Benjamin Moore Aura vs Sherwin Williams Harmony?

[amldaley]

Gotta get the paint tonight or tomorrow...Fresh Aire is out (too much work!)

We have a Sherwin Williams reasonably close...anyone try their "Harmony" low VOC paint?

I am reading good things re: Benjamin Moore Aura paint...anyone else want to chime in???

[lizajane]

really liked the sherwin williams. it was very thick and looks fantastic. i did need two coats, but i could have put it in thicker the first time- i just didn't want it to splatter.

[KpbS]

We used Sherwin Williams Harmony throughout our house and it was great. I'd recommend it to anyone. Basically no odor.

[brittone2]

I haven't tried the SW stuff, but we used the Benjamin Moore Aura in one room not too long ago and we were very happy with it.

[Tondi G]

I think my sister used the Aura paint and her living room and dining room look fantastic.. no smell at all!

[clc053103]

Overall, Benjamin Moore is better paint than Sherwin Williams (we bought a money pit and have repainted every surface, so we have plenty of experience with both!) so I would say go with Benjamin Moore!

[happymomma]

We used Sherwin Williams Harmony paint in our old place and loved it. It painted well and there was really no smell. So another vote for Sherwin Williams Harmony painted.

[alexsmommy]

Love Aura. Haven't used SW.

[caheinz]

Love Aura. Haven't used SW.

Ditto.

Could easily do one coat with Aura, using the right tools and technique. Even with a dark color over light/white.

[crazydiamond]

Used BM Aura for baby room - won't use it again. Difficult to apply, and while low toxic - it still smells.

[mmsmom]

Aura gets top ratings by Consumer Reports. But Benjamin Moore also has a line called ECO that is low VOC and 1/2 the price of Aura. There was very little smell. A painter just used it in several rooms in our house. It looks great, but can't comment on how it will last since it was just done.

[jhrabosk]

Our contractor pretty much insisted on using Aura. According to him, it doesn't require a primer (at least on new sheetrock), so that saved us money. We used it in three rooms and were very satisfied. My only comment is that whatever we used in our bathroom (a lower "gloss" than the other rooms), showed many more imperfections (seams, nailhead, etc) than the higher gloss paint in other rooms.

[kwc]

LOVE Aura. Have it in the hallways/ kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms of our new house (eggshell, matte and semigloss, respectively).
Minimal odor, good scrubbability. We had BM Regal in all the other rooms in flat or matte and while the color is good, the scrubbability was _horrible_. We were dumb enough to paint the hallways and stairwell in flat and decided to repaint with Aura Eggshell because the toddler handprints were driving me nuts and it looked even worse when I tried to scrub with water. The odor is minimal, was able to have the kids playing in the house 2 hours later when it was dry. We have Aura Matte in the kids bedrooms and it scrubs better than the Regal matte, though not as well as eggshell.

One thing, Aura is thick and dries FAST so it may not be the easiest paint for a homeowner to paint with. As long as you work in small sections and don't back paint you will probably be fine. But we had painters do it because I am a sllllloooow painter.

No experience with Sherwin Williams... I really love the BM colors. We used a few of the Affinity (Aura only) colors for the kids rooms and bathroom.

There is a new BM paint called Natura that is zero VOC (vs. low VOC) that just came out but it may not be available everywhere yet and I have no experience with it though I am intrigued and will try it if we have to paint again. One thing to note is that some companies make a low VOC paint base but use the same pigments that can add a lot of VOCs/ odor, I think Aura has to use different water based pigments.

[tmonroe]

We love, love, love Aura paint. If you are using white though I recommend the Benjamin Moore Eco Spec which smells like ice cream. It's cheaper. We use Aura for colors but Eco Spec for whites/off whites.

[jenmcadams]

One thing, Aura is thick and dries FAST so it may not be the easiest paint for a homeowner to paint with. As long as you work in small sections and don't back paint you will probably be fine. But we had painters do it because I am a sllllloooow painter.


We love BM paints and used Aura for two bright red walls in my DS's room. While we got the color we wanted to in just two coats (primer + 1 coat of Aura -- the shade we had picked was one of the few reds you need to use a primer with even with Aura), it was more difficult to work with. We did the two bright blue walls using the standard BM paint and they looked great too and it's not nearly as thick.

I have no experience with SW paint, but we have always loved BM

[Schooley82]

Overall, Benjamin Moore is better paint than Sherwin Williams (we bought a money pit and have repainted every surface, so we have plenty of experience with both!) so I would say go with Benjamin Moore!

Actually Benjamin Moore is NOT higher quality, they are approx the same quality, with subtle differences in their products. The main difference is the color palette they offer... which is now irrelevant due to precise color matching. So basically no difference between the two.

[kcimato]

I used Aura in my MBR and bath. I found it difficult to use but I think I will get better at it next time. It dries really fast and you can't go back over it. It also took 2 coats I think 2 coats looks better anyway.