Paint Review Part 2 (Including the Aura review)

Okay, I was going to wait till tomorrow to post part 2 of the review, but I won't be around, and I had some friends that are interested in the Aura review (who knew?), so here it goes. All about "specialty paints".

When I'm painting, I like to use a paint that is appropriate for the room that I'm painting. So when it came to painting the bathroom and the kitchen, that was no different. For the bathroom I chose another CIL paint, and for the kitchen, the much awaited Benjamin Moore Aura paint.

CIL Smart3 Wash & Wear (Satin finish):

Price: $38.97

Availability: All Home Depot stores.

Coverage: This stuff is pretty great as far as paint goes. When you're repainting a space, one of the things that is a pain, is filling in all the holes, and then having to prime all of those holes before painting. This is a 3-in-1 paint so that is not necessary! Just paint and you're done. Most spaces that I use this 2 coats are needed to get full coverage though. Overall coverage: A

Scent: Okay, I mentioned before about how much the Behr paint smells, this one is pretty high up there too. I will give this paint the benefit of the doubt being I was painting a very tiny bathroom with the door closed, but the room smelled like paint for a few days after we were done. Overall Scent: Strong

True to colour: It was true to the colour we had matched it to.

Scrubbable/Washable: For high traffic areas, or areas you just want to be able to scrub, this paint is great. You can wipe the walls with a clorox wipe, and not have a worry. Overall washability: A+

Use it again: For the price I would definitely use this again. It was a great product. I am willing to try a Low VOC version just to avoid the smell though. If anyone uses the new Aura bathroom paint, I'd be willing to find out what they thought!

Low/No VOC's: This paint does not fall under this category

Benjamin Moore Aura (Eggshell Finish)

Price: $66/gallon+tinting fee (ie. the deeper the colour the more the fee)*

Availability: Available only through a Benjamin Moore dealer.

Coverage: The company goes on and on about how you will only ever need 2 coats of paint when using their product regardless of the colour. I would be willing to test this theory with a nice deep wine colour if I had unlimited amounts of cash, and well a room that I wanted that dark. I had to use two coats of paint for the kitchen walls, I can't imagine anyone using less than one coat and getting the results that they are after.

Like the CIL Smart3 paint, this paint is also a 3-in-1 paint. It primes, as well as being able to use this over either oil or latex paint. This comes in very handy when having to paint walls that were last painted sometime in the 70's. I love this these features in a paint.

Overall coverage: A

True to colour: The colour on the walls is exactly the same as the chip.

Scent: One of BM's claims for this paint is that it is "scent free". I hate to break it to them, but they are lying. There is a scent. Was it as bad as the Behr paint, NO WAY! But there is still a scent. I didn't get a paint fume headache, nor did I smell the paint fumes from the second floor of the house while it was drying. You do still need to ventilate with a window and all traces of the smell will be gone by the next day. Overall Scent: Minimal

Scrubbable/Washable: The BM dealer that I worked with assured me that this paint was not only washable, but scrubbable. I'm taking her word on this since I only painted the kitchen a week ago, and we all know I have another week to three weeks before I can safely test this out. I can tell you that the paint does have a very hand print friendly finish, meaning I can touch the walls and not have those tell-tale marks on the wall.

Use it again: Yes I will definitely use this paint again! Now that I have done my test room, I have the tricks down to use this paint in a bigger space. Now I just have to save up my pennies!

Low/No VOC's: Yes! This is a Low VOC paint.

*I have been told by my grandmother (who uses only their paint) that the price of the BM paint varies dealer to dealer. So instead of going to the dealer just down the street, we had to drive 10 minutes to the cheaper dealer on the other side of the city. I'm thinking of calling the closer store, to see if this is really true. Does anyone know if this is true?

Note about the Aura paint: When I decided on the Aura paint my mother and I were given some pointers (she was painting her bedroom). First we were instructed that when using the Aura paint it was recommended that we "cut-in" the space first, followed by painting the walls. The Aura paint has an incredibly fast drying time, so by doing this you ensure that you are not "picking up" the paint if you do this order the other way.

The Aura paint dries very quickly allowing you to re-coat in just 1 hour. I started prepping the kitchen to paint around 11:30am, by the time Andre returned home from work at 7:30pm I had painted two coats on the wall, moved the furniture back, washed the floor, and cleaned up all the paint supplies. The only clue that remained was the fact the kitchen was a different colour.

There is a learning curve with the Aura paint though. With most other paints because they take so long to dry (approx 4 hours before you can re-coat) once you finish painting a wall if you notice there is a drip, or an area is too thick you can fix it and no one will be the wiser. You cannot do this with the Aura paint. It just dries too fast. You have to be very careful when using this paint, and be ready to catch any drips, or thick areas as soon as they occur. Or be willing to sand and fix later.

There is also a lot of paint pick up with this product. This was the biggest problem when applying the second coat. If you so much as hit the wall with the edge of the roller and catch the paint, it will peel off. A major pain in the ass. If you are a perfectionist, or a little clumsy, I would recommend waiting 2 or more hours before you re-coat. I think this would limit the chances of mucking up your paint job.

Overall even with the finickiness and the increased price of this product it was worth it. With no other paint would I have been able to paint two coats of paint in one afternoon and then have been able to cook dinner without wanting to be sick from the fumes. The finish of this paint is also fabulous, and very similar to the finish of the Behr paint surprisingly.

So that's it for the paint review. If anyone has any questions, just let me know!

