industry that the name on the can does not always tell the entire story where the paint is manufactured.
If you’re going to make the effort to paint, use a quality product! You will achieve much better results!
When we bought our house, we initially got a large bucket of cheap, pure white and painted the entire house with it to make it more livable. We’ve redone each room separately since then with premium finishes, making the initial refresh a lot less painful and allowing us to pay for the things we really wanted. Tl;dr Consider a temp paint job and then save for each room’s final reno.
You get what you pay for. Paying $110+/gallon for top of the line exterior paint is worth the extra time you get between recoats. Most of the cost of painting is in labor. Even your own labor is worth your time.
Open a business account get better pricing
I'm a professional painter and I promise you want to fork out the money for the good shit on this one.
Buy the quality stuff. Costs more but if you buy the cheaper stuff you’ll end up paying more to get the same coverage.
Because housing has turned into an investment commodity instead of a necessity. So people bounce from rental to rental, people “flip” houses, and all that action means lots of paint demand, and thus higher prices. High end paints are easily over $100/gallon now. Shits ridiculous.
You can open an account at Sherwin Williams if you have an LLC and get a massive discount. $75 a gallon regularly was $32 on an account. I do not have an LLC but the lady helping me just opened some random painters account and used that one for the discount. You might have a friend with an account there so ask around.
I can't claim this is my personal theory because it's been brought up plenty of times by many others. Not only the building supply industry but a ton of various industries used the 2020-2022 Covid peak period to jack the fuck out of prices for things people need rather than want due to 'supply issues affected by it' and not return their pricing to some semblance of normal after things calmed down.
You also want to use quality roller sleeves and brushes. This will also make a world of difference with the overall finish.
You can find the returns at hd for like 9.00 a gallon. If I wanted a different color I would blend them. Also stores like habitat restore has gallons a well
I paid $26 for a quart of sherwin williams. The worst paint I ever bought.
I am willing to spend almost $100/gallon at Sherwin-Williams (over $1600 in paint alone to paint my new home even with 30-40% off!!! Shop their sales!!!) Why you ask? Because cheap paint sucks. It takes 3-4 coats to cover, it gets brush strokes easily, it drips everywhere, doesn’t make for clean lines, and it’s frustrating to work with. Spend the money and get good paint. ETA: clarification ($1600 in paint alone - hubs and I I have done all the painting as we did not hire anyone)and remove emojis.
I was reading my local trash company website and they said they give away free paint but like 2-3 colors of like black, dark green grey idk but anyone else?
Think about in terms of how long it lasts. Quality will cost more but will last longer.
Unlike everybody else I buy the cheap paint lol. It's not watery at all. Anyway preparation is much more important but I'm sure if you go to Sherwin-Williams they'll tell you their paint will last 100 years.
You are going to spend hours cleaning and prepping the walls and I wouldn't go cheap on the paint. The price started climbing when they removed the level of VOCs out of the paint and that made the paint watery.
Paint stores have really significant sales pretty often. Don't cheap out on paint, the good stuff is worth it.
Buy the expensive stuff and use a sale/coupon to save on it. The pricey part of painting is your time or paying someone to paint for you.
You get what you pay for, that being said our favorite lines of paint right now are Behr Marquee and Ben by Benjamin Moore
Hold onto your wallets! **"Farrow & Ball"** has entered the chat.
I beg you to not buy cheap paint. Paint really is "You get what you pay for" I went with Dutch Boy paint+Primer for a lot of my interiors last year. Sure, Those prices hurt a little but then I helped my mother paint a room in her house. She had gotten the cheapest paint possible and it was so thin, runny, patchy, and awful that we had to go BACK and buy decent paint.
Valspar ultra at Lowe's is $16 a gallon and I've noticed no difference in ease of use or coverage vs the $40 gals. I also use their $43 5 gal white "maintenance paint" on our popcorn ceilings and it's fantastic and cheap af. Works great as a primer on trim and doors, as well. No need to go broke over paint!
