Ralph Lauren Paint Review – Worth Price Charged
For some time, one of my friends at work has been touting the qualities of premium wall paint. Every time I tell him of a finished painting project, he asks, “Did you go with that cheap Behr stuff again?” (Behr is Home Depot’s run-of-the-mill, cover-all paint). Of course, I had. Premium paints cost about $8+ more per gallon than regular paint, and I’ve always figured “paint is paint.” What value could there be in spending an extra $8.00 on the good stuff.
Two weekends ago we decided to paint the dining room. This offerred a great opportunity to try out my friend’s advice and spring for the premium paint. I figured I wouldn’t see much difference in performance.
Ralph Lauren Paint Review
Home Depot offers Ralph Lauren as an upscale alternative to Behr. RL paint costs about $28/gallon, an $8 premium over the $19.95 Behr. Now, my friend would have preferred that I were buying Benjamin Moore paint. I didn’t realize this until after I told him proudly I had bought RL. So, there will probably be another post on BM paint after the next paint project. Maybe BM will be even better.
On to the project: Our dining room has about 390 sq. ft. of wall. We decided to go with a darker brown color to give the room an early American look. (The color and pictures of the finished room will be the subject of another post). Since the room started as a lighter beige, the brown represented a relatively major change in color.
On the side of the can, RL claims their paint will cover 400 sq. ft. per gallon. I’ve seen claims like that before. Usually, if a paint or stain says it will cover 400 sq. ft., it will cover at least 25% less, particularly if you are changing a wall color dramatically. So, I bought two gallons just to be safe.
My wife and her sisters painted the room. They covered every square inch of the wall completely — with only 4/5 of one gallon. In many places, they had put on two complete coats! RL paint went on effortlessly — even thin. But, the coverage was amazing.
Needless to say, I was impressed. I’m confident that Behr paint would have required two gallons to achieve the same look. Further, the RL paint looks great in subtle ways. We chose an eggshell finish that gleams ever-so-slightly in the light. The only downside: Now I have an extra can of brown paint and no plans to use it.
Old Paint
Chances are you’ve got cans of old paint somewhere in your house. If you’re looking to get rid of it, check out this great post detailing paint disposal. This post will show you where to donate, recycle, or dispose of old paint in a safe and proper manner.
What do you think? Do you have any experience with premium paint? Did you notice a difference? Do you think the differences are in my head?
P.S. If you live in the Baltimore Washington area and are in need of brown paint, I’ve got a great deal waiting for you 
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22 Responses to Ralph Lauren Paint Review – Worth Price Charged
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February 3rd, 2008 9:12 pm
Many many years ago an old man at work told me “good paint ain’t cheap – cheap paint ain’t good”. I consider that probably the best advice anyone ever gave me.
February 3rd, 2008 9:53 pm
I’ve been trying to use salvage paint lately… and have been making a concerted effort to buy GOOD paint if possible. I just picked up a mostly full can of Devine… on a another blogger’s recommendation. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
February 4th, 2008 6:59 am
I have found by buying the better paint, you save time on labor! Thus money in the long run. (and maybe just maybe you buy less paint.) I am a huge believer in Benjamin Moore Paint. I’ve used RL paint and it is good too. I have read about some other lesser known good paints that are described as “pudding”. I want to try them one day. I never recommend anything less than Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams paints. Not worth the extra effort to use the cheepo “milk” texture paints.
February 4th, 2008 1:04 pm
Your co-worker must be smart person to recommend good paint.
So in reality, you paid less for one gallon of RL paint vs. two gallons of behr. And not to mention, as Jen pointed, out, the savings in labor.
You should really try the BM paint. The dark bright colors is where quality paint really shines, like a deep red, orange.
If you want to see how it looks, come over one day.
February 4th, 2008 5:08 pm
We are in: Good quote. I guess I’d have to agree that it’s words to live by.
Jennifer: I haven’t heard of devine-I’ll have to look around. Where did you buy it? When you say salvage paint, do you mean mis-mixed paints at stores; or paint other people are giving away/selling?
Jen: You’re the second vote for BM. BM will likely be my next endeavor!
Victor: All you have to do is invite me.
February 4th, 2008 6:57 pm
Salvaged paint: The stuff that is at Habitat for Humanity Restore from other people’s old projects (they have almost any color imaginable in almost any sheen)…
I do use mistints, too.
Devine is supposed to be rich and creamy and yogurt-like. I’ll have to run a review on it. I have no idea how much it costs per gallon, though…
February 4th, 2008 7:12 pm
Jennifer – I’m going to look into a Habitat Store. Before I started blogging, I’d never heard of it before — now I’ve seen it on a few sites. Very cool tip, and I know Habitat is active in Baltimore City near us.
February 4th, 2008 9:31 pm
I’m late to the party, but I’ll add this factoid (sorry it’s long), which is actually pretty appropriate for this conversation. My wife swears by BM, because her parents swear by it too. We put a Pearl finish lime green on the nursery walls, completed months ago (2 coats primer, 2 coats paint, all BM brand). My dad and I were hanging a shelf on Saturday. Used a pencil to mark the wall. I dampened a washcloth to wipe the pencil marks off. Pencil marks remained, “high-quality” BM paint came off onto washcloth. Same thing happened at our condo when I tried to wash some dirt off the walls in our LR. Sooooo…after screaming holy hell at my wife, I think I made my point. We won’t buy BM again unless we go with a gloss finish (and no guarantees that’ll solve the problem). I grew up on “low-class” paint, and that worked just fine for me.
