Talk to me about paint

[Anonymous]

I love the Benjamin Moore Natura paint. Has practically no smell (no VOC), and once it dries, it has no smell. Paint fumes give me a royal headache for days on end, so I only use this now. The coverage is great, but we've always done two coats everywhere.

Semi-gloss on trim (we generally have all white trim)
Flat paint (not ceiling paint, which I have discovered is not as white as white paint) for ceilings
Eggshell on walls, easy to clean, not too shiny if walls aren't perfect beneath

BM also has a bath paint (Aura Bath and Spa), which is not semi-gloss but a matte sheen, but resists water like a semi-gloss. Otherwise, you'd need to use semi-gloss in a bathroom, which is pretty shiny and shows blemishes horribly.

Prepping your surface is just as, if not more, important than painting. Clean walls, particularly those with grease, handprints, etc., patch and sand blemishes REALLY well, use good tape (Frog) if you need that to edge (we do), use good lighting to paint, high quality brushes (I've been happy with both the Purdy brushes and the BM brushes, angled brush for "cutting in" around windows, trim, etc.), priming when you have stains or a really dark/bright color to cover. We also use BM rollers. If you go to Old Town Hardware in Alexandria they have the best prices I've found on BM and can help you get the supplies you need for painting.

Good luck! Even $50 paint is cheap if you compare it to the cost of other home improvements, even if you re-do it every few years, but it makes a huge impact.

We use Kilz no VOC primer, FYI (I think it's a Premium primer). It dries kind of fast. You can get it at Home Depot.

I personally think limiting VOCs in your home is extremely valuable, particularly if you have children. VOCs emit even after paint has dried. To their credit though, most paint companies have started reducing or limiting the VOCs in their paint, but most if not all still have some in their colorants, even if the paint is no VOC (Sherwin Williams came under fire for this a few years ago, which is one reason I don't use them).