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Picking the color

The hardest part of painting a room isn’t the painting. It’s standing in the room with four cards on the wall wondering which one you’ll still like in March. Here’s how the color gets picked, and twelve rooms where somebody picked one.

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Twelve rooms, with the old picture still on

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  • The same kitchen after painting: soft white cabinets over unchanged granite and backsplash
    A kitchen before painting: honey oak cabinets over black granite
    Before After
    Honey oak to soft whiteThe warmest white in the room is the one that doesn’t fight the granite.
  • The same bedroom after painting: a navy alcove with pale gray walls either side
    A bedroom before painting: flat beige walls and a beige alcove behind the bed
    Before After
    One wall darker than the restA built in alcove is the cheapest place in a house to be brave.
  • The same bedroom after painting: deep slate walls with white trim
    A bedroom before painting: flat beige walls and beige door casings
    Before After
    Beige to slateDark walls, white trim, and the window doing more work than it used to.
  • The same kitchen after painting: cream wall cabinets and a gray island
    A kitchen before painting: orange oak cabinets and an oak island
    Before After
    Two colors in one kitchenWall cabinets light, island dark. It makes a small kitchen read bigger.
  • The same front room after painting: pale gray walls and white trim in the bay
    A front room before painting: a green wallpaper dado and stained trim
    Before After
    Wallpaper and stained trim, both goneTrim going from wood to white changes a room more than the walls do.
  • The same staircase after painting: white spindles and trim with a dark handrail
    A staircase before painting: stained spindles, newel post and door with a wallpaper border
    Before After
    Spindles white, handrail left darkKeeping one wood element stops a white stair looking like a rental.
  • The same kitchen after painting: cream cabinets with a blue island
    A kitchen before painting: honey oak cabinets and a matching oak island
    Before After
    An island with a color of its ownBlue under a cream run, with the stools picked to match.
  • The same kitchen after painting: gray cabinets with a darker gray island
    A kitchen before painting: orange oak cabinets against a yellow wall
    Before After
    Oak to gray, against a yellow wallThe wall stayed. Gray cabinets were what made it work.
  • The same mudroom after painting: white beadboard lockers, shelves and bench
    A mudroom before painting: dark stained beadboard lockers and bench
    Before After
    A dark corner made lightWhite on built ins is the quickest way to get a dark hallway back.
  • The same bench after painting: navy beadboard, shelf and seat
    A built in bench before painting: plain white beadboard and seat
    Before After
    And the other way roundWhite beadboard taken to navy, in the room that takes the muddy boots.
  • The same bar after painting: blue cabinets with glass fronts
    A bar before painting: dark green cabinets with glass fronts and a wine lattice
    Before After
    Green to blue on a barGlass fronts mean every edge gets cut in by hand.
  • The same coffee bar after painting: white uppers over the same gray tile and granite
    A coffee bar before painting: stained wood uppers over gray subway tile
    Before After
    A coffee bar in whiteSame tile, same counter, a corner that stopped looking dated.

How does the color get settled?

At the walkthrough, in the room, with the light that room actually gets. Not off a screen, and not off a chip under a shop light. A gray that reads soft in a north-facing bedroom reads blue in a south-facing one at four in the afternoon.

The walkthrough is free, and you don’t have to decide anything while we’re standing there. Most people put two or three samples on the wall, live with them for a few days and tell us the one. The color is written on the quote before anybody opens a can.

Trim, ceilings and doors are their own decisions and they move the price. So does going light over dark, which is the one choice that regularly adds a coat.

What does a color choice do to the price?

Coats are decided at the walkthrough, not in advance. Light over dark, a strong color, or a wall that has been patched usually wants another one. Most interior jobs land between $3,400 and $7,100.

What moves an interior price

Rooms people ask about most

  • Kitchen cabinets. The biggest change per dollar in the house, and the one with the most decisions in it
  • Trim, doors and casings. Wood to white is the change people notice and can’t name
  • Ceilings, flat or textured
  • Handrails, banisters and spindles
  • Built ins, lockers, benches and shelving
  • One wall darker than the others, where the room has a feature to pick out

Next

What an interior job involves, start to finish: interior painting.

Or send us the rooms and a few photos and we’ll come look. Get a price.

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Not sure about the color yet?

That’s fine. Book the walkthrough anyway. The color goes on the quote, and the quote waits for you.

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