Before & After
Project Specs
| City | Port Moody, BC |
| Neighbourhood | Heritage Woods |
| Service Type | Interior Painting |
| Duration | 4 days |
| Materials Used | Benjamin Moore Aura Interior (eggshell walls, semi-gloss trim, satin for built-ins), Zinsser BIN shellac-based primer for knot blocking |
Scope of Work
Heritage Woods is one of Port Moody's most desirable neighbourhoods — large homes with generous ceiling heights, open-concept layouts, and often impressive architectural details like built-in bookcases and millwork. This home had all of that, plus a sweeping open staircase and a family room bookcase wall that needed careful, detailed painting work.
The homeowners chose a contemporary palette — warm off-whites on ceilings, light warm greige on most walls, a deep charcoal feature wall in the family room, and all trim and built-ins in bright white semi-gloss. The full scope:
- All walls throughout the home — two coats BM Aura in selected palette
- All ceilings — two coats BM White Dove flat
- Family room feature wall — three coats deep charcoal (BM Wrought Iron CC-60)
- All baseboard trim, door and window casings — semi-gloss Aura white
- All interior doors — both sides, semi-gloss Aura white
- Built-in bookcase unit in family room — detailed brush painting in satin Aura, all shelves, uprights, face frame, and back panel
- Knot blocking on several pine door casings using Zinsser BIN shellac primer — prevents tannin bleed-through
- All nail holes and minor dents filled throughout before painting
- All trim caulked to walls for clean paint lines
The built-in bookcase required the most patience on this project. Each shelf, upright, and back panel had to be cut in and brushed individually for clean, crisp edges — there's no shortcut on detailed millwork. The result was worth the extra time: the bookcase looks like it was painted at the factory.
Our Process
Protection & Prep — Full Home
Furniture moved, floors covered, outlet covers removed. All nail holes filled and sanded throughout the home. Door casings with knots primed with Zinsser BIN shellac primer — this is the only product that reliably prevents yellow tannin bleed from pine knots through topcoat.
Ceilings Throughout
All ceilings cut in at the wall-ceiling junction and rolled in BM White Dove flat. Two coats. Open-concept homes require extra attention at long sight-line ceiling junctions — any holidays or holidays at the wall line are highly visible from across the room.
Walls — Greige Throughout & Feature Wall
Main walls painted room by room. The family room feature wall (deep charcoal) required three coats for full, even coverage over the existing lighter colour — two coats left slight show-through in certain lighting. Three coats ensured a perfectly uniform appearance.
Built-In Bookcase — Detailed Work
All trim caulked to wall surfaces first. Built-in bookcase painted by hand with a quality brush — each shelf, upright, and the back panel painted in sequence. The back panel was painted a deep accent tone for visual depth, with all shelves and faces in bright white semi-gloss. Careful masking at the back panel / shelf junction.
Trim, Doors & Final Detail
All baseboard, door casings, and window casings painted in semi-gloss white. All interior doors painted both sides. Staircase railing and baluster rail painted. Final walk-through in natural and artificial light, touch-ups completed, site cleaned, furniture restored.
"Quality work and service. Very nice and exceptional. Really recommended."
