Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Sponsor Love: Sherwin Williams

Sherwin Williams sponsored my recent painting projects, but gave me the freedom to say whatever I want about their products.

OK, so I'm relatively new to this whole blogging thing.  I stay busy with projects, write about them fairly frequently, and get enough traffic to make it worth my while (not financially, but in a someone-actually-reads-this kind of way).  But the sponsor thing is a little new, so bear with me!

Hands down, my favorite product of the past year is Sherwin Williams Emerald paint.  I first used it in our living room.  In the past I had heard about these alleged no-VOC paints, and I had heard about alleged one-coat only, self-priming paints, but I didn't believe them.  In my experience, any painting project takes multiple days, 3-5 coats, and is a complete pain.


But I tried something new.  I listened to the Sherwin Williams guy give his speech on what all the different paints did, and why they're worth spending more.  For once, I took the advice, and got the fancy paint.

I painted the entire living room in 5 hours, including moving the furniture.  It was unreal - only one coat of paint!  It wasn't smelly!  It wasn't drippy!  And so far, it wears beautifully.

Painting the Living Room
Following the living room project, I spent the next month talking about this paint to anyone I know who's ever painted a room.  Only then did it occur to me to contact the company to tell them how I feel and how I'd love to talk about them to my readers, too.  Turns out, they were just as excited about me as I was about them, and they sponsored the paint for my next painting project!

Painting the Kitchen
As of this post, we have Sherwin Williams Emerald paint in our living room, kitchen, foyer, and half-bath, on both the walls and the trim.  
Just like the first time I used it, it's still only been requiring one coat of paint (seriously!  It's self-priming), it's not smelly, and it's holding up great, even when I scrub tomato splatters off it.

foyer
The one-coat thing blew me away, and it's great that it's pretty, but for me the really important thing has been no-VOC aspect.  I'm LEED certified, meaning that once upon a time I studied for and passed an exam on green building theory.

It grossed me out to learn that stuff in our homes offgasses chemicals not just for the first few weeks or months, but for years.  Cabinetry, flooring, paint, furniture, even caulking, keeps on offgassing long after that "new car smell" (i.e. carcinogens) is no longer noticeable.  I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea my loved ones breathing in chemicals all the time.  Given the chance, I choose low-VOC or no-VOC.

Sherwin Williams also has this cool Color Visualizer app on their site that lets you try out colors in your space.  It's really easy, you just upload a photo, select the area to "paint", and change out the colors!  I discovered really quickly how awful my kitchen would look in red, yellow, or purple.  I had my color ideas narrowed quite a bit before I ever set foot in the store.

Trying out blue paint in Sherwin Williams Color Visualizer
Also, whenever I go to their stores, I receive excellent customer service.  There are multiple employees there at all times, ready and willing to help you find the best product for your project.  The prices are fair, especially if you're armed with a coupon off their website.  They also email coupons frequently, so sign up for their newsletter!

Obviously, I'm a big fan.  Next time you're paint shopping, stop in a give Sherwin Williams a try.  

Happy projects!

1 comment:

  1. Makes me want to run out and try some! I also think their color choices are classier than the competition!

    ReplyDelete

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