The Cost of COLOR

When choosing colors, it’s important to keep in mind that the cost of getting the space painted might be affected by the color choices…. And in some cases, the difference can be drastic (see below) :)

FIRST: The total number of colors.
If you decide to have a high number of colors for your project, this means the painting contractor will have to purchase a lot more paint. Extra colors will also result into more materials and more labor with all the different brushes and rollers to setup and wash. 

SECOND: How dark or light the colors are.
If you decide to go with bright colors or colors that are opposite of what’s currently on the walls in terms of how light or dark the colors are, this will most likely result in a higher number of coats. Certain colors, like the ones in the image to the right, will require a grey primer to achieve the specific color. Other colors will require a white primer. Some will simply need you to apply a third coat to cover properly. Either way the end result is more paint, labor and materials.

An extreme example:
I remember this project where we painted the offices for a large radio station here in Moncton a few years back. I was asked to provide them with a quote to paint all of their offices which came roughly at around $4000. The price was for a standard 3 colors with 2 coats of paint. When the colors were chosen, they ended up with 22 different colors (yes 22!), with each wall in the offices painted different from the next… and almost every single one of the colors required some kind of primer and even 3 or 4 coats on top of that.

They wanted bright colors to make the work space more fun to work in.

So needless to say, I had to revise the quote to accommodate this unique request and the end result was an increase in price of $8 000… YES, because of this unique choice of colors, the price went from $4 000 to $12 000.

Of course, they didn’t realize this when they had picked the colors, and part of me wonders if they still would have picked those colors had they known about how much the price was going to be affected because of it. But they had already told everyone about those wow colors and everyone had fallen in love with the concept… so they still went with it. (Although we ended up making a deal where part of the work got paid with radio advertising… so everyone was happy) :)

The lesson I’m trying to share with you is this:
If you’re considering going with a high number of colors or colors that are extremely bright (oranges, yellows, reds)… you should check with your painting contractor to see how much the price (if any) would be affected so that you don’t fall in love with a concept only to find out you can’t afford it.

As a color consultant and painting contractor, this is one key benefit I bring to the table during consultations. I can explain to my customers how much particular colors might change their price and help them make those decisions faster and easier.