<p>Make sure you have them say in the agreement that paint will not be thinned. I had a painter once say that the paint would not be thinned and I caught him thinning it. I insisted that the paint be thrown out and re-purchased-- and he did since it was on the contract. If I had not been home and heard running water at the time, I would not have known. IF you DO hear running water, make sure they are ONLY cleaning up their supplies.</p>
<p>Another thing to add to the contract… make sure they leave you EXCESS paint. I ask for 2 gallons of body paint and 1 gallon (each) of trim paint. If you don’t want to store a 5 gallon tub of leftover paint, ask them to purchase empty 1 gallon cans and pour the extra paint into them.</p>
<p>Make sure your formulas are also CLEARLY labeled on each can and not covered up by paint!</p>
<p>That is really helpful information, jshain. We are having the exterior trimwork painted in a few weeks - fortunately, this company is legit and spelled put everything in the contract, including how many coats they will paint and how much excess paint they will provide for us - plus I know the owner of the company this time!</p>
<p>This is useful if you planning to paint with the same color within short periods of time. Recently. I brought some Bher paint to HD for more of the same formula. They could not use the two year old label and had to rematch.</p>
<p>Paint is like ladies fashion, they go out of style every year. :)</p>
<p>It is common practice that paint companies change BASES every couple/few years but use the same formula. Unfortunately, when they change the base formula, the color changes somewhat. That is good reason to make sure you have ample supply of leftover paint for a couple/few years for touch-up. After that time, even the exact same paint won’t match because of fading with sun exposure. Also, the darker you go the more likelihood of fading…</p>
<p>We did a major remodel of our house in 2001. The painting contractor at the time suggested he use Sherwin Williams Duration for the outside of our house. Well it is 12 years later and, other than one facia board which split and had to be replaced, and one power wash, we have not done a thing to the outside of our house - and it looks great. We live in a very sunny part of California so paint tends to fade with time - but this has held up great.</p>
<p>On the inside, we used Kelly More Swiss Coffee and did most of it ourselves. Wonderful white paint - spreads beautifully. I always do two coats of everything when I paint - so can’t speak to coverage in one coat. My theory, as taught to me by my dad, is that 90% of a paint job is the prep work - so why not do the second coat while you are set up. </p>
<p>The interior has since been painted over with a variety of colors but the ceiling is still the original color. No issues whatsoever.</p>
<p>This might be a stupid question, but can you use a paint-and-primer in one but still prime normally first, or does that not work any better? </p>
<p>I was trying to pick my paints more by the color than the brand or the type of paint, I’m rethinking now. I think some of the colors we had liked were the paint and primer in one behr paint, but I’d planned to use real primer anyway because our walls are all either VERY dark colors or they have cigarette smoke stains. We might switch to a different brand anyway but I want to understand how this works.</p>
<p>Much as I like BM, I recently repainted a first floor lav using Behr, to match the DR. Fine experience and grand results. The quality of the paint, as it rolled on was good, no spray back or drips. The DR color has held up beautifully for ages, maybe 10 years. So, don’t be too intimidated by our talking about how we prefer more expensive brands.</p>
<p>You can buy one can of the combo, see how you like the feel of it laying down and the finished appearance. Obsessive detail warning: it takes paint several weeks, at least, to really settle into that final look, so the next day isn’t really what’s telling.</p>
<p>I am in So. Calif. and also like Dunn Edwards the best. The best part is that they give a 25% discount to AAA members!</p>
<p>Ema, if you find a color that you like in a brand that you don’t like, paint stores can use the formula for that color in you preferred brand base. I buy my DE brand at a DE store so they don’t have formulas for other brands. They have done an excellent job matching color cards of other brands. </p>
<p>I agree with others who don’t like the primer/paint combos.</p>
<p>Yes, it is the best matching I have ever had. I was a little taken back when I entered the store at 3:30PM and they say pick it up tomorrow. What? Homedepot will have it in 30 minutes and I can start painting at 5PM. So, I waited til the next morning and the color matching DE did was second to none. I am very impressed.</p>
<p>Dunn-Edwards actually has quite a few formulas of other brands. We liked a Ralph Lauren paint color called Crab Apple, from Home Depot, and they had the formula in their system.</p>
<p>Emaheevul07, I think painting over a primer with a primer and paint in one will work okay but you are paying more money for a paint that has the primer in it already, so it’s adding to your total cost without really giving you a better paint job. This is assuming you would be using a premium paint that does not have a primer already in the paint. A good example of this would be Benjamin Moore Aura versus Regal Select. Aura has a primer in it and Regal Select does not, making Regal Select a little less expensive than Aura.</p>
<p>Just met with our decorator yesterday on a few items. She likes Benjamin Moore “matte” finish. She said it is formulated for ALL conditions, including bathrooms. I am not a big fan of any sheen on my walls so this fits the bill, especially in a west coast low humidity bathroom with windows.</p>
<p>I like matte best for walls, though I put eggshell on the stair walls when my kids were young because it was always covered with their grubby fingerprints. I do use semi gloss for trim.</p>
<p>I’m a fan of Annie Sloan Chalk paint for furniture. It doesn’t require you to sand or prime or anything like that - the surface just needs to be clean and dry. I’ve painted it onto veneer, pre-painted furniture and brand new wood, and its been fantastic. It’s really good for creating a distressed look (in fact, it’s relatively hard to create something that is totally smooth - you need to water it down a bit), but it’s great for creating something that looks quite relaxed / cottagey too if you don’t start attacking it with sandpaper. [Annie</a> Sloan Unfolded | Distributor for the United States, Canada, Australia, & New Zealand](<a href=“http://www.anniesloanunfolded.com/]Annie”>http://www.anniesloanunfolded.com/)</p>