Paint Sherwin Williams vs Benjamin Moore

[marianegs]

Hello! I am more a lurker and love ideas I get from this forum. Is Benjamin Moore better than Sherwin Williams? If so what makes it better? Does anyone know when they are doing the SW 40 percent sale? Thank you for helping me out!

[Susie]

SW and BM are both brands with very good reputations.  A lot of people are loyal to one or the other.  I am an SW paint person, so no comments compared to BM, but I can say it is definitely better quality (in durability and washability) than Behr products I've used in the past.  

I was just in SW this week picking up paint chips, and asked about sales because we are about a month out from closing on a new house and will be buying tons.  They said that they're having some supply chain issues so no 40% anytime soon.  Mostly 25-30% and to check the website.

[RockNVoll]

Agree, they seem comparable in reputation and quality to me. Way better than Behr, which chipped like crazy all over my parents' house.

[simpsongal]

I like Behr (esp the price) though I like Ben Moore colors [shrugs]. SW seems fine too, esp at 40% off .

[penguingrrl]

Both are nice quality. My Hs grandfather was a house painter and those were the only brands he would use. I tend to use BM because there’s a great local hardware store me and that’s what they carry. But SW is supposed to be very good.

I found that Behr faded and chipped a lot faster when I tried to use it, so in the end I didn’t save money since I had to repaint sooner.

[Velar Fricative]

I've only ever used BM and Behr. I actually haven't had issues with Behr at all (and most of our house is Behr), but I've used BM most recently when renovating and it's great quality and I love the color options. Our painters recommended BM to us so we went with it. I'm sure SW is comparable.

[wildrice]

I can't really compare it to SW, but I love the BM paint that I've been using and plan to use it for the rest of my house. I've been using the Aura paint in eggshell and have been really impressed. It goes on so smoothly and looks really even. IMO it is very expensive, but I am hoping that the quality is such that I won't need to repaint for a long time.

If you have a Chase credit card, BM has been a Chase offer for the last few months. I think you get 10% back up to $200 in purchases.

My whole house was previously pained with SW paint, but they chose the flat paint and probably got some kind of low quality deal on it to paint before selling. It did not hold up at all, but I am assuming that isn't a general SW issue. It isn't chipping or anything, but it is covered in scuffs that are not able to be cleaned without leaving a smudge mark. So, if you do go with SW do NOT get flat, but I assume flat sucks with any paint company.

[mommin]

The Sherwin Williams store is closer to my house so that’s what we use. Very scientific, I know. I honestly don’t see much difference between top-grade paints in either of these brands. I haven’t seen an SW 40% off sale in a while so I assume it will be coming up fairly soon. It seems like they offer a 30% off for a short time and then the 40% off comes the next week or so.

[libbygrl109]

Apr 23, 2021 8:14:12 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I've only ever used BM and Behr. I actually haven't had issues with Behr at all (and most of our house is Behr), but I've used BM most recently when renovating and it's great quality and I love the color options. Our painters recommended BM to us so we went with it. I'm sure SW is comparable.

This is what we have done as well. We did our house in Behr when we first moved in. The walls that we haven’t done over yet are OK, but I did find that they marked up easily. When we do our living and dining areas done, we’ll go with whatever brand the painter we hire will use.

[InBetweenDays]

We used BM Aura in our house and love it. We actually used the flat finish because we preferred the look of it, and even with a flat finish it's still easy to clean.

[lo]

We are a BM house. We also splurge for the more expensive paint and think it’s worth it.

[bunnies]

I use SW paint because of the sales. I use both SW and BM colors, though.

[k3am]

Apr 23, 2021 17:02:22 GMT -5 InBetweenDays said:

We used BM Aura in our house and love it. We actually used the flat finish because we preferred the look of it, and even with a flat finish it's still easy to clean.

+1 to this. SW also has a similar line to aura. Our contractor uses SW and the designer thought I was crazy when I wanted a flat finish for the bathroom, so she called them to ask and they did. I can’t remember the name of it though, so I’m no help.

[Deleted]

I've actually never used BM so I can't compare, but we love SW. We always buy the top of the line stuff because we get a nice discount due to a close friend being a professional painter. The two rooms that we painted with Behr when we first moved in 5 years ago are in super rough shape, even in the bathroom where you wouldn't think there'd be a lot of wear and tear, the paint is chipped. We just recently remodeled our first floor and used the new SW Emerald Urethane Enamel and I cannot say enough good things about. It goes on smooth and behaves much like an oil based paint but with the benefit of being washable like a Latex.

[aspentosh]

I have to say, we tried SW in our bedroom after going with Glidden or Behr for 10+ years and it's a marked difference. We got it at 40% off, so comparable price to the cheaper options, and it's definitely something I will splurge on going forward.

Great thing about SW, you can buy the paint during the sale and come back and tint it for free when you are ready to paint.

[ohgillian]

Apr 23, 2021 14:03:54 GMT -5 mommin said:

The Sherwin Williams store is closer to my house so that’s what we use. Very scientific, I know. I honestly don’t see much difference between top-grade paints in either of these brands. I haven’t seen an SW 40% off sale in a while so I assume it will be coming up fairly soon. It seems like they offer a 30% off for a short time and then the 40% off comes the next week or so.

Same!

[majesty318]

Our whole house is SW. At the last minute we decided to paint a half bath, and I bought the middle of the road finish by SW (Super Paint). All the other ones we used were the high end (Duration). There is a huge difference in the two - it took like a million coats with Super Paint, whereas we practically could have gotten away with 1 coat of Duration. And every time Super Paint gets wet, there are smears/ water marks.

I love all the colors and am happy with SW but definitely get one of the nicer quality finishes.

[Deleted]

Apr 27, 2021 12:22:36 GMT -5 majesty318 said:

Our whole house is SW. At the last minute we decided to paint a half bath, and I bought the middle of the road finish by SW (Super Paint). All the other ones we used were the high end (Duration). There is a huge difference in the two - it took like a million coats with Super Paint, whereas we practically could have gotten away with 1 coat of Duration. And every time Super Paint gets wet, there are smears/ water marks.

I love all the colors and am happy with SW but definitely get one of the nicer quality finishes.

Agree! We always use Emerald for our walls and have been very, very happy. We actually use Duration on our ceilings instead of their Eminence ceiling paint and much prefer the finish.