I imagine that many people including myself only think about the planned or suggested colour for any decorating project when it is getting near the time that they actually wish to purchase paint. However it is just as important to decide which type of paint should be used and for which surface etc and the final finish that is required needs to be carefully considered.



I will attempt to set out some of the various options that are available and usually work well in most average settings.

Various Types of Paint:

The terms used in paint Latex and oil base are often used rather loosely. When a painter specifies a gallon of a certain brand of latex, he may in reality often be getting non-latex or an artificial-latex water based paint. The explanation here is that there are continuously new products being developed using synthetic materials that perform more or less identical to latex. Naturally many of these paints still carry "latex" on their label. Where a paint or stain product is referred to "acrylic" or "water based", it usually has the same properties similar as that of latex paint, even if it does not include the term latex pain on the can. Similarly when you ask for an oil-based paint you may get the similar alkyd. In this article I have used the term "latex" to also include other similar water-based paints, and the term "oil-base" to include alkyd.

Effects of varying degrees of Gloss High gloss, semi gloss, eggshell, satin, low sheen and flat, these are all very general terms, and it can often be noticed that as one moves from one brand of paint to another or perhaps from one type of paint to another the gloss factor will change. A very good example of this is that with many paint companies you will find that their interior oil based semi gloss appears to be quite a lot glossier than their interior latex semi gloss. In addition a satin oil finish from one company may look to have the same shine factor as perhaps semi gloss oil from another paint manufacturer. Obviously it is important to choose the correct gloss and in many ways this is just as important as selecting the right choice of colour.

A shining surface sends out a much different effect than a non-shinny surface and so the degree of gloss will most certainly influence the final outcome of the entire project.