Sunday, February 21, 2010

Home Paint - A personal view

As a fine art painter, I've been through experimenting with many brands of artist paints and there are huge differences between brands. Ultimately I've learned to only purchase my favorite brand, American-made GOLDEN paint, which comes with the high price tag as well.

As a painter I am happy with my choice after much experimentation with acrylics. There are other good brands but the one I like the most is Golden! It has brilliant pigment, many choices, applies beautifully and smells pleasant.

When it comes to home paint, the same principles apply. Over the years I've painted with many different types of home paint and after many painted walls in my two homes I found my favorite - Ralph Lauren home paint! Boy, was I excited when I found out how beautiful this paint works on my walls. It started with a paint chip from Home Depot and I decided to buy couple of gallons to paint a room. Since then I never looked back and only wanted to use RL paint.

In the past I have used other Home Depot brands. The one that is pushed on the consumer the most is Behr paint, that in my many experiences can be OK paint but nowhere close to the properties and behavior of RL. Comparatively speaking Behr cost more than RL once I account for things like quality of pigments, uniformity of coverage, dripping etc. I refuse to use Behr any longer. My standard has increased and my heart set on RL!

Last night I made a trip to Home Depot to choose some white shades in my favorite brand and was disappointed to find out that Home Depot is no longer carrying Ralph Lauren. Instead, RL is being replaced by Martha Stuart! Martha Stuart was selling her stuff at Kmart for years and now is going after one of the biggest home improvement chains. I have nothing to say about her paint, but I honestly doubt that I am willing to try it, especially because she pushed out my favorite.

I also found out that Behr is now a lot more costly because it is renamed to be ultra premium, and apparently now contains primer mixed inside the paint so that it covers better. Compared to approximately $22 per gallon that it used to be, Behr is now priced at around $32. Nice price increase! Home Depot also has some green paint that costs around $37 per gallon. I like the idea of this no VOC paint but again, I am not sure I want to try at my own expense.

So, now I am grieving the loss of RL availability and waiting for their customer service to call me back and tell me where can I now get it!

The point that I want to get across is that our consumerist society buys products without much scrutiny to their quality. Whomever has the biggest marketing budget and the glossiest label wins! It is not about what is inside the can, but what is being pushed at people.

If I fail at finding RL dealer locally, I'll explore Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore and other reputable home paint lines. I simply refuse to be forced into using Behr or trying Martha because my favorite is no longer there!