I think I’ve mentioned in the past that I was the designated painter for our new house.  I’ve done a ton of painting, particularly at our old house.  I don’t hate it, as long as I have some peace and quiet to do it.  That wasn’t a problem in the new house, as my family wasn’t there :).

Which Paint Should I Use for New Construction?

In the past when I’ve painted, the best paint I had ever “paid-up” for was Behr from Home Depot.  I don’t remember the specific Behr paint that it was, but it was Behr brand.  I’ve never been one to buy expensive paint because Color Place from Walmart has always served it’s purpose.  This time I would need to prime everything first, and do at least 2 coats of the final color.  In the past i had lucked out and painted rooms that were lighter than the color that I wanted the walls to be.  I had never painted fresh drywall either.

As I started looking at the task before me I decided to look into having a professional painter do some of the harder rooms, which I defined as enormous or very tall.  The first 2 rooms that came to mind were the foyer and the family room.  Both of these rooms were approximately 17 feet tall and the family room is the biggest room in the house. 

When speaking to the best local painter, he recommended that I try the Aura paint by Benjamin Moore.  He said it was pricey, but it saves an entire labor step of having to prime everything first because it’s self-priming.  He also said that it covers much better than your typical paint.  After some research I found the following benefits:

• Self priming, even in bathrooms and spas
• Coverage was well beyond average after the first coat
• The paint doesn’t “flash” when you touch it up due to some color-lock technology they have
• It washes with out leaving marks in the paint
• You can use a matte paint in a bathroom as opposed to a semi-gloss
• 1 hour recoat time, with superfast drying
• Low VOC, low odor

Sounded good to me, but how much $$!!!!

Turns out it was a little over double what I was used to paying for a gallon of paint.  There was definitely some sticker shock.  Then I did the following:

• Calculated how many gallons of Walmart’s Color Place I would need per room
• Calculated the cost of primer for the whole house
• Calculated the extra time it would take to prime and paint

I came to the conclusion that I would need less paint per room, no primer, and spend a third less time.  Since I was already taking a whole week off of work to do this, the time saver was very important in my decision making process.  I found that Aura paint goes for anywhere between $48/gallon to $60/gallon depending on where you look.  Because of the quantity of paint that I had to buy, I was able to get it for around $48/gallon.  It was well worth the extra money.

Colors We Chose: (how many shades of beige can we fit in one house? :) )

Foyer and Upstairs Hall Truffle – AF-130	Living Room Subtle – AF-310	Dining Room Citrine – AF-370 White Chair Rail and Wainscot	Kitchen/Breakfast Nook Manchester Tan – HC-81
Family Room Bleeker Beige – HC-80	Mud Room Elmira White – HC-84	Office Agave– AF-420	Office Accent Wall Kona– AF-165
First Floor Bath Manchester Tan – HC-81	Master Bedroom Hush – AF-95	Master Bath Frappe – AF-85	Spare Bedroom Subtle – AF-310
Eldest's Room Light Yellow – 2022-60	Youngest’s Room Soft Pink – 2012-70	Kid’s Bath, Laundry Room, Play Room, Closets Cotton Balls – OC-122

Technique

As I mentioned before, I had never painted fresh drywall before.  The biggest difference for me was how much paint was absorbed on the first coat.  I was also used to getting away without sanding between coats.  That wasn’t really an option with fresh drywall.  The paint feathers up the drywall paper a bit creating rough patches on the wall.  I got a much better finish by pole sanding between coats.

In the past I’ve always used tape on edges, trim, etc…  I tried one room without taping and it took me forever to cut-in.  I went back to the tape, and it flew right along.  The biggest issue with the tape was that it didn’t pull away clean.  It tore the paint in some spots.  I had my painter cut-in again, and all was good.