HGTV Home Infinity Paint: Honest Review (2026)
Sherwin-Williams' one-coat tier sold at Lowe's under the HGTV name. Where Infinity's one-coat claim holds, where it doesn't, and how it stacks against Behr Marquee at $46 a gallon.
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Tested: ★ 4.1 / 5
Infinity is the can to reach for when you want Sherwin-Williams hide and scuff resistance without the Sherwin-Williams store. At around $46 a gallon at Lowe’s it sits in Behr Marquee territory, and it earns that price the same way Marquee does: real one-coat coverage on a sensible color change, washable enough for a kitchen, a finish that doesn’t burnish the first time a backpack scrapes it. SW calls it their most durable interior paint, and on scuff and stain it backs that up. It loses points on the one-coat fine print and on being chained to one retailer.
Buy this if: you live near a Lowe’s and want SW-made one-coat paint on a high-traffic interior repaint. Skip this if: you’re doing a drastic color flip and expecting the can to hide it in one pass, or your store is a Sherwin-Williams and you can buy the top tier direct.
What Infinity Is, and Where the Name Came From
HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams is real SW paint sold at Lowe’s under the HGTV name. Sherwin-Williams owns the brand and makes every gallon; the network lends the design-show credibility and the curated palette. Behr does the same dance at Home Depot. This is SW’s answer to that lane.
Infinity is the one-coat, paint-and-primer-in-one tier. SW describes it as “a complete, one-coat paint and primer in one with exceptional hiding power,” and in the same breath calls it “Sherwin-Williams’ most durable interior paint,” built for “exceptional resistance to scuff marks and scratches.” It’s a 100% acrylic film, low-VOC, sold in flat, eggshell, satin, and semi-gloss, in quart through 5-gallon. Sticker price starts around $45.98 a gallon.
One note on where it sits, because the line names don’t rank themselves. In the current ladder Infinity is the premium one-coat-and-durability line, Showcase is the stain-resistant line beside it, and Ovation Plus is the lower-priced everyday option at roughly $30 to $36 a gallon. Infinity is the pricier, harder-wearing can, not the cheap one. Worth knowing before you reach for whatever sits cheapest on the shelf.
The One-Coat Claim: When It Holds and When It Doesn’t
Every paint that prints “one coat” on the label is making a promise with conditions, and Infinity is no exception. The promise holds in a specific zone.
I tested it the way a homeowner actually paints: a primed off-white wall going to a warm mid-tone greige in satin. One pass with a 3/8-inch microfiber roller pulled clean, no flashing at the patch lines, no holiday spots in raking afternoon light. That’s the case the one-coat claim is built for. Color-on-color, or anywhere your new shade is within a few steps of the old wall, Infinity hides in one.
Now the other side. I took the same gallon at a darker base over a previously deep-painted accent wall, and at white going over a saturated color, and both needed two coats. No surprise. Pigment can only cover so much contrast in one film, and “one-coat hide” never meant “covers anything.” If you’re flipping a navy feature wall back to a light neutral, budget two coats and a primer pass on the worst of it. The can won’t save you that work, and neither will any competitor’s.
So the rule: deep colors over similar bases, yes. Drastic changes, no. Plan your coats by the contrast, not by the marketing.
Performance: Hide, Scuff, and the Wipe-Down
Hide is the headline and it’s legitimate. In the satin and eggshell sheens, Infinity buries spackle spots and skim-coat repairs that lower-tier wall paint flashes at every time. On the one-coat color changes it’s meant for, the coverage is genuinely a step above the mid-grade cans next to it on the Lowe’s shelf.
Scuff resistance is where the “most durable” line earns its keep. I dragged a chair leg and a shoe heel across a cured eggshell panel and the marks wiped off rather than polishing in. That’s the failure mode of cheaper acrylics: the scuff burnishes a shiny streak you can’t fully clean. Infinity’s harder film resists that, which is the whole reason to spend up for a hallway or a stairwell.
Stain repellency holds up for a wall paint. Crayon, coffee splash, and greasy fingerprints around a switchplate came off with a damp rag and mild dish soap at the two-week mark. It’s not a dedicated scrub-down kitchen-and-bath formula the way a Class 1 washable paint is, so don’t expect Showcase-level stain release out of it. For where it lands on cleanability against the field, the best scrubbable paint round-up is the deeper comparison.
Where It Sits Next to Showcase and Ovation Plus
The HGTV Home interior shelf is three cans, and the names don’t tell you the order the way you’d hope.
Infinity is the durability-and-one-coat play. Showcase is the stain-resistant line built to take frequent washing and scrubbing, the one to pick when a wall gets cleaned hard and often. Ovation Plus is the value tier, the lowest per-gallon of the three. If your job is high-traffic walls you’ll wipe occasionally and you want strong hide in one coat, Infinity is the right rung. If the wall is a kitchen backsplash zone or a kids’ bathroom that gets scrubbed weekly, look at Showcase. If it’s a guest room on a tight number, Ovation Plus covers it for less.
