i use behr only because it's available and affordable. i don't regard it as great paint any more than i regard applebee's as a great restaurant -- but it's there... and in a place where i might want to re-paint soon (color change, etc.), it works (in the same way applebee's is a fine place for a quick burger on the road). for the exterior, i splurged for sherwin-williams duration (2X the price) because i definitely don't want to re-paint the exterior in 5 years. professional painters would tend to agree. it's only home depot and the consumers who feel trapped there that love the paint and give it good reviews (note the "consumer" reports moniker... not "bruised knuckle pro" reports).

Not a fan of Behr paint. It seems glue-like to me, and not easy to work with.
For paint less expensive than FB or even BM, I like Valspar,
available at my local Lowes. Good coverage, goes on well,
easy to work with, and comes in Low Odor...which is practically no odor.

I used the Behr paint with built-in primer for an eggplant-colored living room and dining room about 6 months ago. My walls are 50 years old, a mix of masonry and drywall, and hadn't been painted for 15 years. Given the age of the walls, building materials and paint color, every painter told me that it would require a tinted primer 2 coats. (That had also been my experience when painting a couple other rooms in the house with dark colors.) The Behr paint primer worked fabulously, and only required two coats. I'd also heard the complaint that it's a thick, glue-like paint, but that wasn't my experience.

FWIW, I didn't seek out Behr. I would have used Benjamin Moore, but my local BM retailer moved, and Home Depot was a convenient stop. I was browsing Behr colors with the intention of having it matched with BM paint, and simply decided to take a chance that the paint primer because I loved the idea that it would reduce my painting time by 1/3rd. My handyman, who'd given me a quote and was a little ticked that I decided to do it myself, told me I'd never be able to do it in less than 3 coats. He was shocked when he saw the results.

It's lousy, I don't care what Consumer Reports thinks. It's junk, it's hard to match colors if you're not using their pre-set colors, and it's not full-spectrum or even close. Behr's cheap and that's the only good thing about it.

I actually have not had a problem with Behr. I've used Valspar, Sherwin Williams, Ben Moore and Ralph Lauren. I've even had good luck at getting Home Depot to match Farrow & Ball shades for me, even though they are not supposed to. :)

I used Behr paint and primer in one a few weeks ago and it was great! I was painting over nasty shade of very dark red (scab red, I call it) on an uneven wall and only had to use one coat! It went on smoothly. The finish looks great, it was low VOC, and the cover is amazing. I'll never use another paint.

I'm in agreement with other posters that Behr paints have a glue-like consistency and furthermore, gummy clot-like bits soon develop on the roller and transfer to the walls as you paint, requiring that they be picked off. I will never use it again. I much prefer CIL paints as do two of the painters I've used. The consistency is smoother, there is very little spatter when it's used on the ceiling, and the finish is durable.

The biggest disasters we've had have been with Behr paint.

We used Behr primer throughout our house on new drywall, covering it with a very high-end paint. Then the paint started peeling off at the slightest touch, down to the drywall compound. It's called an intercoat adhesion problem, due to a primer that did not stick to the drywall compound.

Home Depot sent the paint samples away for testing, and sent them to Behr... and although our tests revealed a failed primer, Behr didn't stand behind their product, and just walked away from the problem.

During the same renovation, we had used Behr stains for our deck... and guess what? it peeled. I know several people it happened to.

Prep on both projects was meticulous -- my husband & I have been renovating houses together for over 20 years, I have specialized training in architectural conservation -- having worked in the field -- in short, we're experienced and know what we're doing.

Behr products are the worst we've ever worked with. Needless to say, we will never use them again -- it is simply not worth the massive labour to fix a project gone bad because of cheap paint -- it's not like you can just paint over the problem -- you usually have massive amounts of prep to do as a result.

My advice? Buy the best, most high-quality paint available.

Though we've now switched almost exclusively to no-VOC paint, we have used Behr paints extensively, for indoor and outdoor applications.

We've really never had a problem with it, and it has stood up well to abuse (rental apartments, etc.). Perhaps I just don't know any better, but I really don't think it's a bad paint.

I like to use BM almost exclusively because I get the best results from it and because BM colors are the best imo. I recommend it to everyone. I have used their Aura line and I absolutely love it.

That said, I have used Behr paints before with good results. Speaking of "glue-like" paints, the worst offender has been Valspar in my experience. I have always had to mix Flotrol with Valspar to get it to spread. Not good.

What I like about Behr paint is that it is usually pretty readily available at your local hardware store, whether it be a local mom and pop or your mega-mart. And while I don't really care for its overall quality, the price and availability can't be beat!

Consumer Reports is no longer the be-all and end-all in an era of publicly available user reviews.

Behr paint gets TERRIBLE reviews on professional forums.

FurnFromHome: to my knowledge, behr is only available through home depot...

Two weeks ago I used white Behr paint and pastel to create big painting on canvas (40"x80"). It saved me a lot of money on acrylic paint I usually buy for such work. The painting looks great; has soft and subtle chalk look I was looking for. I would recommend it for artists working on large canvases with mixed media.

We've used both Benjamin Moore (we used the Ben line) and Behr (regular and with primer) in our home. BM was nice, but I honestly didn't find a big difference between it and Behr. I wouldn't have used Behr at all, but BM wouldn't colour match my Behr swatch for me - apparently it was too specific, and they couldn't guarantee a match. The Behr looks great and has worn well so far, but I'll give it another year before I give it full approval.

Since we are taking down wallpaper and repainting the whole house, I have pretty much only used Behr paint (color matched to a BM color), with the exception of one room. The paint went on smooth with full coverage, it looks great! Everyone thinks we had it professionally done. There were no clots, streaks, and still no peeling. Our master bedroom on the other hand, we painted with BM paint and is already peeling! So sad because we paid the extra money hopeing for even BETTER results! I'll still use BM paints because this was only one bad experience and I know it is an excellent product, but Behr is still a great paint as well in my opinion.

You certainly get what you pay for - I will never use cheap Behr Paints again.

It's The only paint I've ever used that rolled on with one pass - then any subsequent passes came right off a very well prepped wall back onto the roller. (We are talking 1 min or less after first application to the wall.)

Sherwin Williams Cashmere is excellent, but my favorite, Pittsburg Paint - Manor Hall is superb. Well worth the extra cost for ease of paint, durability and color depth.

As for the Consumer Reports favorable review - I do not know how it is possible. They must have taken cost into the weighted consideration to garner such a positive review.