Painting the Inside of the House

So you want to paint the inside of your home but what to use, when you look at the paints at the local home improvement center you see flat, semi gloss, egg shell, glossy, high gloss, and then different types of paint like latex and oil base. Well some basic rules are as follows:

Walls can be painted with latex, it's easier to clean up because you just use water. Flat hides imperfections better then semi gloss or eggshell but flat does not wash as well. Your glossy and high gloss will show every imperfection in the wall, so I normally recommend a latex eggshell for most homes, especially if you have kids. Now for trim you want to use Oil base. Oil base has to be cleaned up with mineral spirits, but it gives you a smoother finish that will hold up better. I normally recommend using a gloss on trim, cabinets, and shelves. The reason you want to use oil base on cabinets and shelves is oil base dries hard faster, and latex even once dry will stay soft.

If you put latex on say a book shelf and two or three weeks later put your books or knick knacks back on the shelf they will tend to stick to the paint and actually peal the paint off the shelf not only messing up the shelf but the book as well. Oil base won't peal and after hard won't stick to your items. The last thing to tell you about paint is do not go cheap, go to a real paint store like my personal favorite Kelly-More, or a Sherwin Williams, and ask for the top of the line from them. You'll pay a little more now, but it will cover better and last longer then a cheaper paint, making it a better buy in the long run.