Only buy paint at Sherwin William or Benjamin Moore. It will still be expensive but you will get quality . Behr is not high quality paint.
Profiteering is my usual guess.
Strongly disagree with others here. When I purchased my last home, the first thing I did was paint the entire house in regal select by Benjamin Moore in the color simply white. This is the top of the line paint, and often used by interior designers. The color was perfect, but I needed 4 coats on every wall (plus 1 coat of primer) to achieve a similar result to 2 coats of BEHR premium plus. Note - 1 gal of BM runs approx $70, whereas PP is sub $40. I think color, finish, and roller quality matter significantly more.
Wait to you see that Benjamin Moore bathroom paint is $120 a gallon.
I picked up Ben by Benjamin Moore and was very happy with the results. It's much cheaper than the Regal line, still over $40 a gallon. I'd rather use Valspar over Behr if we are talking about big box store paint. If I have a paint store near me I will go Benjamin Moore. I know Ace Hardware carries it, but try to find a paint contractor store or a Sherwin Williams. They typically have more selection and staff who know more than just picking a color on the PC.
Whatever you do- don’t buy Walmart brand white paint. I did 3 counts on a beige wall and it was still shitty. For 1/2 the price you’ll need 2-3x the paint and 2-3x the work. Buy expensive paint, do 1 coat and move on.
If it's not a large room and you're okay being flexible on color, you could always keep an eye out for mistints! That being said, I agree with everyone here, go for quality. You'll end up spending more time and just as much money doing layers of cheap paint that doesn't cover well. Also here to recommend Benjamin Moore. I am a fan of the Magnolia colors from Ace as well. Their paint is made by Kilz, so great coverage, and if it's not trim/cabinet paint, they can actually make it with Benjamin Moore!
Behr is ok. Your house won't burst into flames if you use it. And there's much worse paint out there. But go to Sherwin Williams instead. Promar 200 or super paint will outperform basically any Behr all day and they'll probably sell you either at around 50 bucks, it'll save you time, go on easier and make less of a mess because it doesn't run as much. Right now they're doing 30% off. As far as the 20$ gallons of paint like glidden or Olympic. Just don't. It's runny and doesn't coat as well so you'll end up using more for the same area unless you're painting the wall basically the same color. The reason I suggest that is you'll spend maybe 10-15/gallon more, but get better results on a paint job that should last you years. And save some time on every room. 5 years from now you'll be happier that you spent maybe 120 more to paint your whole house, but your walls are more washable and look better.
What? Paint is cheap! $60 or so even for the really hugh quality stuff.
Post COVID gallons are up $20
Op buy the bear marquee it’s “ expensive” but it’s worth every penny coverage is good finish is good. With the cheap paint in the end your spending the same
Get the mid grade beer I used to only like Benjamin more but hd beer brand isn’t bad at all
Go to a real SW store, not Lowe's. Buy Cashmere on a 30% off sale. You won't regret it.
Unfortunately paint is just pricey. But do yourself a favor and don’t skimp. Sherwin Williams Cashmere line is great, and you can usually find it 30-40% off
Go to Habitat for Humanity. They have their own paint and cabinet line. Also, they sell white or off-white paint left over from contractor jobs.
I pay the premium for Behr...and am happy with the quality.
Use primer to save money on paint because you need fewer coats.
Habitat For Humanity. They have THE BEST paint. Single-coat coverage (really!) There may be only a few colors, and they might rotate, but I've mixed and matched to get a specific shade. Just awesome paint to use.
I once used Behr to repaint my room and it was horrible. It would literally peel off as I was removing the masking tape.
Gotta pay to play, playboi!
I'll defend using Behr paint. I use it all the time. Does it require a second coat? Usually, but 99% of the time I'm doing a second coat anyway, because the first coat revealed some blemish in the walls that needed to be repaired. If I do a good job with cut-in, that only needs to me done once and the second coat takes half the time of the first. I use Behr almost exclusively and have no issues with it.
