Painting Services in Singapore
Looking for painting services in Singapore? Painting is a huge part of renovation. The colour you choose will set the overall tone and theme of your house. Hence, I was quite stressed on the colour choices. I didn’t know how the different colours would look in real life or if they would come together nicely.
I searched for real life photos of our shortlisted colours but found only a few close matches. So if you happen to choose the same colours as me, you can refer to my photos in this post for reference. The photos are without filter, except for brightening effect.
Colour on Wall: Urban Grey and Sail White
Brands of Paint
The paint brands commonly quoted by contractors or interior designers in Singapore are Nippon Paint and Dulux. Nippon Paint is a Japanese brand but it has a manufacturing plant in Singapore since 1965. So it’s likely those tins of paint you have are made in Singapore.
I’ve heard rumours about Nippon Paint, about how the colour of the same code can be inconsistent from one paint shop to another because of how they mixed the colour proportions. And apparently the colour doesn’t come out as well as those in their catalogue. And also the tins the paint shop or the painting contractors used might not be genuine product or mixed with cheaper paints.
Colours we chose for the whole house
Anoher brand you can usually find in paint shop is Jotun. Or you can consider this Japanese brand called Sanifresh. It’s recommended by an external painting contractor, although I’ve never heard of it before. It’s used more in commercial than residential projects.
Sanifresh prides itself for having anti-bacteria agent and low volatile organic content emulsion. It is also washable, water resistant, covers hair-line cracks, has low odour and excellent adhesion. However, a downside is that they have limited standard colours, just a 2 page catalogue.
Quotations for Painting
Our Contractor
Our contractor quoted us S$1400 with Nippon Vinilex 5000, up to 4 Colors, Ceiling Using Matex White, excluding door frames and pipes. Vinilex 5000 seems to be the cheapest range of the Nippon Paint range. Oh but strictly speaking Matex White is cheaper and its quality is even lower, usually used only for the ceiling.
S$1,400 is within the usual range for a contractor’s quotation. However, I remember it’s cheaper if we source for the painting sub-contractor ourselves. Hence, I googled for painting services in Singapore.
External Painting Contractors / Sub-contractors
Option 1
The websites of the top search results look similarly simple. Anyhow we contacted Mr Painter (www.mrpainter.com.sg). When Mr Painter came to quote me, he wrote on the quotation sheet with these words printed on it: ‘Paintland Construction, www.painting.com.sg. So our suspicions were right – that the few websites are of the same company.
As you can see, Mr Painter’s quotation is S$850, almost half of what our contractor quoted us. He tried to sell us the sealer which we thought wasn’t necessary for a new HDB, because there’s already sealer painted. However, he said it’s not enough blah blah. Regardless, I think sealer is more necessary for old flats. But this is based on my online research, and not a professional opinion.
Why is it so cheap? Is it because their Nippon paint is not 100% genuine? Even so, the tins your contractor use might not be real product too. Well, if you are worried, I guess the only way to ensure genuine product is to get the tins straight from Nippon Paint’s official distributors and engage workers or your friends and relatives to paint.
If you are budget conscious, this might be a good option.
Option 2
We almost went with Raymond from coozypainting.com.sg. He’s the one who sold us on the benefits of Sanifresh. He paints with Nippon Paint too, but he recommended Sanifresh because he wanted to use a truly good product for his works. It was enticing for us because we were going to have a baby around and Sanifresh sounded good.
Raymond is an old uncle who had decades of experience, and once worked with Nippon Paint painting services. His portfolio mainly comprised of re-painting for existing homes. One thing I like about him is that he doesn’t give off the businessman/salesman vibes. He doesn’t collect deposit and you simply pay him on the day of painting. Basically he operates based on trust and customers’ integrity.
He quoted us S$1,400, the same as our contractor, but he was quite flexible in the number of colours we can use. Even though Sanifresh has limited standard colours, we can tell him the non-standard colours we want and he can mix it for us. However, we cannot change our minds about our colour choice after he mixed them. Because he would have no use for them.
Option 3
Then there’s the professional painting services by the respective brands of paint. We did consider Nippon Paint services, since the pricing is almost the same as our contractor’s. Moreover, the paint used is definitely genuine Nippon Paint.
- Sanifresh: skk.com.sg/professional-painting-services
- Nippon Paint: www.nipponpaint.com.sg/professional-painting-service
- Dulux: www.dulux.com.sg/en/colour-inspiration/dulux-hassle-free-painting-services-0
Just to share, I helped out a friend and acted in the video for Nippon Paint. It was definitely an interesting experience. That’s me in blue!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxRzVUiImx4
Our Final Choice
We went ahead with our contractor to use Nippon Paint Vinilex 5000.
This was because for external contractors, their first two coats have to be done together, usually before the lighting, curtains, etc are up. They will then come in again for touch up at the end of the renovation. On the other hand, our contractor promised us that he could paint the first coat before the polishing of our parquet and another coat after. This is good considering how dusty parquet polishing is.
However, in the end, our contractor did two coats together and denied ever promising it’s done separately. Sadly, he went MIA after the first two coats. Thus, we had to get our second contractor to touch up. Zzz. Shall share more about this dishonest contractor in another post.
Due Diligence
Just a few final notes. Make sure that you check the paint tins before they splash the paint on your walls.
- Confirm that they are of the right paint type — odour-less, easywash, vinilex silk, vinilex 5000 — whatever you have agreed upon. Oh in case you didn’t know, Nippon Paint odour-less doesn’t mean it’s odourless, it just meant low odor.
- Also be sure to check the colour code on the tins and that the paint inside the tins are of the right colours.
- And if you want to check if the tin is really 100% genuine product, you can probably take a sample and go to paint shops and check.
Our contractor gave us the pure white paint tin when we had specifically said sail white. I didn’t want the typical pure white because my parents once painted my bedroom with that white to surprise me and it really did. That white was too bright and jarring to my eyes. Hence I didn’t want a white white. Sail white will be more soothing to the eyes. You wouldn’t notice that it’s not pure white anyway until you compare it with the ceiling’s matex white.
Anyway, I used the following Nippon Paint colours for my house:
- Living room and dining area: Urban Grey 1113 (Grey)
- Guest room: Blue Chiffon 3131 (Pink)
- Nursery/study room: Blusher NP R1292P (Pink)
- Master bedroom: Tavern Buff NP N1867P (Brown)
- Whole house: Sail White 3157
- Ceiling: Matex White
Which colours are you planning to use? And do you have other good painters to recommend? I like to hear from you! Please leave your comments below. 🙂