Paint Finishes for Interior Painting in a Ladner Home
The sheen on the can changes how a wall cleans, how much it shows flaws and how it copes with damp. Here is how to match matte, eggshell, satin and semi-gloss to the rooms of a Ladner house.
Interior painting in Ladner starts with colour, but the finish you pick matters just as much. Two walls in the same colour can look and wear very differently if one is matte and the other is semi-gloss. In Ladner that choice also has to account for damp air off the Fraser River delta and, in the older houses, plaster walls that are rarely perfectly flat.
Texora Painting & Drywall does interior painting in Ladner, and colour consultation is part of every quote. This guide is the finish side of that conversation, so you know what to ask for before anyone opens a can.
Paint sheens, from flat to high gloss
Sheen is how much light the dried paint reflects. Benjamin Moore's guide to choosing a paint finish sorts interior finishes roughly like this:
- Flat: reflects almost no light and is the most forgiving of flaws, but stains are harder to remove. Best on ceilings and in low-traffic rooms.
- Matte: a little more durable than flat, with good hide and depth of colour. Bedrooms and dining rooms, and bathrooms if the matte is made for humidity.
- Eggshell: easy to clean and nearly shine-free. Suits most rooms, family rooms and hallways included.
- Pearl: durable and easy to clean, for trim and busy walls, but it shows lap marks and other flaws more readily.
- Satin: better stain resistance than the lower sheens. Windows, trim and interior doors.
- Semi-gloss and high gloss: the hardest wearing and easiest to wipe down. Trim, doors and cabinets. High gloss also shows every blemish.
Each brand names its sheens a little differently, so read the product's own description rather than going by the word on the label. We use Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore and Dulux paints.
Which finish goes in which room
Our usual starting point on a Ladner interior is matte for ceilings, eggshell for living areas, and semi-gloss on trim and in kitchens and bathrooms. Room by room, that looks like this:
- Ceilings: flat or matte. A low sheen hides small imperfections and spreads light evenly, which matters because a ceiling shows every roller lap once light hits it from the side.
- Living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms: eggshell, or matte where nobody leans on the walls.
- Hallways and stairwells: eggshell, which suits the walls that get touched, bumped and wiped.
- Kitchens: semi-gloss, since kitchen walls take grease and splashes and need wiping.
- Trim, baseboards and doors: semi-gloss is the common choice because it is washable and holds up to daily bumps. Satin gives a softer look and high gloss a more formal one.
Bathrooms, basements and Ladner damp
Ladner sits on the Fraser River delta, and moisture is a real factor indoors. Crawl spaces, basements and north-facing rooms are where paint peels and grows mildew if it goes on without a moisture-resistant primer. Metro Vancouver's wet season runs October to April.
In those rooms the primer matters as much as the topcoat. We use moisture-resistant primers and mould-inhibiting finishes in bathrooms, basements and anywhere condensation collects, and the topcoat sheen goes up with the moisture: semi-gloss in a busy family bathroom, or a matte made for humid rooms if you want a softer look. Ventilation still matters, so run the fan.
Paint over mildew does not fix it. The spot has to be cleaned and the surface primed before the new finish goes on, or it comes back through. If the drywall itself is soft or stained from a leak, that is a drywall repair in Ladner before it is a paint job.
Older Ladner walls and higher sheens
Ladner has 1920s character homes and 1930s houses around Ladner Village, alongside much newer builds. The older ones often have lath-and-plaster walls, textured surfaces and original trim profiles. Benjamin Moore's guide warns that high gloss accentuates blemishes and should not go on surfaces that are not completely smooth, and the same logic applies to any higher sheen on a wavy plaster wall. A lower sheen on the walls and semi-gloss on the trim usually suits these houses best.
Going from a glossy finish to a flatter one, or the other way, also means prep. Glossy surfaces get sanded so the new coat can grip. In a house built before 1990 that sanding needs care: Health Canada says a house built before 1960 probably has lead-based paint, and interior paint in homes from 1960 to 1990 may carry smaller amounts. Their advice on lead-based paint is no sanders, heat guns or blowlamps on it. Tell us the year your house was built when you book the quote.
Keep sheens consistent, and test them first
Use one sheen per surface type through a room: walls one finish, trim another. Mixing sheens on the same wall shows as patches when the light moves across it. Patches are the other trap. Bare wood, drywall patches and repaired spots need their own coat of primer before the topcoat, or the repaired areas can end up with a slightly different sheen later.
Before you commit, paint a large sample and look at it in daylight and again in the evening with the lights on. Sheen shows most when light rakes across a wall from a window or a lamp.
If you want the finishes and colours planned with you, our painters in Ladner page covers the rest of the work we do in town, and the cabinet painting vs refacing guide covers the hardest-wearing finish in the house, the one on kitchen cabinets.
Get an interior painting quote in Ladner
We visit your Ladner home, look at the walls and surfaces, talk through colours and give you a firm written estimate. Or call (604) 417-6483.
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