Best Look

Best Look is the paint you reach for when a room, a porch floor or a side of the house needs a fresh coat and you do not want to overthink it: a paint-and-primer-in-one that covers and scrubs, a kitchen-and-bath enamel for cabinets and trim, a floor coating, and the brushes and roller covers to put them on. It is made to be good paint at a sensible price, which is the right paint for most of the painting a Montana house asks for.

Best Look is a house brand of paints and painting supplies, from the paint itself through Color Solutions, the Porch and Floor Coating, Premium Nylyn and china-bristle brushes, woven and microfiber roller covers, trays and prep tools. The line runs to more than a hundred items.

Paint & Primer in One for walls

The Premium Paint & Primer in One is a latex wall paint for drywall, plaster, wood, masonry and metal, made for surfaces that need more spot and stain resistance and scrubbing than a bedroom ceiling ever gets. That makes it the paint for the hallway where coats and backpacks hit the wall, the mudroom that sees Montana boots from October to April, and any room you want to wipe down rather than repaint.

The eggshell sheen hides a lot, which matters on older drywall and plaster. It goes on by brush, roller, pad or sprayer, dries to the touch in an hour and takes a second coat in four, so a room gets two coats in a day. A five-gallon pail covers about 2,000 square feet, enough for a couple of bedrooms and a hall with two coats. Cleanup is soap and water.

Winter is interior season in Montana. When the outside work stops in late October, Paint & Primer in One is the paint for working through the bedrooms and the living room with the windows shut; it dries fast enough to keep a room out of commission for a day, not a weekend.

Color Solutions is the lighter-duty sibling, an easy-to-apply paint with good hide for a new homeowner facing several rooms at once. Choose it when you are covering builder beige in every room and nobody is going to scrub the walls.

Kitchen, Bath & Trim enamel for cabinets and doors

The Kitchen, Bath & Trim Semi-Gloss is a different animal: a durable latex enamel made for hard-wearing surfaces. It gives a scrubbable finish that stands up to repeated washing, resists scratches and protects against moisture, and it is mildew resistant, which is the point in a bathroom with a fan that nobody runs.

Use it on prepared wood, metal, wallboard and plastic. It is the right Best Look for cabinets, furniture, walls, woodwork and doors, and it is what you want on the trim in a kitchen, where grease and a dishrag meet the paint every day. It covers about 400 square feet per gallon by brush, roller or sprayer, dries to the touch in 30 minutes to an hour, recoats in four hours, cleans up with warm soapy water, and carries a lifetime warranty.

The one thing to get right with an enamel is the prep. A semi-gloss shows every brush mark and every bit of old grease it did not stick to, so wash the cabinets, scuff the old finish and use the Nylyn brush below, which is made to level this kind of paint.

Exterior Paint & Primer in One for siding and trim

The exterior Premium Paint & Primer in One Satin is a 100 percent acrylic latex house paint for wood, masonry, stucco and metal, sold as resistant to fading, peeling and blistering, and mold and mildew resistant. Those are the three things that kill a paint job in Montana: UV at elevation fades it, freeze-thaw swings peel it, and the north side of the house grows mildew under the eaves. Exterior paint here gets recoated every three to five years, and acrylic resin is what buys you the longer end of that.

The number worth knowing is 35 degrees. This paint can be applied at temperatures down to 35 F, which stretches the painting season at both ends. In the Flathead the frost-free stretch runs from about May 19 to September 22, and a crew that can paint a cool May morning or an October afternoon gets the house done before the snow. It dries to the touch in two hours and recoats in four to six, so plan two coats over two days rather than one.

A quart covers about 100 square feet, which is a door and its trim; buy gallons for siding.

Porch and Floor Coating

Best Look Porch and Floor Coating is made to take daily wear on interior or exterior wood or concrete floors. That is the paint for a porch that sees boots and dogs, a garage step, or a basement floor. Floors get the hardest use of any painted surface in the house, so this is not a job for wall paint.

