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Best Interior Paint Finishes for Your Home

Best Interior Paint Finishes for Your Home

You do your homework when it comes to choosing the right paint colors, you bring home swatches and scour magazines and pinterest to get a feeling for the latest home decorating trends. But, it can take you off guard every time you step up to the paint counter to be met with the question: “What finish did you want for that? Satin? Eggshell? Flat?” It can be easy to panic if you don’t know the difference between the finishes and which wall paint finish is the right choice for your project.

Let’s take a look at the available finish options and learn more about what finish is the best fit as you prepare to begin painting a room in your home.

The first thing you need to know is that as you move down the list, the sheen of the paint increases. When the shine of the paint increases, so does the wipe-ability. The more you will need to wipe the walls, the greater the sheen you will need to have in your paint.

Matte (or Flat)- Matte paint typically has very little to no sheen so you will want to use it mostly in low traffic areas and on ceilings. It is ideal on ceilings because you usually do not want a shiny ceiling attracting visual attention upward. Use caution when use a flat paint in kitchens or hallways as the only way to remove scribbles and stains on matte paint is to paint over it again. By the way, a matte finish is perhaps the most preferred and popular choice of homeowners in today's market.

Satin- Satin (or Eggshell) paint is the most popular paint finish on the market and is great for bedrooms, hallways, dining rooms and kitchen walls. It is wipeable but not scrubbable, so if you’re planning on painting kitchen cabinets or the wall near your toddler’s art table, it’s best to select a paint with a higher sheen.

Semi Gloss- Semi gloss paint is great for trim, kitchens, bathrooms and kitchen cabinets. It does have a noticeable sheen to it and will reflect a small amount of light. If you feel your interior paint will see a fair amount of mess from sticky hands or even crayons, this is the finish for you.

Glossy- Glossy paint provides a sleek shine and a very polished look for your interior paint colors. If you want to be sure your walls are wipeable and don’t mind a higher sheen finish, then glossy paint is the right choice for your house painting project.

Now that you know what paint color you would like to use and what finish is best for your painting project, you’re ready to pick up some paint and get started. However, if you find yourself in a time crunch or are not up for popping open a can of paint give us a call. We at Williams Professional Painting have a very experienced and friendly staff of painters who can step in and help you from beginning to end! When they walk out the front door of your Washington DC or Northern, VA home they will leave you with a beautiful paint job that will stand up to the test of time.

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