Sheen & Durability
Flat to gloss — what each one hides, what each one shows, and where each belongs.
Sheen is how much light a paint film reflects, and it trades two things against each other in a straight line: the shinier the paint, the tougher and more washable it is, and the more of the wall's flaws it shows.
The ladder
Flat / matte — no reflection, hides everything, marks easily and burnishes when scrubbed. Ceilings, low-traffic adult rooms, and any wall with bad drywall.
Eggshell — a faint sheen. The general-purpose interior wall finish, and the sheen most modern washable paints are formulated around.
Satin — noticeably reflective, wipes clean. Kitchens, kids' rooms, hallways.
Semi-gloss — hard, moisture resistant, obvious. Trim, doors, bathrooms.
Gloss — furniture-like. Front doors, cabinets, and almost nothing else in a house.
By room
| Room | Walls | Trim |
|---|---|---|
| Living, bedroom | Flat or eggshell | Semi-gloss |
| Hallway, stairs | Eggshell or satin | Semi-gloss |
| Kitchen | Satin | Semi-gloss |
| Bathroom | Satin | Semi-gloss |
| Kids' room | Satin | Semi-gloss |
| Ceilings | Flat | — |
Ceilings are flat almost without exception. A ceiling is lit from below at a raking angle by every lamp in the room, and any sheen at all turns every drywall joint into a visible band.
Why flat paint burnishes
Flat paint gets its lack of reflection from a high pigment-to-binder ratio — pigment particles sit proud of the film and scatter light. Rubbing the surface polishes those particles flat, so the rubbed patch reflects more than the wall around it and reads as a shiny smear.
It is mechanical, not dirt, and washing makes it worse. This is the single reason not to put flat paint in a hallway.
The modern "matte" and "scuff-resistant" lines are flat paints with enough binder to resist this, and they are a genuine improvement rather than a marketing one — at roughly twice the price.
Sheen and the wall underneath
Every step up the ladder makes the drywall behind it more visible. A satin wall over a level 4 finish shows the joints; the same wall in flat does not.
Which means the sheen decision and the drywall finish decision are one decision, and it has to be made before the taper leaves.
Touching up
Flat touches up nearly invisibly. Eggshell touches up acceptably. Satin and above do not touch up at all — the repaired patch has a different sheen because it was applied with a different tool at a different thickness, and the only fix is to paint the full wall corner to corner.
On a wall that will be touched up, that argues down the ladder by one step.
0 articles
Nothing published here yet.