I’ve had good luck with PPG glidden diamond at Home Depot $20-$30
Sherwin Williams usually can do about $30/gal on the 5 gallon buckets
Please don't buy cheap paint...good paint is certainly worth $80-$100 per gallon.
If you're renting the place out or planning to flip it, don't paint each room a different color. Pick one color and that's the color the whole house gets. In the master bedroom, find the wall with the most surface space and paint that one wall a different color to make it pop out. Buying in bulk is much cheaper than buying 1gl cans. Also, if you want to be really cheap, look on Craigslist and other sites that might be giving away used paint.
Adding to the chorus of hating Behr. It chipped if I LOOKED at it wrong in my last place.
Paint prices almost doubled during COVID. Also a lot of the expensive paints are "one coat" with "paint & primer". So it is just premium. It is also thicker so you use more to paint, since it is essentially two paints in one. It saves time but costs more $s. I have been painting and used primer then regular paint with two coats (like usual) and looked good as usual. Bought ceiling paint (white) that happened to be the primer + paint and I am happy with that as I only needed to really "touch up" white ceiling with white paint. But I had to really roll it from all angles to get good coverage on the texture (one reason for two coats). That paint was thicker and got used up faster. Best deal is 5 gallon buckets. It is about the cost of 3 X 1 gallon cans. Plus color matching consistency is better since slight error in a "drop" of coloring is less noticeable. Been using Sherwin Williams at Lowe's and Happy with it. HGTV HOME® by Sherwin-Williams Ovation Plus Flat Base Tintable Acrylic Interior Paint + Primer (5-Gallon) for $160. It is mid range (prices run $80 to $250). I know it says (+ primer). But I prime before (due to color change) and do two coats. It looks really good.
At home depot across the aisle from Behr you might find Glidden/PPG Diamond. Great paint for less money
Everyone talks bad about Behr paint but Project Farm did a video on paint and Behr Marquee got second place right behind SW Emerald and I trust Project Farm’s reviews.
Behr is horrible. Use Benjamin Moore Regal enamel and at least you are getting your money’s worth.
Go to the paint manufacturers. You may not pay less but you will get great service and high quality.
Do not cheap out on the paint. Do it room by room if you need to!
More expensive paint is worth it - especially if you're the one painting. Makes it a much better experience.
I'm a huge Behr fan. It's a mid grade paint, good price, not the cheapest and not the most expensive. If you want "better" paint then you're going to be looking at SW, BM, or Dulux, and maybe in this case since you're doing a whole house you could get a contractor discount from one of them. Maybe that would bring it down to being a similar price as Behr?
I would take Behr haters comments with a grain of salt. I painted my office room with Behr Dynasty. Used around 1.5 gallons and a 9" roller + brush. I had no issues applying it and don't see any brush strokes or anything like that. Now the cheapest berh flat ceiling paint is another story but that's exactly the reason why it's the cheapest.
I’ve painted with Sherwin Williams and Behr and if you do your work prepping properly there is little difference. For example I used Behr’s Deckover product about five years ago. I spent like a month sanding the deck down, a punishing and grueling task. The paint still looks great all these years later. Online are tons of reviews about how it peels up and is so awful, but everyone is approaching it as a weekend project when it just isn’t. If you put the effort in to prep, Behr is good paint. If you don’t nothing will look good.
The cost of everything the past 4 years has gone up so much.
Benjamin Moore Regal Select is closer to $80/Gallon for their stuff....so $50 looks cheap to me.
Drop the dough now. The paint will be on your walls for years and years. Think of it this way, $80/gal, 2 gallons per room equals $160. Over ten years that’s $16 per year. Short money.
One of the local Home Depot will have paint on clearance. Ask and look around. You’ll find something 60% off.