Draw your own conclusions, of course, but, to each his/her own.
February 5th, 2008 9:17 am
Andy – wow! I’ll bring this up with the friend at work (who turns out to be Victor who already commented on this post). I’m very surprised to hear that BM just came right off the wall.
Good tip though – do you think it had to do with the paint being the pearlized kind?
February 5th, 2008 12:19 pm
We have gotten hooked on Sherwin Williams (same as Duron) and love it.
We used Ralph Lauren for the house the first itme around and it was well worth it.
I don’t like the cheap stuff – it just isn’t as good in our experience.
Is there a benjamin moore store around us?
February 5th, 2008 2:45 pm
andy: That’s real strange. I’ve used BM for all my walls. I use flat for non-bathrooms and eggshell for bathrooms and kitchen. I’ve wiped away stains, pencil marks, and grease from my walls and I’ve never gotten the paint on my rags, just what I intended to rub off.
February 6th, 2008 7:39 am
Yeah, I don’t know why…we used eggshell or flat in our living room at the condo and the same thing happened…might be the finish, I’m not sure. I know it’s not the painters (me, my bro and his wife), because we know what we’re doing.
I was just amazed, in both instances, I mean it didn’t take all the paint off (mostly because I stopped rubbing when I saw green on the rag), but had I sat there and rubbed and rubbed, it might have. I don’t know.
Maybe it’s just green paint.
February 7th, 2008 8:45 am
Something I recently noticed…We bought Valspar Signature Eddie Bauer paint at Lowe’s and the Sherwin Williams Classic 99 (their cheaper line) to paint living and dining rooms. The Valspar, while cheaper than the SW, was way thicker and smoother. SW was really, really, splotchy. So it’s also relative– even the “good stuff” has a low-end line, while the “cheap” stuff may have a more quality version. That said, neither of those is really “good.” My dad was a contractor and always bought Pittsburgh Paint– and $30 brushes. Never used a roller. Don’t dismiss the power of a great brush/roller. Price goes a long way there, too.
February 7th, 2008 5:55 pm
Consumer Report rated paints broken down by finish. Kilz was highest for low-luster (and one coat coverage), Ben. Moore for flat, and Valspar for semi-gloss. Interestingly, Behr was in the top five for each of these categories, including one coat coverage.
August 27th, 2009 11:19 am
I am a painter by trade… and designer for print, web and leather goods.
PAINT – years ago I painted my Southampton NY apartment with Benjamin Moore Regal flat ‘white lace’ color and it held up to scrubbing and looked amazingly fresh 8 years later. A friend just painted her livingroom wall in a red Lauren eggshell that dried to a unique luminescent lustre (no glitter) that I have not seen before. I am getting tired of HomeDepot Employee Boasting about Behr. They lie to consumers, for example the KILZ people bought the company that makes Behr brand and now they claim KILZ makes Behr. Not true since thefactory and forumla have NOT changed. Each of us have havd the real experiencw that Behr is designed to require two coats and cost more by 30-percent than premium brand.
KILZ original is set to go on sale at my local HomeDepot for $4.99 gal on Sept 3 for Labor Day.
I am ordering the original finish Designer Colors 503-387-5840 onone of their ‘whites’ and using the Lauren eggshell on the trim and kitchen/bath in ‘country basin’ Ultra white gives migriaes and psych studies show yellow kitchens make people fight more and red in kitchen increases appetite.
Have a great day!
Lisa.
March 25th, 2010 9:14 pm
I recently went to home depot to pick up some Ralph Lauren and to my disappoint — they aren’t selling it anymore. They replaced it with Martha Stuart paint. Unbelievable! I love RL paint!! Has anyone tried Martha Stuart paint? I’m afraid to try it, especially if it’s anything like Behr paint (which is terrible — I can’t believe Consumer Reports rated that paint highly…).
March 25th, 2010 11:14 pm
Araceli, check out http://www.ralphlaurenpaint.com to find a retailer near you. We agree, RL paint is good – they are going to continue to sell RL via other channels.
Cheers,
Fred
March 30th, 2010 10:37 pm
Ralph Lauren metallic paints are horrible.
They do not apply evenly and are impossible to get to look good.
I would not buy them again.
By the way…I painted for a living for 5 years.
April 5th, 2010 9:17 pm
The RL River Rock paints take a little getting used to applying, but the results for me were fantastic. The regular eggshell paint has held up well for me too. I paint about once every 2 years.
I phoned Ralph Lauren paint today (4/5/2010) and they don’t know who will be picking up the line in Canada at this time.
July 25th, 2010 11:29 pm
I used Martha Stewart paint and can’t say much about it. Its like painting with pudding. save your money.
July 26th, 2010 11:07 pm
We totally agree, Daniel! We compared Martha Stewart with Glidden this spring, and the Glidden performed better (Glidden!!)! Very disappointed with Home Depot’s decision to drop RL.
August 30th, 2010 2:48 am
Azko Nobel is the giant paint umbrella manufacturer for Glidden and Ralph Lauren — among many, many other recognizable name brands. One manufacturer = many brands.
RL is a great can of paint and so is Glidden Professional. Behr Premium, Behr Ultra Premium as well as the new Martha paint doesn’t do much for me – at all.
I am an architectural color consultant and I have worked with over 30 paint brands over the years. Find an RL dealer and you won’t be sorry you did. The RL palette is particularly strong in the deep saturated colors — quite fabulous actually.
Agreed that the RL metallics are a fail. Modern Master if you can find it is a better choice for shimmers, pearls, metallics.