Painting Color Approval Form: Stop the Repaint Argument

There is one argument in painting that costs more than any other and has nothing to do with the
quality of the work. It is the customer standing in a finished room saying this is not the color I
chose.

Sometimes they are right. More often the color is exactly what was agreed and looks completely
different at scale, in that light, next to their furniture. Either way, without a record, the cost
of repainting lands on whoever cannot prove what was decided, and that is almost always the painter.

A color approval form is the cheapest insurance in the business. It is one page, takes two
minutes, and it changes the conversation from a disagreement about memory into a look at a document
you both signed. Choosing the colors in the first place is a different subject, covered in
how to choose paint colors.

Why memory is not good enough

Color decisions are made early, often weeks before the paint is opened, and usually while the
customer is thinking about several other things. They are also frequently made by one person and
lived with by two.

Three specific ways it goes wrong, all of them common:

• The customer picked from a small chip. At room scale the same color reads considerably stronger,
  and light colors read as though nothing has changed at all.
• They chose under one light and are judging under another. Deep shades in a north facing room are
  the classic case.
• A partner or a family member who was not part of the decision sees it first at completion.

None of these are your fault and all of them become your problem. The form does not prevent the
reaction, and it is not meant to. It settles who pays for the response.

The fields

The sheen row deserves emphasis because it is the field customers do not know they are choosing.
A color in matte and the same color in satin look meaningfully different, and satin on a wall with
any unevenness will show every defect the matte would have hidden. If the customer has not expressed
a preference, record what you specified rather than leaving it blank, and say why. The differences
are set out in the paint sheen guide.

The sample seen field, which does the real work

This one field carries most of the protective value, because it records how much information the
customer had when they decided.

A brush out, meaning the actual paint applied to a decent sized area of the actual wall and viewed
at different times of day, is by far the best position to be in. A customer who signed off a brush
out and then dislikes the finished room is asking for a change of mind, not reporting an error, and
the form makes that distinction visible without anybody having to say it unkindly.

A chip is weaker but still useful. None, meaning the customer chose from a photograph, an online
image or a color they remember from somewhere else, is worth recording precisely because it is
weak. It tells you to expect a reaction, and it lets you say at the time that the color has not
been seen in the room and that repainting for a change of mind is chargeable.

The two lines above the signature

Short, plain, and not hidden in small print.

• A line confirming the colors listed are what will be applied, and that ordering happens on this
  basis.
• A line stating that changes after this point may affect the price and the schedule, and that
  repainting a completed surface because of a change of mind is chargeable.

The second line is the whole document. Without it, you have a record of what was chosen and no
agreement about what happens when it changes. Say it out loud as you hand the form over, in an
ordinary tone, because a customer who hears it is far less likely to test it.

Ceilings, trim and the colors nobody discusses

Customers choose wall colors. They rarely choose anything else, and then form opinions about it
once it is on.

White is not a color, it is a large family of them, and the difference between a cool white and a
warm white on a ceiling above a strong wall color is obvious once applied and invisible on a chart.
The same is true of trim, where the default assumption of brilliant white is frequently wrong in an
older property and always wrong next to a heritage palette.

Put a row on the form for every surface being coated, including the ones the customer has not
mentioned, and fill in what you intend to use. A customer who says that is fine has still made a
decision, and that is all the form needs. The alternative is a conversation at completion about a
ceiling nobody ever discussed, which you will lose because nothing was written down.

Undertones are the specific trap. Two greys that look identical on a chart can read as blue and as
green on a wall, and a customer who dislikes the result will describe it as the wrong color rather
than as an undertone they did not anticipate. Recording the code protects you factually. Showing a
brush out protects the relationship, which is worth more.

Exterior colors and the extra approval

Exterior work adds a party who is not in the room. Many properties sit under rules about what
colors are permitted, whether through a homeowners association, a managed estate, a conservation
designation or a lease.

Add one field asking whether any approval is required and whether it has been obtained. It takes
seconds and it heads off the worst version of this problem, which is not a customer disliking the
color but a third party requiring the whole elevation be redone in something else.

