People will spend a fortnight taping paint chips to a wall and then pick the sheen in about four seconds at the store counter. I understand why. The color is the fun part. But the finish you choose changes how that color reads in the room, how the wall copes with fingerprints and how forgiving it is of the dents and patches every older house has.
Sheen is simply how much light the dried paint reflects. A flat finish scatters light and looks soft and chalky. A gloss finish bounces it straight back at you. Everything else sits somewhere along that line.
One thing worth knowing before you shop: the names aren't standardized. One brand's eggshell can be shinier than another brand's satin, so it pays to look at a painted sample rather than trusting the word on the can.
Why shinier paint is tougher
The difference between finishes comes down mostly to the recipe. Glossier paints have more binder (the resin that holds everything together) relative to pigment, so they dry to a harder, smoother film. That's why they stand up better to scrubbing and moisture.
The tradeoff is that a smooth, reflective surface shows everything underneath it. Patched nail holes, uneven drywall seams and roller marks all catch the light. Shiny paint is also harder to touch up later, because a dab of fresh paint often shows as a slightly different patch of shine (painters call this flashing).
So you're always weighing two things: how much cleaning the wall needs to survive, and how much you want it to hide.
Flat and matte: the most forgiving finish
Flat paint has almost no shine. It's the best finish for hiding imperfections, which is why it's the standard choice for ceilings, where light from windows rakes across the surface and would pick out every flaw.
On walls, flat and matte give color a rich, velvety look that a lot of designers love. Their weakness has always been cleaning. Scrub a traditional flat wall and you can leave a shiny, burnished spot. Many newer matte formulas are much more washable than the old ones, so check the label if you want the look in a busier room. I still wouldn't put plain flat paint in a hallway that sees schoolbags and muddy dogs.
Good places for it: ceilings, adult bedrooms, formal dining rooms and any wall that is a bit lumpy.
Eggshell and satin: the everyday middle
Eggshell has a faint glow, roughly like the surface of an actual eggshell, and it's probably the most common choice for living rooms and bedrooms. It wipes clean better than flat but still hides a fair amount.
Satin is a step shinier and noticeably tougher. It's a sensible pick for hallways, kids' rooms, family rooms and any wall that gets leaned on. Plenty of people use it in kitchens and bathrooms too. My own rule of thumb (not a law, just habit) is eggshell where people sit and satin where people pass through.
Semi-gloss and gloss: for trim, doors and wet rooms
Semi-gloss is the classic finish for trim, doors, window frames and cabinets. These are the surfaces hands touch all day, and you want to be able to wipe them down without thinking. It also handles humidity well, which makes it a common choice for bathrooms, especially small ones without much ventilation.
High gloss is the most durable and the most demanding. It looks wonderful on a front door, a painted piece of furniture or a lacquered dark accent wall, but the surface has to be properly prepared first, because gloss makes every bump and brush stroke stand out. If you're not prepared to sand and fill carefully, I'd step down to semi-gloss.
Testing before you commit
Buy sample pots and paint large swatches, ideally on poster board you can move around, at least a couple of feet across. Look at them in the morning, the late afternoon and under your lamps at night. Sheen behaves very differently in low-angled winter light than it does at midday, and November is a good month to see the worst case.
If you're switching from a glossy finish to a flatter one, or painting over old oil-based paint, give the surface a light sanding and a coat of a suitable primer first so the new paint grips. Painting latex straight over slick oil paint is one of the most common reasons a fresh paint job starts peeling.
A simple plan for the whole house
If you'd rather not think about any of this room by room, a combination that works in most homes is flat on the ceilings, eggshell or matte on most walls, satin in hallways and kids' rooms, and semi-gloss on trim, doors and bathroom walls. Keep the leftover cans labeled with the room and the finish. Matching a sheen from memory two years later is harder than it sounds, and the label can save you a second trip to the store.
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