Paint Is Just Paint ... Really?

No! Well … yes, it is. All paint is paint, however there are some differences to consider. Would you agree cars are just cars? If you drive a BMW or a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, probably not. That would be true for paint, also.

Last week I spent some time helping maintain and improve a young family's new home exterior. Actually, their new home is more than 45 years old and was really starting to show its age, mainly due to the bunny, blue-and-white color scheme. Yuck-o!

Josh and Marie are clients of mine and I sent them on the customary pilgrimage to the local Lowe's and Home Depot for some new things. These were to include a new mailbox, address numbers, welcome mat, a few plants and paint. Interestingly enough, there were no Kelly-Moore, Benjamin Moore or Pratt & Lambert paint products available. Why?

Home Depot is built on a business model that provides consumers with "affordable" products, according to its staff, anyway. This is obviously mimicked at Lowe's, too … and they both do a darn good job of it.

Kelly-Moore, just a mile down the road, offers a superior choice of paint products at or near the prices found for the standard paint at the home improvement stores, though. How could that be? The answer is simple. Kelly-Moore and the others mentioned, Benjamin Moore and Pratt & Lambert, "specialize" in paint coatings with quality materials as part of their formulas. They could not offer the home improvement stores enough price markup to make them the affordable products these stores strive to offer.

So, next time you plan a home improvement or maintenance project on your home take a bit of time to see if a specialty company can save you money while providing you with a superior quality product.

Tip: Choosing color … make sure you check around the neighborhood to be sure you are not going to paint your home the same color as another home a few doors down! That may be ... awkward.