Brushes and roller covers

The Premium Nylyn brush is the brush for the enamel and the trim. Its filament blend and treated wooden plugs pick up and release more paint per dip, and it levels evenly with heavy-bodied, fast-drying, low-VOC paints, which is exactly what today’s paint-and-primer products are. The tapered design gives you control in tight spaces and detail work, the stainless steel ferrule will not rust, and the beechwood handle is comfortable through a long cut-in. It is synthetic, so it cleans up easily and goes back to work next weekend. The 2.5-inch flat has a 4.5-inch head on a 7.5-inch handle. Best Look’s polyester brushes run from 1-inch to 4-inch flats and 1.5- and 2-inch angles.

Best Look also makes white natural china bristle brushes in 1-inch flat and 1.5- and 2-inch angle. China bristle is for oil-based paint and stain; keep it out of the latex, where the natural bristle goes limp.

For walls, the Premium 9-inch by 3/8-inch woven fabric roller cover is made for semi-smooth interior surfaces and a uniform, smooth finish, with a solvent-resistant polypropylene core that does not soften after a day on the roller. The 3/8-inch nap is right for most drywall; the 1/2-inch covers rougher plaster and textured walls, and the 1/4-inch is for the smoothest surfaces and high-sheen paint. Four-inch and 6-inch mini rollers in woven, microfiber and foam handle doors, cabinets and trim.

Product	Sheen or type	Where it goes
Premium Paint & Primer in One	Eggshell interior	Drywall, plaster, wood, masonry, metal; rooms that get scrubbed
Color Solutions	Interior	Several rooms at once, easy to apply
Kitchen, Bath & Trim	Semi-gloss enamel	Cabinets, trim, doors, bathrooms
Premium Paint & Primer in One	Satin exterior, 100% acrylic	Siding, trim, stucco, metal; down to 35 F
Porch and Floor Coating	Floor	Wood and concrete floors, inside and out
Premium Nylyn brush	Synthetic	Enamel, trim, cut-in
Woven roller cover 9 x 3/8	Interior	Walls, semi-smooth

Prep and cleanup tools

The 5-in-1 paint brush and roller cleaner, the 1-1/8-inch stiff scraper, the 3-in-1 refinishing scraper, the wood-handle wire brush and the paint project lifters round out the line. Scrape and wire-brush the loose paint before the exterior coat goes on; the acrylic will stick to anything sound and nothing loose.

Why Best Look

Buy Best Look when the job calls for solid paint at a fair price: a wall paint that scrubs, an enamel that takes a dishrag, an exterior acrylic that goes on in cool weather and holds up to Montana sun, and brushes and covers made for the same paints. It is the paint for the rooms you repaint every few years and the siding you want to leave alone for five.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Best Look paint good paint?

It is good everyday paint. The Premium Paint & Primer in One is made for scrubbing and stain resistance with good hide, the Kitchen, Bath & Trim enamel carries a lifetime warranty, and the exterior line is 100 percent acrylic with mold and mildew resistance and a 35-degree application limit. Where it earns its keep is value: you get the features that matter on a wall without paying for a designer label.

Which Best Look paint should I use on kitchen cabinets?

The Kitchen, Bath & Trim Semi-Gloss. It is a latex enamel made for hard-wearing surfaces, scrubbable, scratch resistant and moisture resistant, and it is meant for cabinets, furniture, woodwork and doors. Wash and scuff the cabinets first, then lay it on with the Premium Nylyn brush, which is made to level fast-drying enamel.

Can I paint the outside of my house with Best Look in the fall?

Yes, down to 35 degrees. The exterior Paint & Primer in One Satin lists low-temperature application to 35 F, with two hours to the touch and four to six before a recoat. Paint the sunny side in the afternoon, give each coat its full recoat time, and stop before the overnight lows go below the limit.

Do I need a separate primer with Best Look?

The interior, exterior and Kitchen, Bath & Trim lines are all sold as paint and primer in one. What no paint does is hold to a bad surface: bare wood that has weathered gray, chalky old paint and rust need fixing first. Scrape, wire-brush and sand until what is left is tight, then the paint will hold.