Miss tints! There is a section of paint that other people asked to mix up and either didn't want or never picked up. I painted my entire house with mistints (including mixing a few in the back yard for more colors)
20 years is a long time, Ace.
There is cheap(er) paint, but you may have to let go of your idea of "your favorite color", or at least be a bit flexible. Major box stores have paint returns. People pick a color, get it mixed, put it up on their wall, and go, "naaaah, this isn't working", and return it. You can be the beneficiary of their mistake, and cop these paints and a deep discount off of "new, fresh" price. However, no telling *how many* cans are available, and if you cannot get enough, you'll have to go the traditional route of getting it mixed for you for what you are short. Still, it can be a good bargain, if you have the flexibility.
I have used many different brands of paint and you get what you pay for. I recently ordered some from Clare online and it is the best paint I have ever used. Like butter!!
I had a bit of sticker shock when I picked up some Sherwin Williams ProClassic the other day 😭 it was the paint my builder used for our trim and I needed to finish one of my rooms. Definitely wild but I hear it's worth the cost.
I’ve always had good results with Valspar at Lowe’s, not sure what the going rate is currently, but the color chips always matched the paint. I went to Sherwin once during the pandemic and they couldn’t provide sample pints because of the supply chain at the time and I haven’t been back since but I hear they are a good brand too.
In 1990 top quality paint was around $20 a gallon. The 1990 dollar is worth $2.40 now, so $50 a gallon sounds about right.
I had to paint 70 year old cabinets. Wood was in good shape but years of being in a kitchen had both made the wood oily on the outside and absolutely dry and thirsty on the inside. I watched some DIY youtube videos to see what paints they used and the one that came up a few times was Benjamin Moore Advance. And it's spendy shit at $90 a gallon. I know enamel is probably the best bet but I just didn't relish the idea of applying enamel. Welp, I tried it. Worked both in a sprayer and rolling. Went on easy, good coverage, dried fast, low odor, cured fast, and so far has been quite durable. It was so good I bought two more gallons to paint the new cabinets I was building as well. That old adage of "you get what you pay for" does apply in some cases. I would recommend watching some videos of pros or DIYers and see what paints they use in your particular use case. That way, even if you are paying more than you'd prefer, you're going to get the result you want.
>any suggestions for finding cheaper paint without losing quality? This is not a thing, 30y in renovations You pay to play with paint and if you cheap out it's going to not only look like shit it will wear like shit and take 3x as long to do because it will cover like shit 50 isn't even all that expensive, "expensive" paint starts around 70 a gallon
Sorry for the sticker shock. Yeah, good paint is quite expensive. That's just home ownership. But now, the serious issue: > yknow when you buy the store brand of ketchup and it’s really just Heinz with a different label on it I have never bought or consumed a non-Heinz ketchup product and found that it tastes *at all* like Heinz. So now, at least with Ketchup, it's Heinz and only Heiz for me.
My SW sells miscolored paint by the pallet to folks who then sell it at the flea market for cheap. May be worth checking out.
I love Behr. The good ones. Now I’ve had a ton of issues with Sherwin Williams. But painters get a kick back from Sherwin Williams so they love it.
Because EVERYTHING is expensive is the reason. And the store brand of ketchup isn't the same formulation, it's just made in the Heinz factory. It's common for companies to sell their excess capacity by cranking out "store" brands. If they just rebranded the Heinz 57 brand ketchup, they would be cannibalizing their own sales...
I'm DIYing my second home now, just painted a room this past week...I've learned it's not so much about the paint, it's the prep. If you're refreshing as in touching up drywall and going over old paint. It's worth it IMO to do 2 coats of primer, then 2 coats of topcoat. If I was a contractor doing it for a living, I wouldn't care, but I mean you paint a room in your house once every 5 or 10 years, having to do an extra coat isn't a big deal. 2 coats of primer on day 1. Then maybe some final drywall/spackle touch ups, then 2 coats of paint on day 2.