What does everyone here use for painting walls and trim? We were talking with a lady who is a professional property manager. She indicated that we should use flat paint on the walls, rather than the semi-gloss we have been using.

What quality paint do you use, and do you use flat on the walls and maybe semi-gloss on the trim?

Some of our properties are at the 50 year mark; they originally had stained and varnished wood work. Over the years (before we had the properties), some pretty slap dash painting went on, and there is paint on the wood work, and we think it looks awful. Also, tenants seem to damage interior doors a lot. We are thinking instead of stained and varnished doors, we will go with white doors. My husband thinks they would be easier to "patch up" when the damage is minor, if we can smooth out the doors and then paint.

Any thoughts on this subject? Thanks!

i would only use flat is there wee too many imperfections to bother correcting. It also lacks the durability.

We primarily use eggshell until we have accent walls where we might add semi-gloss.

All trim and doors are high gloss if they aren't stained.

We also have several older properties. In their day they were in the best neighborhoods in Charlotte. Most of them had seen better days and the paint jobs were simply awful. We decided to bite the bullet and had all of the walls repaired specifically because I don't like flat paint. The trim and doors were even worse than the walls. We had them sanded down and stained and varnished.

Today those properties have quadrupled in value and demand top dollar so it was definitely worth the extra cost.

As for yours it all depends on the neighborhood and the quality of tenants it attracts. If the area is stable and attracts better tenants I would be inclined to redo them. Otherwise I'd paint.

NC INVESTOR -- I lived in Charlotte back in the 60's. The house we rented was in a neighborhood near the hospital. It was a little run down. I looked it up awhile back on Zillow and found it has been restored and is beautiful! Worth in the neighborhood of $350K now! WOW!

Nana&Papa - Your husband is right on the white doors and repair. Go with razorback's suggestions on color. BTW, do you like painting? Me neither. I specifically dislike putting down two coats of paint to get the walls looking good. We recently discovered Behr's Marquee paint. The Home Depot rep selling it told me it'd be one and done. He was right. It is a little more expensive than regular Behr, but worth the time and effort....and second coat of $ paint saved.

Semi-gloss walls look tacky, imho.

Eggshell on walls.

We also use eggshell/semi gloss on walls and high gloss white on woodwork.

If you are changing doors, rather than painting over your existing doors, pay a little more for the faux wood six panel finish. The little bit of texture makes painting these doors MUCH easier. You can just paint in place, rather than laying them flat.

Walls: Universal Grey in semi-gloss. Trim: Pure white in semi-gloss. Behr paint. We were using Glidden but switched to Behr. It does cover better.

I can't imagine using Flat. Semi-gloss can be washed and even scrubbed with a white sponge.

"We were talking with a lady who is a professional property manager. She indicated that we should use flat paint on the walls,"

And this is a reason why I manage my own properties. I think its unlikely a GOOD experienced professional property manager would be recomending to use flat paint on the walls of a rental.

Flat on walls.

I use flat or eggshell on walls, satin on trim.

NANA AND PAPA:

It is amazing how property values have increased here over the past 4 to 5 years especially our properties close to Uptown.

cjo'h:

I used t feel the same way. I was born in Canada and grew up in Philadelphia. I didn't wear a coat here for the first 10 years. But between the changing winter weather and being spoiled by 10 months of warm weather I find it harder to fend off the cold.

DON:

N&P,

Flat or satin Repose Grey on the walls if they are smooth walls. It was Sherwin's #1 interior color recently. I think semigloss on smooth walls looks cheap and institutional. In my area this would reduce my rent.

White semigloss straight from the can on trim and doors.

I have tried to save original woodwork for years and much of it is just too banged up or darkened by the sun to look good. So we're filling the dents, once over with a sanding sponge, SPRAY bonding primer then semigloss top coat. Rolls the walls.

Rattle spray cans can cover trim quickly and easily.

If you're doing a whole house I suggest a decent sprayer for the trim and doors. You can rent one.