What's the Best Paint Sheen for Your Living Room?

Sheen is the lev­el of shine that your paint has, rang­ing from flat (dull) to high-gloss (an almost mir­ror-like fin­ish, depend­ing on the prod­uct and tech­nique you use).

Is it an aes­thet­ic pref­er­ence? Absolute­ly. Some folks want super shiny, glossy walls, while oth­ers pre­fer the warmth and sim­plic­i­ty of low­er sheens that don’t demand the same lev­el of atten­tion. But it goes deep­er than just that. You need to con­sid­er the age and con­di­tion of your walls as well, plus the lev­el of activ­i­ty in the space. Low­er-sheen paint is much more for­giv­ing of sur­face imper­fec­tions, and is eas­i­er to touch up too. High-gloss paint is more spe­cial­ized, and while very durable, it’s also hard­er to work with and care for in the long run.

Keep in mind too that high-gloss paint requires exten­sive sur­face prepa­ra­tion. Since it will show every bump, scrape, or uneven­ness in your wall, it has to be applied after exten­sive, expert-lev­el prep.

Let’s run through your basic inte­ri­or paint­ing options here, but keep in mind that there are more on the spec­trum than what we’ve list­ed. This will just pro­vide a rough idea of the pro­gres­sion and hope­ful­ly help you decide which might be the best choice for your room.