Finish is the decision people spend the least time on and regret the most. Colour gets argued over for weeks. Sheen gets picked at the counter in about four seconds, and it is the choice that decides whether the wall still looks acceptable after two years of children, cooking and harmattan dust.
What sheen actually is
Sheen is how much light a dried paint film bounces back instead of scattering. A matt film has a slightly broken surface that scatters light in every direction. A gloss film is smooth, so light reflects off it the way it would off glass.
That difference comes from the ratio of binder to pigment. More binder gives a smoother, harder, shinier film. More pigment and extender gives a flatter, more porous one. Everything else about how the paint behaves follows from that single fact.
Matt
Matt scatters light, so it hides things. Small dents, filler patches, roller marks and the gentle waviness of a wall that was never quite flat all disappear under a matt finish. On an older Lagos property with walls that have been patched a few times, matt is doing you a favour.
The trade is cleanability. That same broken surface holds dirt, and scrubbing a matt wall burnishes it, leaving a shiny patch where you cleaned. On a cheap matt this happens quickly.
Matt suits ceilings, bedrooms, and formal sitting rooms where nobody is putting hands on the wall. It is the wrong answer for a corridor with children in it.
In our range, Acrylic Emulsion is the economy matt at 6 to 8 square metres per litre, and Ruby Matt is the higher grade at 10 to 12. Both dry in about 3 hours. Maxshield is a matt built for exteriors, which is unusual, and covers 16 to 18 square metres per litre.
Satin
Satin sits between the two, with a soft low sheen that catches light without throwing a reflection. It is the finish most people actually want when they say they want matt.
The film is tighter than matt, so it takes a wipe without burnishing. It still hides moderate surface imperfection, though less generously than a true matt. For kitchens, corridors, children’s rooms, stairwells and anywhere that gets touched, satin is usually the right call.
It is also less forgiving to apply. Because the surface is smoother, lap marks show if you let an edge dry before rolling into it. Keep a wet edge and work in manageable sections.
Quality Acrylic Satin covers 12 to 14 square metres per litre. Ruby Satin goes further at 14 to 16 with a gloss to semi-gloss finish. Weather King Satin is the exterior version, 16 to 18 square metres per litre, with a 6 to 10 hour dry time because the film is heavier.
Gloss
Gloss gives the hardest, most washable film available and a visible shine. It belongs on woodwork, doors, frames and metal rather than on large wall areas.
The reason is unforgiving reflectivity. A gloss wall is a mirror for every imperfection underneath it. A filler patch you cannot see under matt will announce itself under gloss from across the room. Unless the substrate is genuinely flat, gloss on a wall looks worse than the cheaper finish would have.
It also shows brush marks, so it needs proper preparation and a light touch.
Choosing by room
| Where | Finish | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ceilings | Matt | Hides the unevenness that overhead light exaggerates |
| Bedrooms | Matt or satin | Low traffic, so hiding beats scrubbing |
| Sitting room | Satin | Wipeable without looking shiny |
| Kitchen | Satin | Copes with grease and steam |
| Corridors and stairs | Satin | The most touched surfaces in any house |
| Bathrooms | Satin | Tighter film handles condensation better |
| Doors, frames, joinery | Gloss or semi-gloss | Hardest film, and small flat areas suit shine |
| Exterior walls | Exterior matt or satin | UV stability and flexibility matter more than sheen |
Why exterior matt exists at all
Matt on an exterior sounds wrong given everything above, so it is worth explaining. Outside, the enemy is not fingerprints. It is ultraviolet light, rain and thermal movement.
A high sheen exterior film shows every imperfection across a large elevation, and on a wall lit by direct sun from a low angle in the morning, that is unflattering. It also highlights the joins where a render bay meets the next one.
An exterior matt gives you the UV package and the flexible binder without the reflectivity, so a big wall reads as one plane instead of a patchwork. Maxshield is built for exactly that: a matt sheen with a spread rate of 16 to 18 square metres per litre and a film designed to sit outside.
Where you want an exterior with some sheen, usually on a smaller frontage or where you want the wall to look tighter and more finished, Weather King Satin does the same job with a low gloss.
Sheen changes how colour reads
The same colour looks different at different sheens, and this catches people out constantly. A gloss film reflects more light back, so the colour reads lighter and more saturated. The identical shade in matt reads deeper and slightly duller because the surface is scattering light.
If you are painting walls in satin and woodwork in gloss and you want them to match, they will not, quite. Either accept the shift or pick the woodwork a shade deeper.
Test properly. Paint a patch at least a foot square, let it dry fully, and look at it in morning light and again under your actual bulbs at night. Wet paint is never the finished colour, and a small dab on a white wall tells you almost nothing because the surrounding white distorts it.
Our colour library lists over 2,400 notations across the NCS and RAL systems with their hex, RGB and HSL values, which is useful for narrowing a shortlist before you commit to sampling.
A few practical points
Do not mix sheens within one wall. If you patch a matt wall with satin, the repair shows in raking light even in a perfect colour match.
Higher sheen usually means better washability but worse hiding. That trade is the whole decision in one line.
Drying times differ by product, not just by sheen. Our matts and satins in the Ruby and Acrylic lines dry in about 3 hours. The exterior products, Maxshield and Weather King, take 6 to 10 hours because the film is thicker and there is more to release. Recoating too early on an exterior traps solvent and the film stays soft.
All our products carry a 12 month shelf life, so buy what the job needs rather than stockpiling.
If you are unsure, tell us the room, the traffic it gets and the state of the walls, and we will tell you the finish. Get in touch or browse the range.