One of my projects this summer is repainting the kids rooms. I want a good quality but affordable paint. Beings it is for the kids room, I really want it to be washable. Also, as I have never painted rooms before, what other recommendations can you give me; flat, semi gloss, etc. TIA!!!

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Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.
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I prefer paint from a specialty paint store. We have Sherwin Williams and Hirshfield's here and they both have awesome paint. If I have to use paint from a hardware store, I like Behr. It's available at Home Depot here. I use eggshell or satin. Anything else to too shiny for me. I would never use flat, much too hard to wash. Generally, the shinier the paint the more washable it is, though I'm sure there are exception. However, the more shine the paint has, the more it shows imperfections in the wall.

Believe it or not, the paint from WalMart rates pretty well. I also recommend a satin or semi-gloss to make it more durable.

Personally, I've had bad experiences with Behr. It is a paint I tend to avoid.

Certain colors are more durable than others. Red and yellow tend to be very difficult paints make 'stick'. They tend to chip off the wall easier and they needs lots of paint solids in order to get good color saturation. If you're going with a darker or more intense color, make sure the base matches. A 'dark base' paint won't be overly watered down by the color additive.

Look for 'oops paints' or 'mistints' in the paint department that are close to or lighter than the paint color you want. Usually a gallon of mistint is sold for $5 or less. Most stores will even add more coloring to the can if it isn't exactly right. We frequently buy mistints for painting projects. We'll buy a couple of cans that are close to what we want and mix them all together in a 5 gallon bucket (which, if you need more than one gallon for the room is what you should do anyway.) If you find a color close to what you want but it is too dark, simply mix it with a can of white.

Actually, a lot of our paint comes from the recycling center where it is completely free. Most of our house is painted with free paint.

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Color wise I am going with white or a very light cream color. Not the best color for kids rooms, but I want everything to look nice and bright. The lighting in those rooms is not the best (kinda crappy really) and one room even has dark brown carpet so I am trying to lighten up everything. Thanks for all the input it is all really helpful.

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Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.
Jon Bon Jovi

I highly recommend Ben Moore's in any color with Aqua Pearl finish. It has a "pearly" finish (DUh!!) that holds up VERY well to washing. It was recommended by my contractor, and he was so right on! BTW, a great way to spot clean your painted walls is with baby wipes - they work great (also a contractor hint!!).

I actually love Behr, we've had wonderful luck with it. We have also used Sherwin Williams with great results. I think it really depends on a lot of things, what colors you're choosing, what finish, how you're cleaning it etc as to whether or not it wears well or not. We usually do bedrooms and living areas in eggshell or flat. I know a lot of people don't like flat, but we do. The shinest we get is satin, and we'd use that in a bathroom or kitchen. We've never had any problems with washability or the paint not standing up to our household.

We have had good luck with Behr as well as many family members.