For the full lineup and how the colors match across all three, see the HGTV Home brand hub. The Showcase review digs into the stain-resistance angle on its own.
The SW-at-Lowe’s Value Angle
This is the real reason to buy it. The formula comes out of Sherwin-Williams plants, so you get SW-grade adhesion, tint strength, and film hardness without driving to an SW company store or paying its counter price. For a lot of homeowners the SW store feels like the wrong room anyway, built for pros pulling five-gallon buckets on a discount. Lowe’s is homeowner turf.
You also get the curated palette. The HGSW collections group coordinating colors that already work together, plus a Color of the Year, which beats freezing in front of a giant fan deck. Every shade is mix-on-demand: pick the HGSW code, the Lowe’s machine tints it into Infinity, and it matches your trim and ceiling because SW mixes all of it. Browse the full set on the HGTV Home color pages.
Infinity vs Behr Marquee
These two are the same fight from opposite big boxes. Marquee is Behr’s one-coat flagship at Home Depot, roughly $48 to $58 a gallon. Infinity is SW’s one-coat tier at Lowe’s, around $46. Both promise one-coat hide, both carry the conditions.
On coverage they’re close. Marquee’s one-coat guarantee is tied to a specific One-Coat Hide Collection of colors, and the warranty only honors those listed shades. Infinity doesn’t gate its one-coat claim to a named color list the same way, which is a quieter, more honest promise, though it means no lifetime warranty backing it the way Marquee carries. On scuff and stain, both hold up well for the price; I’d call scuff a wash and give Marquee a slight edge on greasy-kitchen stain release.
The real separator is your store and your color line. Marquee gives you Behr’s full deck plus the Disney and historical collaborations, tinted at any Home Depot. Infinity gives you the HGTV-curated palette at Lowe’s. If your color lives in one deck and not the other, that decides it. For the head-to-head against the rest of the field, the best wall paint round-up places both.
Where It Wins
- Real one-coat hide on a sensible color change. The coverage is SW-grade and beats most mid-grade cans on the same Lowe’s shelf.
- Scuff resistance that earns the “most durable” line. The hard film resists the burnished streaks cheaper acrylic shows in a stairwell or hallway.
- SW chemistry without the SW store. Plant-made formula, Lowe’s price, homeowner-friendly counter.
- Curated color that matches across the line. SW mixes Infinity, Showcase, Ovation Plus, and the ceiling paint, so trim and walls read the same.
Where It Loses
One-coat is a zone, not a guarantee. Push a drastic contrast change and you’re doing two coats. Buyers who read the label literally get burned by white-over-dark jobs every time.
Lowe’s-only is a hard constraint. You can’t buy Infinity anywhere else. If your nearest Lowe’s is a half-hour off and an SW store is down the block, the convenience math flips, and SW stores won’t sell you the HGTV cans.
It’s not the SW top shelf. Emerald, Duration, and Cashmere are not in this family. Infinity is a strong retail one-coat tier, not the can that wins SW’s internal washability tests. The “by Sherwin-Williams” badge can tempt a shopper into expecting Emerald-grade performance, and that’s a different paint at a different price.
The deck is one retailer’s palette. Beautiful and curated, but if the exact color you want lives in another brand’s deck, you can’t get it tinted into Infinity.
Where to Buy
| Retailer | Carries | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lowe’s | Full Infinity line | The only retail home; nationwide, with regular promos and rebates |
| Lowe’s online | Full line, ship or pickup | Same pricing; good for checking stock before the drive |
| Sherwin-Williams stores | HGSW color match into SW products | Won’t sell the Infinity-branded cans, but can match the color |
Lowe’s is the brand’s only retail home. It’s not at Home Depot, not at Walmart, not at independent hardware. The 5-gallon bucket is the move on a whole-house repaint; the per-gallon number drops on the bigger size.
Buy It If, Skip It If
Buy Infinity if: Lowe’s is your store, you’re repainting high-traffic interior walls, your color change is reasonable (not a drastic flip), and you want SW-grade one-coat hide and scuff resistance without an SW-store receipt. For a kitchen, a hallway, a kids’ room, or a stairwell that takes daily abuse, it’s the right rung on the HGTV Home shelf.
Skip Infinity if: you’re flipping a deep accent wall back to white and expecting one coat to hide it (it won’t), you live next to a Sherwin-Williams store and want Emerald or Duration direct, or your job is a hard-scrubbed bath where Showcase’s stain release is the better spend. And if budget is the only thing that matters and the room barely gets touched, Ovation Plus does the same wall for ten dollars less a gallon.