Interior · Exterior · Cabinets · Color
The color you'll still like in ten years.
House painting in Palo Alto, with care taken before the first coat. We wash, scrape, sand and prime so your new finish has a sound surface beneath it.
Old Palo Alto living room. Walls in Linen (eggshell), beams and trim in Baylands Fog (satin). Four days. Illustrative photos.
The swatch book
Ten colors we keep coming back to.
Named for the places they go on. Every one is a stock color from a major paint line, so a touch-up in five years matches.
- LinenWarm white ·
#EFE6D6 - Baylands FogTrim gray-white ·
#E4E3DC - Sand HillSoft tan ·
#CDB79A - EucalyptusGray-green ·
#A9B49A - ArastraderoDeep green ·
#6E7F64 - Tile TerracottaFront doors ·
#C65A3A - Foothill OchreAccent walls ·
#C98A2E - CedarDeck stain ·
#9A5A34 - Baylands BlueBedrooms ·
#2A4A6E - Palo Alto NightDoors, cabinets ·
#2C3038
Screens lie about color. On the color walk we paint three two-foot samples on your actual wall and look at them in the morning and again at six.
- Lic #1047316 C-33CSLB-style license, sample
- Bonded & insuredLiability and workers' comp, lead-safe certified
- Local servicePainting homes in Palo Alto
- Client reviewsSample reviews, illustrative
What we paint
Five jobs. Each one starts with prep.
-
Interior painting
Walls, ceilings, trim and doors. Furniture moved and covered, nail holes filled, two finish coats, back-rolled.
2–3 days a room -
Exterior painting
Pressure wash, scrape, sand, caulk, prime bare wood, two coats of 100% acrylic. Stucco, wood siding, shingles.
About a week -
Cabinet refinishing
Doors and drawers sprayed in our shop, boxes sprayed in place behind a sealed kitchen. Factory-smooth, no brush marks.
5 days without the kitchen -
Decks & fences
Clean, brighten, sand and stain redwood and cedar. Fences painted or stained on both sides if the neighbor agrees.
2 days, then 48 h to cure -
Color consultation
Ninety minutes at the house with a fan deck, then three sample patches on the wall. Free when we paint the job.
90 minutes
Rooms, by color
Six rooms, six swatches.
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Baylands Blue Professorville
The navy bedroom
Dark walls, bright white crown. The trim does the work. Three coats of a deep color so it reads even at night.
Walls matte · Trim semi-gloss
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Eucalyptus Midtown
The sage living room
A 1950s Eichler-era living room, walls in Eucalyptus and the ceiling kept bright so the low roofline doesn't press down.
Walls eggshell · Ceiling flat
-
Baylands Fog Barron Park
The oak-to-white kitchen
Honey oak from 1998, degreased, sanded, bonding primer, then two sprayed coats of a waterborne alkyd enamel.
Cabinets satin enamel
-
Palo Alto Night Crescent Park
The front door
One door, one Saturday. Stripped to bare wood, oil primer, three brushed coats. The cheapest thing you can do to a house.
Door semi-gloss
-
Arastradero California Avenue
The shopfront
Painted over two early mornings so the shop never closed. Elastomeric patch on the stucco cracks first.
Stucco flat acrylic · Metal DTM satin
-
Cedar Greenmeadow
The redwood deck
Brightened with oxalic acid, sanded to 80 grit, one coat of penetrating oil stain. Fence in Sand Hill behind it.
Deck semi-transparent oil · Fence solid stain
How a job goes
Four steps. The paint is the last one.
-
Color walk
Ninety minutes at the house. We look at the light, the floors, what stays. You leave with three colors and a written scope. No number until we've seen the walls.
Week 0 -
Samples on the wall
Three two-foot patches in real paint, not peel-and-stick. Live with them for a weekend. We come back and adjust.
Week 1 -
Prep
Furniture to the middle, floors covered, holes filled, cracks caulked, glossy trim scuffed, bare spots primed. On pre-1978 houses we work lead-safe, every time.
Day 1–2 -
Two coats, then the walk-through
Cut in by brush, roll, back-roll. Second coat the next morning. We walk every wall with you under a work light before we pack up.
Last day
Reviews added after verification
What the neighbors say.
"They talked me out of the gray I came in with. The Eucalyptus is the first thing everyone mentions when they walk in."
"Exterior, 1927 house, lead paint. They tented the beds, tested every day, and finished on the Friday they said they would."
"The cabinets look factory-made. I keep opening a door to check for brush marks. There aren't any."
Where we work
Palo Alto and the surrounding communities.
Based on San Antonio Road, we paint homes in Palo Alto and nearby communities. Tell us about your rooms and we’ll arrange a visit.
- Old Palo Alto
- Crescent Park
- Professorville
- Midtown
- Barron Park
- College Terrace
- Duveneck
- Greenmeadow
- Menlo Park
- Los Altos
- Mountain View
- Stanford
- Portola Valley
- Atherton
Questions we're asked a lot
Before you call.
How much does it cost to paint a house in Palo Alto?
Every house is different. The prep is most of the work, and we can't see the prep from a photo. We walk the house, then give you a written scope and a fixed price that doesn't change unless you change the scope.
Which paint do you use?
Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams, top of each line: Aura or Regal for walls, Emerald or Duration outside, and a waterborne alkyd enamel for cabinets and trim. We'll tell you the exact product on the scope so you can buy a touch-up quart years later.
Our house was built before 1978. Is that a problem?
No, but it changes how we work. Most of Old Palo Alto and Professorville has lead paint somewhere. We're EPA lead-safe certified: we test, contain, wet-sand or scrape under HEPA, and clean up with a HEPA vac, every day.
Can we stay in the house?
Yes, for almost every interior job. We finish one room before we open the next and leave each one usable at night. Cabinets are the exception, so plan on five days of takeout.
What if I hate the color once it's up?
That's what the samples on the wall are for. If a color still isn't right after the first coat, we'll stop, re-tint and start again on that wall at cost. It's happened twice in fifteen years.
Get in touch
Tell us about the room.
Call during working hours, or send a few lines and we'll reply within one business day. The color walk is free.
(408) 555-0171Visits by arrangement · call to confirm availability