Guide
Benjamin Moore at First Ave
Aura, Regal Select, Advance, ben and Super Hide. Which line belongs on which wall, and which one a building actually buys.
5 min read · First Ave Supply, 1587 First Avenue
Which Benjamin Moore line should I buy?
There are five lines that matter for New York apartment work, and they are not better and worse so much as built for different jobs.
| Line | Built for | Buy it when |
|---|---|---|
| Aura | The best finish Benjamin Moore makes | A living room or bedroom you look at every day, deep colors, bathrooms |
| Regal Select | The professional standard | Most apartment repaints, trim and walls both |
| Advance | Waterborne alkyd for trim and doors | You want the hard, level look of oil without the oil |
| ben | Value line for clean, simple rooms | A straightforward repaint on a budget |
| Super Hide | Contractor flat and eggshell in five gallon pails | Turnovers, hallways, anything where coverage and price win |
Aura
Aura covers in two coats in colors that take four coats in anything else, deep reds, blacks, strong blues. It holds its color on a sunny exposure and it washes without burnishing, which is why it goes on hallway walls in a nice building. Aura Bath and Spa is the matte that belongs in a bathroom, because it is built to live with steam.
Regal Select
If you only stock one line, stock this one. Regal Select goes on walls, ceilings and trim, touches up without flashing, and holds up to being washed. Matte for bedrooms and ceilings, eggshell for the rooms that get used, semi gloss for kitchens, baths and trim.
Advance
Advance is what to use when the trim and the doors have to look like furniture. It levels out brush marks as it dries, so it needs a slower hand and a full overnight between coats, and the payoff is a door with no stipple in it. Do not rush a recoat on Advance. It is the one product in this store where patience is the whole technique.
ben
ben is the honest budget line. Low odor, dries fast, easy to touch up. For a bedroom in a rental that gets painted every couple of years, ben does the job and nobody can tell from across the room.
Super Hide
Super Hide is the working paint of this neighborhood. Flat and eggshell in five gallon pails, it hides, it covers, it goes on fast, and a super can paint a vacant one bedroom for the price of a gallon of Aura. Buildings on this block buy Super Hide by the pallet for turnovers and keep a nicer line for the lobby.
Tinting and color matching
Every line here is tinted in the store while you wait, in any Benjamin Moore color. Bring a chip, a switch plate, a piece of the old trim, anything with the color on it, and we match it. Ready mix whites, Super White, Decorator White and Linen White, are on the shelf and need no tinting at all, which matters when a super needs paint in ten minutes rather than ten minutes from now.
Sizes
Gallons for rooms and trim. Five gallon pails for whole apartments, hallways and anything repeated. A five gallon pail is cheaper per gallon and it also means one tint batch across the whole job, which is the real reason painters buy pails. Two gallons tinted separately can read slightly different on a long wall.
Buying for a building
Keep one pail of Super Hide flat, one pail of Super Hide eggshell, a gallon of semi gloss trim white and a quart of whatever the lobby color is. That covers ninety percent of what comes up between real paint jobs.
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