Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

[Deebs]

Re: Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

It is incredibly difficult to get BM here, so we joined the SW club yesterday. DH is freaking out about the cost (he has no clue what it's going to cost to do our great room and hire a professional painter, does he? ). For now, I just got color for four of our rooms that I can actually paint myself, while SW is having their big Labor Day sale.

DD's room has a castle mural on one wall, and the rest will be "lemon twist", the guest room will be "latte" (I'm trying to keep it neutral, and then maybe do a more daring color in the adjoining bathroom), and the lower half of the family room will be "baked clay", and the upper half and accent wall will be "spicy hue." For the before effect, just picture the background of this post. We're a new build and all of the walls are a whitish/beige. I will be so glad to get some color on the walls!

Hopefully I'll get started tonight when I get the kids in bed. Wish me luck!

[JaneDoe]

Re: Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

Cheri, your room looks great.

I want to report back that I went ahead and painted our office with the Chesterfield Buff. Thanks, Nellie, for the suggestion. It was right on. Here are some pics.

Before:


After:


I'm not good at these pictures. Hopefully, you will be able to distinguish the before and after shots. But, it looks great IRL!

[SuzySunshine]

Re: Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

That looks great with that shelving system.

Re: Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

Good for you! Great color!!!!

Re: Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

That looks great! I'm glad you liked the color. I went to the paint store today and got a chip for straw and barley and another for the Chesterfield Bluff. I'm thinking about what color to paint my living room. Decisions...decisions....

[diggitydot]

Re: Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

I'm not sure if the Miller store will do this but they might mix the Devine color in a regular Miller paint (prob $10 less per gallon). I think I asked before and they said no but that was a while ago.

Just an FYI, Devine paints are manufactured by Miller so they're already in a Miller Paint product. They shouldn't have a problem tinting one of their other products to her colors for you. They have the formulations on file and have exceptionally tight quality control for their different products. They work very hard to make sure they all tint the same from one product line to another. (I worked for Miller for about 10 years and I helped Gretchen Schauffler mix/match quite a few of her Devine Colors. She's a bit of a flaky nut job, but has great color sense.)

All paint manufacturers make a good, high-end product. It all depends on how much you want to pay for it. Behr, Sherwin, Benjamin Moore, Pratt & Lambert, and Miller all have excellent product lines. Good paints usually contain about 40%-55% solids, have acrylic resins, and lots of titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide is a pigment that helps paints "cover" other colors well and creates a very white base to tint from. The deeper bases for tinting darker colors have less titanium dioxide in them so they can achieve the darker colors. Which means they traditionally don't cover as well unless you use a lot of raw umber, red oxide or yellow oxide pigments. (Umber and oxide pigments cover well.)

Paint is one of those things that you get what you pay for. Crappy paint is cheap for a reason. With fewer solids, you have to put on more coats to get the same amount of dried film as you would with a spendier product when you're done. Even if the color looks OK, you won't get the correct millage for adequate protection with only one coat. For example, if a paint has 25% solids and you put on a 4 mil coat, you end up with only 1 mil after it's dried. Now, if you take a 50% solids paint and apply a 4 mil coat, you end up with 2 mils dry. Thus, cutting your work and required materials costs in half.

[Amiens]

Re: Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

I jumped on the Ben Moore color bandwagon. We don't have a Ben Moore store here, but our local ace is a dealer for them. I found out that they can use a Ben Moore color in an Ace Hardware paint, which is half the cost, and goes on just as well. In fact I liked the consistency of the Ace Paint better than Ben Moore, and Ace has a scrubbable Eggshell.

HTH

Re: Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

Diggity -- I know both paints are made by Miller but I wasn't sure if they can mix the Devine colors in the Miller paints because maybe they want you to buy the more expensive paint? I ask again next time I'm there; maybe I misunderstood. Initially, the Ben Moore store here said they wouldn't mix an Aura color in the regular Ben Moore paint which seems silly because like you said they have the color formulations (that was almost a year ago so maybe they loosened up about it).

[diggitydot]

Re: Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

Diggity -- I know both paints are made by Miller but I wasn't sure if they can mix the Devine colors in the Miller paints because maybe they want you to buy the more expensive paint? I ask again next time I'm there; maybe I misunderstood. Initially, the Ben Moore store here said they wouldn't mix an Aura color in the regular Ben Moore paint which seems silly because like you said they have the color formulations (that was almost a year ago so maybe they loosened up about it).

Sometimes it depends on who you talk to as to whether they'll do something they're not "technically" supposed to. If you have one of the liquid Devine samples, paint it onto a stir stick, let it dry and then ask them to match into whichever product you prefer. Most of the Miller stores have really great color matching people.

Re: Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

Good idea on the popsicle stick!

I had Miller paint for most rooms in our last house and the colors were all Benjamin Moore colors that they matched. It turned out great. At one point the guy at the paint store asked, "Don't you like our colors?" I did but I just had all the BM paints picked out.

One thing I have noticed about BM recently, and maybe it is just the colors I chose, is that the colors change less in different lights. That is one thing I liked about their paint in the past. It seems like the Devine colors are very "true" and don't change in different lighting.

re: flaky nut...yes. A friend of mine was considering being a paint color consultant and saw that there is a Devine paint consultant certification. Besides being really expensive, she couldn't get past the questions on the application. "What is the color of your childhood?" :huh: Mango, because it reminds my of my mother's bountiful bosom and our time in the tropics.

Re: Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

Mango, because it reminds my of my mother's bountiful bosom and our time in the tropics.

[diggitydot]

Re: Is high-end paint (aka more expensive) worth the cost?

re: flaky nut...yes. A friend of mine was considering being a paint color consultant and saw that there is a Devine paint consultant certification. Besides being really expensive, she couldn't get past the questions on the application. "What is the color of your childhood?" :huh: Mango, because it reminds my of my mother's bountiful bosom and our time in the tropics.

Gretchen is just too much of a whackadoodle for me. I'd probably try to slice off my own ears to not have to hear her ask me to make a color "happier". Seriously, I heard that on more than one occasion from her. Nice enough gal and she really knows her colors, but she's just too ditzy for me. I learned very quickly that when everyone magically disappeared, someone had spotted Gretchen in the parking lot.

A lot of the color-matching art is perception. Many times the most difficult customers were unable see the subtle differences in the various samples presented to them. But they had an idea in their mind of what it should be, even though they no idea which pigments would achieve the desired result. Instead of relying on our expertise, though, they'd want to micromanage the process to death. Gretchen, bless her heart, is one such client. One time she wanted me to make a blue "a little more morose". So I went into the back and basically just blew on the sample so it would become moist. Didn't add a single drop of colorant, didn't change the color even a little. And she loved it. Her response: "Oh, you always know EXACTLY what I'm looking for!" :banghead:

Ugh. I got out of that industry shortly thereafter. I don't think anyone would blame me.

And people wonder why painters drink heavily...