Staring at all those cans in the paint aisle, hoping to wind up with a really good interior paint, has become as frustrating as nailing the right color. Similar names, claims, and prices can be mind boggling. Buy one of the cheapest paints and you may have to use more than one coat but what do you get if you spend $105 for a gallon of Farrow & Ball?
Designers rave about Farrow & Ball and we have to agree that the colors are gorgeous. The paint is made and tinted at a factory in England and you’ll find them online and at Farrow & Ball stores in the U.S. But despite the dreamy colors and names such as Slipper Satin, an off-white, and Drawing Room Blue, they were the worst of the 67 interior paints tested by Consumer Reports at hiding old paint. It took two coats of the Farrow & Ball Estate Eggshell, $105, to do what the top-rated Behr Premium Plus Ultra Satin Enamel did in just one. And the Behr is $34 a gallon at Home Depot. Farrow & Ball’s eggshell and semi-gloss paints also left a rough finish and lost most of their sheen after cleaning.
Our new interior paint Ratings can make choosing a paint easier. You’ll see how well a paint hides the old stuff, whether it leaves a smooth finish, and how well it holds up to scrubbing and stains. We toughened our stain tests to include both water- and oil-based stains, better reflecting real life, and as anybody with children knows, flat finishes tend to stain easily.
—Kimberly Janeway
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