Matt or satin paint for walls?

breadwinners

Shops seem to stock predominently matt yet I thought satin might lighten the rooms.

Any views? Also what make do people go for? Got a whole house to paint in magnolia.

rachbc

matt everytime for me

DVardysShadow

breadwinners wrote: »

Shops seem to stock predominently matt yet I thought satin might lighten the rooms.

Any views? Also what make do people go for? Got a whole house to paint in magnolia.

The difference between matt, satin and gloss even, in terms of light, is how randomly they reflect it. Satin is a little less random and gloss even less random. But it makes little difference to the overall light in a room - that is purely down to the specific colour.

Matt is best for walls, because there is less scope for showing up the ripples in the plasterwork.

If you have a whole house to do, get a good trade emulsion, not a DIY product. DIY tends to be oriented towards easier application at the expense of coverage. But you do need to water down trade emulsion to a certain extent.

aliasojo

Matt all the way. Satin will highlight imperfections more as said above and it's also viewed as being a little old fashioned now. Satin used to be more widely used years ago until the trend shifted towards matt, so satin walls are seen as not as modern. Apparently.

TomsMom

We've just had a house renovated and everywhere has been decorated in vinyl matt. We've always previously used vinyl silk.

I like the look of the matt paint but have found that it does show up scuffs and rubs which wouldn't show up on silk, e.g. where you come through the door carrying something and perhaps rub up against the wall. My beautiful new walls, finished only a couple of months ago, now have lots of these rub marks on it. Trade emulsion was used (we had a professional decorator do it). We had a durable matt in the kitchen and that is better, you can wipe marks away and it doesn't mark the surface.

So matt does seem to be the paint of the moment but I personally haven't found it as hard wearing as silk.

loracan1

If there are children in the house matt is next to useless, those grubby fingermarks round about the 3 feet mark will never come off.

Curiously I've never gone for a finish because of how 'modern' it is, always to my own preference!


ETA: I have a wall painted in a dark colour that does look great in matt, just that around the door frames it's marked and can't wipe it down without marking the wall. Have the scrubbable stuff in other rooms and prefer that.

helping_hubby

I prefer the look of Matt, but as TomsMom says it shows up scuffs and marks although it hides imperfections in the walls better. We've used matt in the bedrooms, but silk in the hallway and stairs and I find you can just wipe of marks easily.

We've actually got Crown silk in the living room, but it doesn't seem to be as shiny as Dulux silk.

rosekitten

We have mid sheen in the sittingroom
it has the look of matt but is smooth when
you touch it,it is very washable
for all those tell tale finger prints,marks etc
Stardrops shifts everything.
Also it covered in one coat which was a blessing
as our walls in parts were in a shocking state.

skiTTish

We use scrubbable/washable matt ,best of both worlds

breadwinners

Thanks for the replies.

Steve_xx

I prefer matt. The reason being that in modern homes you often get a build up of moisture, particularly in the winter months when the heating is on. If the walls are all painted with vinyl, then you will often get condensation running down the walls as the warm air is cooled when it touches the cold walls. This tends not to happen quite so readily with matt because it is more porous than its vinyl counterpart and therefore the moisture is more readily absorbed and dissipated.