Not Sherwin-Williams, Not Benjamin Moore: Consumer Reports' Highest-Rated Interior Paint

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Choosing that perfect paint color for inside your home means not only deciding on the right shade and finish but also picking a quality brand worth your money. Painting even the smallest room of your house means shelling out hundreds of dollars, so you want to make a wise investment. Consumer Reports (CR) tested 20 of the top-selling paint brands on the market in 2026 and found a standout interior paint that may not be as familiar as Sherwin-Williams or Benjamin Moore — Behr, with that iconic bear symbol fronting its cans, came out on top.

In its testing, CR evaluated two critical aspects of interior paints to determine which brand makes the best product: hiding (the ability to hide a darker layer of paint with a single coat) and stain resistance. It's clever to test these two factors because they tell you a lot about not only how easy and economical a paint will be to apply but also how a paint is going to perform against the wear and tear of everyday life. 

Paints that cover well with one coat will save you money (and a lot of time) because you won't need primer or to apply a second coat — a game changer considering 2026's living room paint trend of color drenching. For stain resistance, CR dirtied up its coat of paint and then washed it off. Paint that came clean easily without color-fading got the highest marks. Behr's Dynasty brand, sold from Home Depot, got top marks in both of these tests.

Behr's Dynasty stood out for not only its hiding and stain resistance but also its coverage (up to 400 square feet per gallon) and drying time. Home Depot shoppers have given the brand hundreds of five-star reviews, although a few reviewers beg to differ on its claim of a one-coat performance. Behr's Dynasty line is its most expensive, advertised to do better at resisting mold and mildew than its lower-cost paint lines. But CR still ranked Behr's less expensive Ultra and Marquee lines in the top five, with Behr's Ultra being recommended as a CR "best buy."

Beyond hiding and stain resistance, buying a non-toxic paint for your interior project is an important consideration, and Behr's top-ranked paints are all low VOC, meaning their levels of volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde and toluene are less than 50 grams per liter. CR also tested zero-VOC paints by Glidden and Benjamin Moore, but those brands performed relatively poorly for stain resistance compared with Behr.

Although Behr dominated CR's top-ranked interior paints, a couple of other brands also got high marks. Valspar Reserve, sold at Lowe's, came in second among CR's rankings, and consumer reviews are generally positive on the brand. Rounding out CR's top five was HGTV by Sherwin-Williams Infinity paint, also sold at Lowe's, but this paint scored lower in CR's hiding test than Behr's line of interior paints.