Benjamin Moore vs Sherman Williams: what do you prefer and why?

[Anonymous]

Closing on a house in two weeks---will need to re-paint most of it. Trying to figure out if I should use BM or SW. How much actual difference is there price, color selection and quality?

[Anonymous]

BM -- we did SW once on our house and regretted it. It didn't last as long and the colors weren't as nice, IMO.

[Anonymous]

We just did SW for our entire house- loved the paint and they frequently have 30-40% off sale. They can always match BM colors.

[Anonymous]

I prefer Benjamin Moore, but I think that they are both quality paints. Good application goes a long way.

FWIW, Consumer Reports gave very high marks to an Ace brand paint, Clark and Kensington.

[Anonymous]

We just used Behr and it was easy to apply and came out very nice, although it probably hasn't fully cured yet (CR also liked Behr).

[Anonymous]

Sherwin Williams Duration - worth every penny - it's the first paint on the exterior of out house that's held up. I'm surprised they sell it because it really lengthens the time between paint jobs. Do your research - it came up consistently at the top 3 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Behr

[Anonymous]

I like Benjamin Moore. We used Sherwin-Williams for one room a few years ago, but IMO the application was not as smooth. So, back to Benjamin Moore we went for the next paint job.

[Anonymous]

BM and SW are both great brands. As any brand, they have different quality lines, but their top ones are much better than anything you can find in HD, Lowes or Ace.

With all due respect, I wouldn't trust consumer reports on this one -- the person rating paints was probably rating microwaves last week.

[Anonymous]

We almost always use Ben Moore Aura paints because that's what our local store sells. But I was really unhappy with how the Aura turned out when we used it to paint some furniture recently. So I tried Behr and loved it. Really nice paint with some great colors.

I still will probably use BM mostly for walls, since it's convenient and the colors are great. But it's nice to know there are less expensive options that are also good.

[Anonymous]

Behr, tried them all.

[Anonymous]

I've used lots of brands and was always happy with Behr for basic jobs like walls and trim when latex was appropriate (as opposed to cabinets, old oil painted surfaces, etc., where I'd use BM Impervo). That was, until Behr switched to their combined primer and paint. I found that it didn't cover very well. I used it to repaint bedroom door trim that had previously been painted with the old Behr paint and it took three coats-- and it was the same color (white). It was supposed to be a quick job of one coat to cover nicks before we put the house on the market. Won't use it again.

My parents do A LOT of painting and love SW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BM -- we did SW once on our house and regretted it. It didn't last as long and the colors weren't as nice, IMO.

We have most of our house painted in SW Harmony for no-VOC. The majority of the house is going on 7 years. The kids bedroom is 2 years. We've had no problems now even with twin 2-yos running around and cleaning up food, pencils, crayons and handprints on the walls. We love it and we love the excellent customer service we have at our local SW store.

[Anonymous]

Not used a lot of SW (my contractor did, though), but I much prefer to use BM over Behr when I'm painting the walls myself. BM goes on better and gives a better finish. Behr always takes me an extra (third) coat to get there.

[Anonymous]

All the paint places have the formulas of the colors that their competitors offer. So if you like something that BM has, but prefer to take advantage of a SW sale, they'll mix the BM color for you no problem. Each month SW has a sale, anywhere from 15-40% off. When it's the 40% off sale and we know we'll be painting w/in a few months, we buy untinted paint during the sale. They'll add color to it (or let you return it) at a later date. We've been very happy with SW Home Duration paints. But you can't go wrong with BM either.