Over the years, I’ve become friends with paint. My turning point from store-brand paint to quality brands came when my husband and I redid a four-bedroom fixer upper with two preschool kids in tow.
In that exhausting era of my life, I drove over to our newly purchased, vacant house after my husband got home from work in the evening and painted long into the night. Benjamin Moore paints came to my rescue for many reasons.
The job was truly done in one coat, a huge time-saver. Once the paint was dry, the color matched the paint chip I’d chosen- no surprises. Perhaps most important, the Affinity line of colors was up-to-date and offered just enough variety to be interesting but not so much that I was overwhelmed.
This is not your big box store paint brand and can only be sold by stores who are certified. For that reason, Benjamin Moore may be a bit more expensive than the brand you are use to. But some things are well worth the money, and a quality home paint, I’ve learned, is one of them.
I usually find my gallon spreads farther than I anticipated. The “leftovers” make great chalk paint, when mixed with the simple recipe below:
- 1 Tablespoon Plaster of Paris
- 1 Tablespoon of Diatomaceous Earth
- 1 Tablespoon warm water
- Mix these three and remove all lumps.
- Add 1 cup paint and mix well. That’s it!
- Finish with a furniture wax or shellac meant for chalk paint to enjoy the longest durability.
During our most recent move- downsizing from the large home where we’d raised our kids to a cozy rental, I decided to take a bit of our old house with us by painting some of our “tired” furniture with the colors I’d come to love on the walls of our home. I used the chalk paint recipe above and was delighted with the finished projects.
Take a fieldtrip to your local B-M distributor and you’ll find some extra perks like giant-sized swatches that really give you an idea how the color will look on your wall. Remember that their “classic” colors won’t be discontinued, so you can come back for touch up paint years after the initial job is over. They are also happy to match other brands as closely as possible.
Try it out and let me know what you think!