Put the responsibility for obtaining that approval on the customer explicitly, since they are the
party to the rules and you are not. What informs the choice itself is in
choosing exterior paint colors.

When to get it signed

Before any paint is ordered, and specifically before anything is tinted. Tinted product cannot go
back, and a color change after tinting is a real cost to somebody the moment it happens.

Set the deadline in the contract rather than chasing it later. A clause giving a date by which
colors must be confirmed, with the start date moving if they are not, converts an awkward chase into
a term that was agreed. The clause structure is in
the painting contract structure, and the consequence for the calendar in
scheduling painting jobs.

Undecided customers are the single most common cause of a job slipping, and the reason is
usually that nobody attached a date to the decision.

Changes after signing

Reissue the form rather than editing it. Version two, dated, signed again, with version one kept.
An edited form proves nothing because it only shows the final state, and the state you will need to
demonstrate later is what was agreed before the change.

Number the versions on the form itself and note on version two what changed from version one. It
takes a line and it removes the most tedious part of any later discussion, which is two people trying
to establish which decision came first.

Where the change has a cost, whether tinted product that cannot be returned, an extra coat for
coverage, or repainting something already finished, it goes on a change order and not on this form.
This document records decisions, not money. Keeping the two separate is what keeps it quick enough
to actually get signed. The mechanics are on
the change order structure.

Getting the codes to the crew

The approved form is the source, and the codes need to reach the people opening the cans. Copy
them onto the work order rather than sending the crew to find the
approval form, because a document that has to be looked up is a document that gets guessed at
instead.

Keep the signed form in the job file, and keep a photograph of it on your phone. The moment you
need it is the moment you are standing in the room having the conversation, and a document filed
somewhere you cannot reach is the same as no document at all.

Keep the can labels or the supplier receipts with it too. Between them, the signed form and the
receipt establish both what was agreed and what was actually mixed, which are the two halves of any
color dispute worth the name.

The samples question, and who pays for them

Brush outs are the most effective protection in this whole process and they are not free. Each one
is a sample pot, a visit, and the time to apply it and come back.

Decide your position before it comes up rather than in the moment. A common approach is to include
a small number as part of the job and treat further ones as chargeable, said plainly at the quote so
it is never a surprise. Another is to include none and price them as an option, which suits painters
whose work is mostly repeat colors.

What does not work is absorbing an open ended number of samples because each individual one feels
too small to charge for. Color indecision is not bounded, and a customer who is genuinely struggling
can consume several days of attention across a job that was priced with none of it in mind. The
underlying arithmetic is the same as anywhere else in the business, and it is set out in
the painting minimum job charge.

Apply samples on more than one wall where light differs, and never over an existing strong color
without blocking it first, because a sample judged over a dark background will read wrong and the
customer will reject a color that would have been fine.

Frequently asked questions

Is a signed form really necessary on a small job?

The risk is not proportional to the job size. A single feature wall in the wrong color costs a
return visit and the material, which on a small job can remove the profit entirely.

What if the customer will not commit to a color?

Set a date in the contract, and be willing to move the start rather than beginning work on the
promise that they will decide by the time you get to that room. Starting without a decision is how
crews end up idle on a paid day.

Should I charge for brush out samples?

Many painters include one or two and charge beyond that, which is reasonable given each one costs
material and a visit. Whichever you choose, say so before doing the first one.

Who signs if there are two owners?

Both, for the same reason both sign the contract. The absent partner seeing the color for the
first time at completion is one of the situations this form exists to handle.

Does this replace a color consultation?

No. A consultation helps the customer decide, and this records what they decided. They are
different services and one does not remove the need for the other.

What if the mixed paint does not match the code?

That is a supplier issue rather than a change of mind, and the form is what proves it, because it
records the code that should have been mixed. Keep the receipt with it.

A signed color choice protects the finish, and it also protects the price, because a major color change adds coats, primer and cut lines. See how to price color changes on a painting job.