Two weeks ago, I made the mistake of painting our laundry room/mudroom shelving with our normal, semi-gloss paint that we've used for all the trim in our house. After waiting for those shelves to dry, I consulted a trusted carpenter about curing time. In his opinion, shelving that will handle significant weight needs special paint in order to completely harden. He told me that my semi-gloss paint would probably never cure properly to the point that my ceramic pots wouldn't lift up the paint.

We've now got a single "top coat" of Benjamin Moore's "Advance" paint on these shelves. The paint can says, "Do not expose to heavy abrasion or return shelves/tabletops to service for at least 3-5 days to prevent damage to the finish." The experts at my local Benjamin Moore store said I should wait 1-2 weeks for curing. On Benjamin Moore's "datasheet" for this paint I'm reading that "depending on weather and drying conditions, it could take up to 30 days to reach optimum hardness and final sheen."

I'm trying not to be impatient, obviously, but what's the right information? I'd rather not wait a full 30 days to use my shelves if I don't have to!