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well it may not be the same method everyone uses but it has been very successful for my wife and I both using BM and Behr paints.
I do agree that a good eggshell job will typically cost more from a paint-pro if they know what they're doing. It sounds like these guys just didn't want to mess with the extra effort required to do it well.
I do agree that a good eggshell job will typically cost more from a paint-pro if they know what they're doing. It sounds like these guys just didn't want to mess with the extra effort required to do it well.
Yeah that is what I am starting to think too - they charged me $60 extra for the paint but never said anything about additional prep work - and before they started the walls were really not that bad, but the places they patched are so obvious and that is what is making it look bad now.
The problem is not the sheen of the paint, it's the quality of the repairs. You said they patched up A LOT of holes in the wall, if it was the same people that painted it, they were encouraging flat in order to better hide their lack of ability to patch walls properly. Even in the case of textured walls, a skilled worker can match it without the repair showing. Unfortunately you have little recourse now because you pretty much agreed to the wall imperfections showing by not using flat. In fact, it would not surprise me to find that they did sloppy patching intentionally to prove their point and get to charge you again to re-paint with flat after you saw the results.
Yep! Repairs should not show with proper patching.
Just wanted to check back in and let everyone know my fears were entirely unfounded (I feel silly now lol ). Turns out the room I was concerned about had only one coat of paint on it (I swear it looked like two!); once the second coat was up it looked great. Yes, you can see the imperfections on the walls a bit more but not nearly as bad as I had originally thought it would be at all! The room (and the whole house now) looks amazing and I'm really so glad I went with the eggshell after all - it really brightens up each space and adds a bit more visual interest as well.
Thank you for your responses and insight everyone!
If you dont primer all the sheetrock patches before you apply eggshell. They will show through every time. ( IN THE PAINT BIZ THERE CALLED SHINERS ) Also. While applying eggshell If you dont keep a wet edge it wont dry uniform. Thats why painters try to talk you out of using it : )
It sounds like the repairs were done previously over the years, not immediately prior to painting. We have one room like that. It's the first room my husband learned how to finish drywall. It's awful. Those imperfections have been there for 35 years. If we put the wrong paint color on the wall, all of those imperfections show up. Short of tearing out the drywall and starting over, there's no prep that could improve it. If the OP's walls are older and were repaired here and there over time, it's not the painter's fault.
Keep in mind that drywall is really just the illusion of a flat wall anyway. Unless you have someone skim the entire thing, the joints will show up in the right lighting conditions, especially with a sheen on it. Fortunately, the light shining along the wall itself is not something you see that often or if so, it goes away as the sun moves and lasts only a few minutes.
You can use this to your advantage to help find studs by holding a flashlight almost parallel to the wall and shining it. The joints and sometimes even the nails or screws will stand out, giving you a nice place to start looking.
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). Turns out the room I was concerned about had only one coat of paint on it (I swear it looked like two!); once the second coat was up it looked great. Yes, you can see the imperfections on the walls a bit more but not nearly as bad as I had originally thought it would be at all! The room (and the whole house now) looks amazing and I'm really so glad I went with the eggshell after all - it really brightens up each space and adds a bit more visual interest as well. 