Paint Review Part 1

Being a homeowner I have become very fussy about that type of paint I use. When you have to paint every. single. room in your home you become somewhat of a pro. I also have certain criteria for paint purchasing:

Price- The price has to be reasonable. This criteria becomes even more important considering the space that needs to be painted. If it is a smaller room, or if the room has certain needs that need to be considered (ie. bathroom humidity) then I will consider a higher price for paint.

Function of the space- Bathroom, kitchen, living room. You have to consider the function, and therefore the needs of every space. In your kitchen you need to have a paint with a scrubbable finish, especially if you actually say, cook in your kitchen. In your master bathroom you need a special bathroom paint. If you shower in there daily, there will be humidity.

Location of the paint- I do not want to be driving a half hour across town when I realize with half a wall left that I am running out of paint. The store needs to be close (r) to my home.

Low/No VOC- When we first started painting we were more interested in just getting the house painted. I had read about the Low/No VOC paints, but hadn't really researched it at all. As the bulk of the house has been painted, I have become more interested in this type of paint.

You may notice that quality of the paint is not on the list. I have omitted it for this reason: All paints will basically do the job. Regardless if it's from Home Depot, Home Hardware, Benjamin Moore, Glidden, anywhere. You put it on a roller and slap it on your walls it will do the job. Some are better than others, this is true, but it's all subjective. (And for the record I have worked with paint sold at each one of those stores over the years.)

Now on for the review! For the paint review I will review the paint on the following criteria: price, ease of purchase (availability), coverage, true to colour chip, scent, scrubbable/washable (regardless of what the paint claims), and lastly whether or not I would use the paint again. All the paints that I will review are paints that have been used in our home, some because we used them when we painted our previous apartment.

First off: Behr Premium Plus (Eggshell finish)

Price: $31.95/gallon

Availability: Purchased at any Home Depot

Coverage: This paint we chose when we painted the very first room in our house because we had used it in our entire apartment. Our master bedroom is painted with this paint, which was tinted a Debbie Travis colour.

Now before I want to get into the coverage of this paint I want to explain what we had to paint. The master bedroom was (no word of a lie) Fire Engine Red when we moved in. It was blinding. It took 2 coats of primer (also Behr paint in white) before we even attempted the wall colour. So after two coats of primer it took another 2 coats of the blue colour to achieve the results we wanted. The coverage was good, but it took alot of paint. Overall coverage: B

True to colour chip: The paint is a perfect match. The original colour is "Swan Lake" by Debbie Travis. I had never used her paint, so I had it colour matched at Home Depot. You would never know it was not the intended paint manufacturer. Overall match: A+

Scent: Being the primary painter in my home, the scent of a paint is very important to me. I am also asthmatic, so painting can be a little hard if the scent is really strong. I've been known to paint with the windows open in the dead of winter just for some fresh air.

The scent of the Behr paint is STRONG. There was many a paint high headache when using this product. Overall scent: STRONG

Scrubbable/Washable: This paint is incredible in this respect. The finish is a true eggshell finish, and washes like a charm. We had used this paint in our entire apartment before we bought the house and it was great. I scrubbed the kitchen walls many times, and ever lost any of the finish, or got any of those tell-tale wash marks that some paints get. This paint would be great in a high traffic area, or any room with children. Overall washability: A+

Would I use this again?: Yes, I would use this paint again. It was a great value for the money, and the finish is wonderful. We currently have about 2/3 of a gallon left from the bedroom that I'm thinking of lightening up when we paint the office.

Low/No VOC's: No. This paint does not fall under that category.

CIL Dulux (Eggshell finish)

Price: approx $34-38. I could not find the exact product on the Home Depot website.

Availability: Available at any Home Depot store.

Coverage: This paint claims "excellent" coverage, and it delivers on this claim. The consistency of the paint is a little thinner, but it covers so well. We used this paint for the entry way, dining room, living room, up the stairway, and the upstairs hallway. Even with some of the walls having to be primed, some walls being unpainted for 30+ years, it was a consistent, even coverage over everything. I found with this paint as well that even the walls that were less than perfect (almost every wall in the house) that the paint hid the imperfections really well.

I ended up with this paint by accident. I chose a CIL colour and the guy at Home Depot used the CIL paint instead of just tinting the Behr paint like they usually do. I decided to just go with it. Overall coverage: A+

True to colour chip: It was a CIL colour "Jefferson House" and a CIL colour. They did not recommend a tinted primer, and the colour still does not match the chip. The chip was slightly darker and richer. I'm still happy with the colour, but not a perfect match. Overall Match: Off

Scent: This had to be my favourite thing about this paint. After the stench of the Behr paint when painting the bedroom, the low odour of this paint (also claimed by the company) was a welcome surprise. No paint headaches with this product. Overall scent: Low

Scrubbable/Washable: This has to be my least favourite thing about this paint. The company claims "excellent washability" but they really didn't come through with this claim. I have tried to just wipe off fingerprints, marks, etc off the wall with just a cloth and water, and have ended up with tell-tale marks on the wall. Not good! Especially since I have this paint in some very high traffic areas. I haven't tried to re-wipe the walls in a couple months for this exact reason, so I don't know if this will lessen over time as the paint as cured. Overall Washability: B-/C

Would I use this again?: Undecided. This paint had so many great qualities for the price, but I hate not being able to wash a wall. I will see over time how it wears, and go from there.

Low/No VOC's: No, this paint does not fall under this category.

So this is the end of the Paint Review Part 1. Stay tuned for Part 2 that will include "specialty" paints, including the new Benjamin Moore Aura paint!