Amherst, NY; — A nice project over the holidays- doing some interior painting at a local dentist office in Snyder. They’re closed between Christmas and New Years which is the perfect time to get some painting done at the office!
Today, I started with two patient rooms. Removed the chair-rail and the wallpaper border, some minor patching, priming and then painting. The colors we went with is Gargoyle and Simply White by Benjamin Moore. We are using Behr Dynasty Paint.
Before
Green Room
Red Room
Prep before Painting
It is often said that prep work is the majority of a paint job, which is true. Sanding, patching, priming, is all part of the job. Sometimes its as minor as pole sanding walls and ceilings, often times it is more involved. We removed the chair rail from the red room, and the wallpaper border from the green room. Both areas required priming, patching and then more priming.
Both areas are primed prior to patching- in the red rood with the removal of the chair-rail, the rail was glued to the wall, so upon removing it pulled off the top layers of the drywall, leaving the dark paper exposed. The issue is if you attempt to patch over that paper, the drywall compound will bubble and peal off as the brown paper is not designed to take mud. Prime the paper first, then patch. Then prime again.
We always prime after patching, this is due to the different absorption rates between bare drywall compound, and the painted wall surface. Paint and primer is a myth. Dedicated primers seal the surface so patchwork doesn’t flash or ghost through the finished surface.
We prime the area with the wallpaper so as to seal in any residual wallpaper glue, so it doesn’t affect the patching material which can cause adhesion issues later.
Green Room
Red Room
We also primed the red areas with primer as well, as those areas are going simply white. Red can be hard to cover, even with top of the line paints.
Painting Walls
Behr Dynasty vs. Benjamin Moore Aura
Painting of the rooms went pretty well except for one minor detail. Home Depot made the wrong white. They gave me Simple White from Sherwin, instead of Simply White. I made it to the point of needing more paint before realizing I had the wrong color. Oops. This error is 100% my fault. But below we have two rooms, edged (cut-in) twice, and rolled once in Behr Dynasty. These two rooms are exactly the same (wrong) color. No idea why they look different in pictures.
Behr
Red Room
Green Room
So, I decided to just go to Benjamin Moore next to Bill Grays on Main in Clarence, since I was right there, and get the correct color. Two gallons of Aura should do the trick. Back to Snyder..
Benjamin Moore
Red Room – Finished
Green Room – Finished
So instead of having a short day on Friday, I had an 11 hour day, to finish this so I wouldn’t have to come back Sunday, as the dentist office is open on Monday. Five years ago, it would be close whether Aura would go in one coat of paint, today, there was no way it would go in one coat, and a couple of areas needed a third coat of paint. Aura used to be an amazing product. A truly one coat coverage paint. What happened?
Should have stuck with Behr Dynasty. My fault for not double checking the colors prior to leaving the store, and prior to opening the can. But the end results are nice.
Final Thoughts
A couple of things to note, Benjamin Moore, changed their formulas in 2023. The Aura I used, and the Aura I remember are two different products. For the price premium BM is charging- $100+ a gallon, the paint shouldn’t be so drippy, and saggy, and coverage could be better especially when compared to Behr Dynasty which is $30 cheaper.
Now granted I may have put it on a little heavy in the first photo, however wow. I was not expecting that. The paint also seemed to dry incredibly fast. It seemed to begin to tack-up with in 3 minutes or so, there was very little time to work with it. In the second photo, its important to note the area above and around this box, was cut twice with Behr Dynasty, and no drips and no overspray. With in 3 brush strokes with Aura along the ceiling, I had drips like this. And to think, this is supposed to be a premium paint? Not impressed. I don’t feel its worth the premium price tag. Dynasty wins, again. And its cheaper!
Over all this was a nice little project over the holidays.
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