How to Choose the Right Paint Finish for Different Rooms in Your Home

Choosing the right colour palette for your home is not an easy task, but choosing the right paint finish is even more difficult.

Once you have selected a theme for your place and have picked out the colours for each room, you are required to choose between different types of wall paints. Now, the biggest mistake most people make at this point is choosing the same paint finish for the entire house. This could be disastrous as you’ll have to spend more money down the road to get it fixed.

The thing is that every paint finish has its own benefits and drawbacks depending on the usage and application. Therefore, before you make any big decisions, you need to familiarize yourself with different types of paint finishes.

Different Types of Interior Paint Finishes

There are six main types of paint finishes you can choose from depending on how much foot traffic a specific part of your home receives. Some of these paint types and finishes have more sheen than others, making them visibly shinier. However, shinier paints are easier to clean and are thus more durable.

If you want to choose the right paint finish for your home, here’s a chart that you might find helpful. 

To put it simply, high gloss and flat finish are on two opposite ends of the spectrum with high gloss being the shiniest and flat paint essentially having no shine at all. The other paint finishes – semi-gloss, satin, eggshell and matte – lie somewhere in the middle.

Let’s take an in-depth look at which type of paint finish would be most suitable for different parts of your home.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Paint Finish

Here are a few factors you need to keep in mind before choosing a particular paint finish.

The texture of your walls

The type of paint finish one should choose must vary with the texture of the wall. 

If your walls are flat and have no cracks or patches, you can easily choose a glossy paint finish. However, if there are any visible imperfections on the surface, going with the matte or flat finish is a much safer option. That’s simply because paints with more sheen will only make the flaws stand out. Meanwhile, flatter paints will hide any and all imperfections in the texture.

On a side note, if your walls have any prominent flaws that aren’t structural, you can consider using wallpaper instead of painting the surface. In case you are wondering whether it’d be the right choice for you, check out our detailed guide on choosing wallpaper vs. paint for your walls.

Size of the room and natural light

You must also take into consideration the size of a room and the amount of natural light it receives. Glossy paint finishes are more reflective and allow sunlight to bounce through the room, making it look bigger. On the other hand, flat finishes are not as reflective and give an impression of receding walls.  

The usage

In order to choose the right paint finish for your home, you need to determine how each room would be used. For instance, the wall paint in your bathroom must be most water resistant than the one you select for your living room. Similarly, the paint finish in your kids’ bedroom must be glossier than your bedroom since wall paints with more sheen are easier to clean.

How to Choose the Right Paint Finish for Different Rooms

Let’s take a look at suitable paint finishes for each room in your home. 

Kitchen

Suitable paint finish: Semi-gloss or satin

When it comes to choosing the right paint finish for your kitchen, you need to keep a few things in mind. For starters, kitchens are often the busiest room in a house. Also, with all the cooking that takes place there, they are more prone to sticky fingers, grease marks and other spills. 

Therefore, semi-gloss would the best paint finish for the kitchen. However, if you find semi-gloss paint too shiny, you can paint the walls with satin finish and use semi-gloss for kitchen cabinets, trims and doors.

Both of these paint finishes are easy to clean as you can lightly scrub off the stains or wipe them off. Moreover, they are long-lasting along with being durable against mildew and dirt.

Bedroom

Suitable paint finish: Flat or matte for adults/satin for kids

Bedrooms generally see relatively less foot traffic than other parts of a house, so you can simply opt for flat or matte paint. Both of these paint finishes are water-based and thus have lower reflectivity, making them the best paint finishes for the bedroom.

However, flat and matte paints are slightly less durable since they don’t have much sheen, which also makes them harder to clean. So, if you have young children, you may want to go with a satin finish. Since it has a bit of a lustre and is much more durable, it is an excellent choice for kids’ bedrooms as you won’t have much trouble cleaning the walls.

Nonetheless, you need to be rather careful during the application as a satin finish can further accentuate any flaws in the texture of the wall. In fact, you might even be able to see inaccurate strokes of the brush if you don’t paint the wall properly.

Bathroom

Suitable paint finish: Semi-gloss

With the right colour palette and paint finish, you can make your bathroom feel like a spa.

Since bathrooms are humid, the ideal paint finish for this room must be water-resistant and easy to clean. But you can only choose the best paint finish for bathrooms depending on its usage. For instance, satin paints would work wonderfully for guest bathrooms as they hold up pretty well to gently scrubbing and are suitable for high-moisture spaces.

Meanwhile, when it comes to the bathrooms that are used quite frequently throughout the day, you should consider using semi-gloss paints. These paints are formulated to withstand water, soap and dirt. Not to mention, you can simply wipe them clean. 

However, for both satin and semi-gloss paints, touch-ups can be a little difficult – unless you have prior experience or hire a professional to take care of it. On the plus side, both of these finishes are pretty long lasting. 

Living Room and Hallways 

Suitable paint finish: Satin or eggshell

Once again, you should choose between different types of wall paints according to how much foot traffic a particular part of your home receives. 

If you have children in your house, satin might be the best paint finish for living room and hallways.

On the other hand, you can also opt for the low-sheen eggshell paint for your living room walls. It’s not as velvety as satin, but it hides minor texture flaws in a much better way. Meanwhile, you can use semi-gloss or satin paint finish on woodwork, trims and doors.

Drawing Room

Suitable paint finish: Eggshell 

Eggshell paints are essentially flat finish with only a little lustre, but they are great for places such as dining and drawing rooms. This particular finish covers up bumps and scratches on the wall quite well and holds up for a longer period of time than matte. 

Furthermore, you can also wipe dirt off the eggshell finish without ruining the colour, which makes it the most ideal type of paint finish for an enclosed space that is less prone to dirty hands and scruffs.

Of course, there are several ways to add colour to your home without picking up a paintbrush, but choosing the right colour palette can make your place look much more spacious than it actually is. In fact, a fresh coat of paint can pretty much breathe new life into your old home.

For more home décor tips and hacks, head over to Zameen Blog – the leading lifestyle blog in Pakistan.