Best paint for my shop

[Charlie Watson]

Based on what my painter says eggshell has been replaced by swiss coffee, probably the same damn thing!

[Mel Fulks]

This thread reminds me of numerous trips to offices to let customers go through color chips . They ,of course, always chose beige .But we made them PROVE they were " sophisticated" by showing them some bright pretty colors,too.

[John Hays]

For what it's worth, I painted my shop walls a light medium grey with dark grey trim (all semi-gloss) and used black 4" vinyl wall base at the bottom. The only windows are 4 little 22x12s that run across the top of the garage door.

All I can say is that I've never noticed any lost light or a distracting sheen while working in there. In fact, I plan on painting my cabinets black with grey doors and don't see any reason I should re-think that decision. And yes, I do know a thing or two about color theroy and enviornmental color schemes, even though I'm not an interior designer.

The basic rule to retaining consistent light throughout an interior space is to refrain from using large areas of dark colors. Also, it's a good idea to stay away from warm vivid colors such as reds, oranges and yellows... they will alter your emotional state subconciously and give you a feeling of irratation or impatience over time. And as others have mentioned, the closer you get to pure white, the more stress will be inflicted upon your eyes.

So with that in mind, paint your shop with whatever color that makes you happy.

For me, grey is a very neutral and emotionless color, which allows me to concentrate on my work and not on how ugly or pretty my shop looks. The blacks and dark greys help to break up the space by adding a little contrast without being too distracting.

As an anecdote, I told my wife about the colors I was going to use. She just gave me that 'you're-such-a-typical-man-and-have-absolutely-no-taste' speach and said there's no way in H-E-double-toothpicks that I was going to paint her side of the garage in those colors (both bays in our 2 car garage are separated by a wall). Well, one day she came home after work as I was finishing up the vinyl wall base. She opened the door and stood there for a moment looking at what I had accomplished, then she walked over to me and said, "Would you do my side when you're done here?". I just grinned and said, "Sure, I'll run down to the hardware store and grab a few gallons of pink!" ;D

[Jim Becker]

Based on what my painter says eggshell has been replaced by swiss coffee, probably the same damn thing!

Eggshell normally refers to the "sheen" of the paint, not the color. So you could have "shiny" swiss coffer or "less shiny" swiss coffee or "almost not shiny at all" swiss coffee or "dull as dirt" swiss coffee.

[Charlie Watson]

Well after reading all the posts I went to my local paint store and explained what I was doing. They thought the high-reflective semi gloss white would be hard on the eyes too and given the natural light and the strip lights I'll be putting in I would b fine with an off white and it would be more comfortable to be in. So the winning paint spec is Swiss Coffee in satin.

[Ole Anderson]

Swiss Coffee sounds like the stock off-white Behr from HD, originally did most of my home interior in that color. I went with their Ultra Pure White satin on a few shop walls. Never regretted it.

[Carl Beckett]

Hmmmm..... I just painted parts of my shop.... Black (or charcoal, or dark grey). Just today in fact. A small section of ceiling and some overhead beams. Note he walls aren't up yet so the bulk of the color hasn't been determined, so it's interesting to hear the experience of others here.

[Charles Wiggins]

Benjamin Moore: http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/p...or/swisscoffee
Behr: http://www.myperfectcolor.com/en/col...2-Swiss-Coffee

[Mel Fulks]

Charles,thanks for posting the beige,it has a lot of aliases. That's it ,Yes ,I'm sure.

[Dale Larson]

Jim,

I see you are increasing the lighting in your shop to 12-14 fixtures, each with four 4' T-8's. As I am in the planning stage for lighting my shop, what is the size of your shop that you are relighting? Thanks,

Dale

[Jason Roehl]

As a painter, I would stay away from semi-gloss. While it would be the most durable and easiest to clean, the extra sheen will cause glare, which you would find undesirable. On the other end of the spectrum would be flat paint in a light color or white, which does an excellent job at brightening a room by diffusing the light. However, flat paint scuffs easily and is excellent at holding dust and dirt which then does not wipe off easily without damaging the finish. If your shop is very large, flat paint may be an option as you'd be less likely to contact the walls on a regular basis. Also, the lower the sheen, the more the defects in the surface of the wall are hidden if that sort of thing is important to you.

What you want would be a satin or eggshell finish (some paint manufacturers have eggshell as a color, I'm talking about sheen). These paints provide a reasonable compromise between diffusion and durability. The more you spend on the paint, the more durable the lower-sheen paints in that line will generally be.

As for color, that's a personal preference. Personally, I like lots of light, and if I'm working, pure white walls and ceilings wouldn't bother me. If there were too much light, I'd turn some off. Lighter colors tend to make rooms seem larger, and a small color sample will look darker on the color chip than it will on a whole wall.

Painting is my day job...

[Ron Potter]

There is a whole science of colour out there. For instance, I saw a talk once where they told us that you should never paint a northern-facing room blue, since the only light you get through the windows is indirect, the room will always feel colder/dimmer.

But you're also dealing with personal preference.

My shop is in the basement, and has only one window, so I went with a warm sunshiny orangey/yellow sort of thing. I like it. It is an energizing colour.

Exactly. I think its very easy sometimes to make assumptions. When I heard Swiss Coffee, I immediately thought of a light cocoa color. I looked it up and it appears to be an off white.
Probably want a few shades darker than stark white. One the other hand not sure why you should be hamstrung to this shade when there are tons of off white shades.

Check through all the sample chips and fine a a shade you like.

Get a gallon, or better yet, a quart .See what it looks like on a large section of wall. Coverage, etc. If you like it, go back and get the rest to finish.

H20110901-Palette-Perfect-Swiss-Coffee-paint.jpg

Here is a sample of BM Swiss Coffee.

[Jerome Stanek]

Swiss coffee can be many different colors. CVS calls for Glidden Swiss Coffee and some painter try to cheat and use other brands we did a store where they did this and it was way to yellow and the painter said he used Swiss Coffee from MAB. He had to repaint because the specs spells out you have to use Glidden Ultra series paint.

[Art Mulder]

Check through all the sample chips and fine a a shade you like.

Get a gallon, or better yet, a quart .See what it looks like on a large section of wall. Coverage, etc. If you like it, go back and get the rest to finish.

- Never make a decision based on one colour chip under the store lighting.

- Always take the chip home and check it under the actual lighting of the room you want to paint. We typically take 3-4 chips of each colour we like, and cut them out and tape them together to make a larger colour sample.

- remember to hold the chips up in different parts of the room -- the windows/lighting will affect the colour. It WILL look different in different corners of the room.

- some paint stores near us offer small sample cans for about $6-7 (about the size of a small tea cup) so you can check out the actual colour on a larger surface.
I would find it expensive to buy an entire gallon just to try it out!

[Gus Dundon]

Looking forward to see your shop newly painted with your tools in it.