Satin or Gloss?

phoebe1989seb

Eggshell all the way here. It's what we've used in our last four houses as we don't like the shininess of gloss.

In the house before that - sold in 2007, so quite a few years ago - we used Dulux (iirc) Brushwood everywhere except the kitchen. It was a two part application that gave a finish akin to wood graining. It was me that applied it (being a stay at home mum I volunteered, like I had nothing better to do, lol 🙄) and, the house having three receptions, six bedrooms as well as a mahoosive hall with sweeping staircase, it took me blooming ages!

Although at the time it suited our aesthetic, I was actually quite pleased when the shops stopped stocking it!

Eggshell is soooo much easier 😉

badger09

Alter_ego said:

I  changed our last house from satin to gloss, satin shows dirty handprints much more than gloss and is harder to clean. I worked in engineering so dirty hands were the norm.

2 '70 somethings' here so not many dirty handprints to contend with. Though my husband does have a pathological aversion to using door handles

Chickereeeee

We had eggshell for decades in our previous house, and recently moved to a 1920's house that had immaculate (oil based) gloss paintwork. Initially, I sort if liked it, and it suited the house: indeed I painted a window surround using the same paint. Again, results were immaculate, although I say it myself. Visitors wanted to stroke it, it looked so smooth.

However, several things drew me gack to eggshell/satin:

1) Oil based paint yellows if it doesn't get a lot of light
2) Water-based glosses stay white, but the finish is nowhere near as good as oil based.
3) The immaculate, shiny finish was noticeable, indeed distracting. I don't really want to notice the woodwork every time I go into a room! It was not resful.
4) Wood expands and contracts with the seasons, and the oil-based gloss paint did tend to crack more easily at joins. It was also more difficult to touch up. Water based satin/eggshell is easy to invisibly touch-up, and doesn't seem to crack as much.

Now all back to restful, stylish eggshell/satin.