Ben Moore Aura paint?

[BonBon]

Has anyone used this spendy paint? Supposedly it's great for deep colors, two coats max and no need of primer! Does that mean it can be used on naked drywall? I have an entire house to paint and if I can avoid paying some guy to primer the dang thing, I will.

Re: Ben Moore Aura paint?

Hmm, not sure about skipping the primer. We have used this and it is great because there is NO odor. That would be more of an issue if you were living in the house. I'm guessing the primer thing is that you don't have to prime a painted wall first before applying a deep color. :huh:

Re: Ben Moore Aura paint?

Tara, I have never used SW paints because I have had either Ben Moore or Miller (local brand) close by. I'm sure they are great! I do think it is better than what I have purchased from Home Depot or Lowe's (probably Behr and....can't remember).

Chris, I was going to add that I'm not sure that the extra cost of Aura is worth it. When I bought it, it was on sale and not a whole lot more than the regular stuff. The big advantage was the lack of odor. With the recent painting we had done, the latex odor wasn't that bad and you won't be in the house then, right? I can ask DH later but I think there might be some advantages to having a coat of primer on bare drywall before applying paint.


ETA: Duh! I have painters in my house. I asked them and got this: :huh: regarding Aura. They said it seems very similar to Devine. Regarding the priming -- they primed all the fresh sheetrock in the house but not the previously painted walls. The Ben Moore contractors paint (Super spec or something) covered better over the primer than old paint on the first coat but had complete coverage w/ two coats. When we did the bathrooms with Aura, the first coat almost covered but it didn't and a second coat was needed. Even though it was barely needed, we still had to do it. Maybe with primer one coat would have worked but then you are still painting twice.

[BonBon]

Re: Ben Moore Aura paint?

Tara, you crack me up. I've never used Ben Moore paint (can't bring myself to refer to it as "BM" ), but I wanted to try it due to all the rave reviews from this site.

My favorite paint ever is Pittsburgh, though I've only used it for trimwork. I've used Valspar (Lowe's) in the past - meh. I didn't dislike it enough to make a special trek to a paint store. But now that I have this dang house...

I'll skip the Aura. $57 a gallon curled my hair anyway, even if it is low odor.

Re: Ben Moore Aura paint?

Part of my love for Ben Moore (nope, can't say BM either) are the colors available. You can always get the colors matched in another brand.

Re: Ben Moore Aura paint?

Oh Chris, how is your house coming along? I'm sure you have lots to do now that you're in the final stretch!

$57 a gallon? I just picked up some Aura last week and it was $47/gal and contractors usually can get a better deal. We haven't tried it yet so I can't say one way or another how well it coats. We've used Ben Moore and Devine in the past and have had to use two coats of each and that was over primed walls. One coat probably would have been ok, but it was best to do two. My guess is that sheetrock is absorbant so it would be best to prime.

Our friends used Pittsburgh in their new house and they had some trouble with a deep red that they used in their basement.