Paint test: BM Aura VS. Behr Ultra I did the test myself!

allieoop

I couldn't bring myself to buy another Aura can of paint from Ben. Moore at 70.00 a pop, even though I really liked it, so I marched myself over to Home Depot to look for an alternative.  

I bought Behr Premium Plus Ultra Paint and Primer in One for 40.00.  Significantly less.  It also comes on promotion every couple of months the HD guy told me. 

So I painted one side of the fireplace with left-over Aura and the other with Behr.  Same colour.  They colour matched for me.  Cloud white was going over Autumn Leaf (RED!).  Now anybody who has painted knows going over a deep rich colour like that is going to take alot of coats.  

RESULTS:  

Aura--No smell, thick paint, very little splattering and did a great job on the first coat of covering the red.  I was really surprised at how well it covered the red in the first coat.  

Behr--It smells but not as intense as other latex paint that I have used.  It is thinner than Aura.  It splatters a bit......but the amazing thing is that the coverage was identical.  Both sides of the fireplace on the first coat looked exactly the same!!!  I could tell from the first roll-on of the Behr that it was very much the same as Aura in how it covered the wall.  

So....for the money savings I'm going with the Behr from now on and will watch out for the promotions to save even more.  

The HD guy said they've had buy 2 cans get 1 free.  So 3 cans for 80.00 or so.  That's about 27.00 a can vs. 70 for Aura!!

I will do the second coat tomorrow and I don't think it will need a 3rd.  

I was pretty sure that Behr wasn't going to measure up to the much-touted Aura but it did in the area that was the most important.  Coverage.  

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