Flat, low sheen, semi-gloss: choosing sheen room by room

Flat on ceilings, low sheen on most walls, semi-gloss on doors, architraves, skirtings and anything in a bathroom or kitchen you expect to wipe. That covers most houses, and the reasoning behind it is simple enough that you can work out the rest yourself.

The rule is this: more sheen means a harder, more washable film, and also a surface that shows every imperfection underneath it.

What does sheen actually change?

The ratio of binder to pigment. A high sheen paint carries more binder, which cures into a tighter, harder, less porous film. That is why gloss cleans well, resists finger marks and stands up to being scrubbed. It also reflects light in a directional way, so any deviation in the surface beneath it shows as a change in the reflection.

A flat paint carries more pigment and less binder. The film scatters light instead of reflecting it, which is why it buries surface flaws. The trade is a more open film that marks more easily and does not take scrubbing as well.

Everything else is a point on that scale. Nothing about sheen changes how long the paint lasts on a wall that is not being touched.

What goes where?

Surface	Sheen	Why
Ceilings, general	Flat	Nothing touches it, and any sheen shows every joint and skim mark
Bathroom and laundry ceilings	Low sheen, moisture resistant	Condensation sits on it, so it needs to shed water and take cleaning
Living room and bedroom walls	Low sheen	Best balance of washability and hiding on ordinary plasterboard
Hallways and stairwells	Low sheen, quality product	Constant scuffing, but long uninterrupted walls show sheen badly
Kitchen walls	Low sheen to satin	Grease and splash, needs to be wiped without burnishing
Bathroom walls	Low sheen to semi-gloss, moisture resistant	Water, steam and repeated cleaning
Doors, architraves, skirtings	Semi-gloss	Hands, feet, vacuum cleaners, and the surface is small so flaws matter less
Window joinery	Semi-gloss to gloss	Condensation runs down it and it needs a hard, tight film
Children's bedrooms	Low sheen, washable grade	Marks come off without going up a sheen level you will regret

Why is flat the right answer on a ceiling?

Because of how ceilings are lit. Light comes in horizontally through a window and rakes across the ceiling at a very shallow angle, which is the single most unforgiving way to light any surface. At that angle a low sheen ceiling will show every plasterboard joint, every screw dimple and every trowel mark in the stopping.

This is doubly true in older Wellington houses. A 1920s bungalow ceiling is rarely flat. It has settled, it may have had a scrim and sarking history, and it may have been overboarded at some point. Flat paint is the only finish that treats that kindly. If the surface genuinely needs to be good rather than forgiving, that is a stopping and skimming question, not a paint question, and no sheen choice will fix a poorly stopped ceiling.

The exception is wet rooms. A bathroom ceiling gets condensation running on it, and flat paint in that environment holds moisture and grows mould. Use a moisture resistant low sheen or a product specifically made for bathroom ceilings.

Does Wellington change any of this?

In wet rooms and cold rooms, yes. Winter humidity here is high, a lot of housing stock is under-heated, and a south-facing bedroom with a cold exterior wall will condense on that wall overnight. Flat paint on a surface that is regularly wet is asking for mould in the corners.

The practical adjustments are small. Use a moisture resistant low sheen rather than flat on the walls of bathrooms, laundries and any south-facing room with a known condensation problem, and pick products with a mould inhibitor in wet areas. That is a coating decision, not a ventilation fix, and it will not save a room that has no extractor fan.

Where does higher sheen bite you?

Two places, and both catch people out.

Surface flaws. On a long hallway wall lit from one end, semi-gloss will show every patched nail hole and every slightly proud joint. If you want that wall to look good in semi-gloss, the preparation has to be a level better, and that is time on the invoice.

Touch-ups. The higher the sheen, the more a spot repair flashes. A flat ceiling can be touched up almost invisibly. A semi-gloss wall generally cannot, so a small repair means coating the whole wall from corner to corner. If you are the kind of household that will be patching knocks, low sheen will serve you better over the life of the paint even though semi-gloss is technically the tougher film.

Is more sheen still the only way to get a washable wall?

No, and this is the part that has genuinely changed. Modern low sheen wall paints are far more scrubbable than they used to be, and the practical gap between a good low sheen and a semi-gloss on a wall surface is much smaller than it used to be.

Which means choosing semi-gloss on a living room wall purely for washability is usually unnecessary now, and you pay for it in how the wall looks. Specify a hard-wearing low sheen instead. On an interior repaint that is often the single choice that most improves how the finished job looks.

What about outside?

Different logic. Exterior sheen affects how well the surface sheds dirt and how much unevenness it advertises. Low sheen is the usual default on weatherboard for good reason: hundred-year-old boards are not straight, and a gloss finish on a rippled villa wall turns every wave into a highlight. Higher sheen is normally reserved for joinery, doors and trim, where the tighter film earns its place.

One thing to do before you commit

Get a brush-out of the actual product at the actual sheen, and look at it on the actual wall in the actual light. Sheen names are not standardised across manufacturers. One brand's low sheen reads closer to another brand's eggshell, and comparing them by name gets you nowhere. If you want to compare properly, ask for the gloss level number from the data sheet instead of the marketing word on the front.

If you would rather someone just specified it room by room for your house, that is part of what a quote from us includes. Ask for one.