The Art of Selecting Premium Paints for a Beautiful Home

Selecting the right paint is integral to achieving a beautiful, durable, and vibrant finish in any home decor project. Premium paints offer unparalleled coverage, protection, and aesthetic quality compared to standard paints. 

This article will explore the key considerations and best practices for choosing premium paint brands and products to realise your interior and exterior painting visions.

Understanding Premium Paint Qualities

Premium paints contain high volumes of top-grade resins, pigments, and additives that enhance hide, adhesion, and protection well beyond basic paints. A key ingredient that defines premium paints is Titanium Dioxide, a thickening agent that grants remarkable hiding power and guards against UV damage. 

Premium brands also rigorously test paint samples, allowing them to perfect adhesion, appearance, and application across different surfaces.

When selecting premium paints for your projects, it is wise to test samples yourself under real-world conditions. Observe how the paint applies to intended surfaces and how it reacts to light throughout the day. This helps inform durable, aesthetically-pleasing paint choices.

Exploring Paint Brands: Benjamin Moore and Farrow & Ball

Benjamin Moore and Farrow & Ball stand at the pinnacle of premium paint manufacturing. These brands offer excellent products, but differ slightly in formulas, specialities, and service options.

Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore paints frequently top industry reports for quality and colour accuracy. Their proprietary resins and Gennex® colourants create superior adhesion and vibrance while resisting yellowing and fading. 

With over 3,500 colours like the striking Red 21, Bayberry, and Sullivan Green, Benjamin Moore offers one of the most abundant yet curated palettes in modern paint manufacturing.

Farrow & Ball

Farrow & Ball is renowned for its richly pigmented, eco-friendly paints that offer unmatched depth and complexity. The brand’s paints are made with high-quality ingredients and traditional methods, resulting in colours that change subtly in different lighting conditions, adding a dynamic quality to any space. 

Farrow & Ball's curated palette of 132 colours includes iconic shades like "Elephant’s Breath," "Hague Blue," and "Railings," which have become staples in sophisticated interior design. The brand’s commitment to sustainability is evident in its low-VOC formulations, making it a preferred choice for environmentally conscious consumers. 

Farrow & Ball paints are particularly noted for their exceptional coverage and durability, ensuring a flawless finish that stands the test of time.

Choosing the Right Paint Finish

While premium paints share common traits like durability and rich pigmentation, the right finish plays a major role in realising your desired texture, sheen, and functionality. Here are the most common paint finish options:

• Flat: Recommended for ceilings and low-traffic walls. Flat (matte) paints scatter light to hide imperfections, but are harder to clean.
• Eggshell: Slightly more lustrous than flat. Ideal for residential spaces like living rooms, bedrooms, and dining spaces. Provides scrubbability with moderate light reflection.
• Satin: Appears matte from afar but shows a subtle sheen up close. Often advised for hallways, playrooms, and bathrooms requiring routine cleaning. Most versatile mid-level sheen.
• High-Gloss: Reflective and ultra-smooth finish. Best suited to areas needing moisture resistance and frequent wiping like kitchens, trim, and cabinetry. Can show imperfections.
  
  

Selecting paint sheens depends on the desired balance of aesthetics and practicality. Glosses and satins enable easy cleaning but accentuate surface flaws. For a flawless flat finish on interior walls and ceilings, premium quality paints become paramount.

Exterior Paint Considerations

Choosing exterior paint colours can impact a home’s curb appeal, resale value, and personality. Popular modern schemes in the UK utilise elegant neutrals like Farrow & Ball’s Downpipe, Skimming Stone, and Blackened. Rich blues and cooler greys are also growing in favour such as Hague Blue and Moonshine from Farrow and Ball to enhance architectural detailing against modern home exteriors.

Consider the style and material of your home before deciding on colours. Historically sympathetic shades often increase neighbourhood appeal. Bold, modern hues can energise brick facades but may overwhelm timber-framed cottages, for instance. Always test samples in situ to preview the real-world look.

Testing and Selecting Paint Colors

With any premium paint brand offering hundreds of colour options, testing swatches is instrumental in confirming your preferences. Paint small samples directly onto the intended surface whenever possible. For initial colour testing, adhere peel-and-stick paint squares to walls or use large sheets of thick paper to visualise the tones.

Observe samples in both natural and artificial light at different times of day. A colour that appears pastel in morning sunlight can intensify at dusk. Cool white LED lights can also alter undertones versus warm incandescent bulbs. Testing paints under your actual lighting ensures you select colours that always look spectacular.

Top Factors for Selecting Premium Paint

Ease of Application

Between primer and multiple finish coats, painting is extensive work. Premium paint's exceptional adhesion, spreadability, and lay down ease the painting process considerably by minimising drips, unevenness, and brush drag marks across fewer coats.

Drying Time

Quick-drying paint means less waiting time between coats. Accelerated dry times stem from premium paint's precise resin technology that uniformly sets compared to budget brands.

Durability

Premium paints maintain superior bond strength across surfaces along with exceptional resistance to scratches, scuffs, stains, and UV fading over time through rain, snow and shine. This durability comes from dense pigments and weather-tested resins that withstand years of wear without losing sheen, cracking or peeling.

Other beneficial features include one-coat coverage that guarantees full opacity after a single pass, self-priming abilities to skip the primer step altogether, and advanced formulations to prevent mould and mildew.

Timing Your Paint Purchases

Paint costs fluctuate somewhat predictably each year. According to Consumer Reports, the best deals emerge twice annually in May and September when brands compete to entice homeowners tackling remodelling projects. Plan ahead and purchase premium paints during these savings windows. Or leverage coupons and sales to lower costs without sacrificing quality.

Professional Painting and Decorating Services

From assessing conditions to mastering cutting-in techniques, painting requires significant skill and dexterity. Professional painters have the experience to recommend optimal paint solutions for each surface and lighting condition in your home. They also take care of intensive preparation and cleanup while delivering impeccable results at impressive speeds.

Reputable painting and decorating contractors are available across the UK to assist on small or extensive projects. They also offer colour consultancy, faux finishing, wallpapering and more, routinely generating sophisticated finishes bespoke to each client at fair competitive prices.

Conclusion

Choosing the perfect paint entails balancing sheen, depth, and practicality across each surface. Premium paints available from Benjamin Moore Paints and Farrow & Ball. offer endless options for creating stunning, resilient interiors and exteriors that better preserve their colour and integrity over time compared to basic paints. 

Experiment with samples, consult professionals if needed, and remember seasonal savings for paint purchases. With some thoughtful planning and strategic colour selections, you can realise painting excellence fit for a magazine cover while still enjoying the painting process.