There are some good paint pros in the "Paint" forum.

Your plan seems almost reversed. The usual is eggshell on the walls and flat on the ceilings.

BM Aura is one of the top paints out there. Their "Matte" finish is washable, and different from the old "flat" finishes.

Flat can be cheaper, but Aura Matte is not cheap.

Not sure if the matte finish "flashes" when brushed against. I have heard it touches up nicely.

Good luck.

In addition to feedback from people who have used it, I would call a Benjamin Moore store and inquire about it directly with them; especially because you have kids and a dog. Unlike some other paint stores, the folks at the BM store in our area are seasoned employees and really know their stuff when it comes to their paint.

Flat/matte paint makes-in many cases-for a richer, softer look. Aura is a good line, from what I heard.

I had a lot of matte in the previous home, but since we've inherited it, and color matched it when needed, I don't know whether it was by BM or somebody else. I found it very nice. I think it does depend a lot on a paint itself and whether it's lower grade or higher grade paint. Richness of pigment, how long it will stay..for example the paint we have now is good yet we tried higher grade samples and for painting itself, the painters used same colors but in lower grade line of the same manufacturer (we found out accidentally). You can feel the difference very well, and makes us really mad-they could have at least ask us whether we'd be prepared to add money(and we would have been) to get a higher grade paint.

Go for the highest grade you can afford..maybe see the samples of couple different sheen in your space before deciding. See how it looks, feels..experiment with it a bit

In terms of looks, and looks only-flat is better with white. But you can do something like sateen..a sheen but very subtle one. Don't go higher than that

We used BM Aura matte in almost our entire home (used Farrow & Ball in a couple of rooms). We also have two young children. 4 years in, I still love it. Looks so rich and has a nice feel. Haven't had any smudging issues. I believe the Aura line is all the same price regardless of finish but I could be wrong.

Two boys, two dogs. Have used and lived with Aura matte. Love it. Go for it.

Why eggshell on the ceiling? Why not do matte on the ceiling too?

Aura eggshell is shinier than you might think it is - before you put that on the ceiling, get a sample and make sure it's okay.

I have flat/matte everywhere in my house, except the bathrooms where I had my arm twisted and went one step up. I hate sheen of any kind on walls or ceilings.

I haven't had any problem cleaning it. Sometimes I just touch marks up with more paint. I have textured walls, so the touchup doesn't show at all.

All I use is Aura Matte, I love the soft feeling and it washes just fine.

thanks for the input. We went to a BM paint store this afternoon and I confirmed that the Aura matte is the right finish for the walls. I'm still torn about the ceiling and trim. I'd like those elements to have a slightly different finish than the walls. The home is a post and beam, so the ceilings are beamed. They were previously painted with semi-gloss, which was just wrong.

For those of you that used matte on the walls, what finish did you use on the trim?

I used flat ceiling and high gloss trim.

for trim, we usually go with semi-gloss

We used flat for ceiling and satin for trim. I would do it all over again with the same products. I love Aura so much we used it on our kitchen cabs in lake house and they look as good now as when they were done nine years ago.

We used Aura in every room in our current home, and in some rooms in two previous homes. The ability to touch up without flashing is amazing, even after a few years. My preschooler and his friends run wild at my house, and the one thing I don't have to worry about is the paint on the walls! Food, marker, dirt, marks from truck tires and many other thing come off easily and you can't even tell it's been cleaned!

My house interior was painted with Aura about seven years ago using the finishes Lori recommended above. Looks like it was painted last week. BM makes a dead flat ceiling paint that I like very much. It can be mixed in any color, though I used the plain white in two rooms.

I used BM Regal Select Ultra Matte in a guest bedroom (which gets minimal use) in 2012. Although it says on the can "exceptional washability" it is the worst paint I have ever used for washability. I guess I should have used Aura instead.