Interior Sample Review Preparation Checklist

Ask for samples large enough to be judged properly, and take them into the room they are intended for rather than deciding while standing in a showroom.

A showroom is lit, floored and coloured to sell, and almost every finish behaves differently in the room where it will actually live.

Place a floor sample on the floor and a wall sample on the wall, at the height and orientation from which it will genuinely be seen.

A finish held in the hand is seen at an angle you are unlikely to repeat once it is in place, which is why hand-held choices so often disappoint.

Move strong nearby colours out of the way before judging, including a bright rug, a coloured door, a curtain or the sample card itself.

Adjacent colour changes how a sample reads more than most people expect, and the sample card is often the worst offender.

View wall samples on more than one wall, including the wall facing the window and the wall immediately beside it.

The same colour reads warm on one wall and grey on the opposite one, which is why single-wall decisions so often go wrong.

Leave the samples in the room and look at them again on separate occasions, rather than deciding everything in a single sitting.

First impressions of a finish are strong and unreliable, and returning to it several times gives a much steadier answer.

Ask whether the sample you have been given comes from current production or is an older reference piece kept for showing.

Ask the supplier whether a sample represents current production, since an older reference piece may not match what would actually be supplied.

Look at every sample in daylight, at dusk and under the fittings you actually own, and write down how each of the three looks.

Three viewings take a few minutes and remove most of the risk of a colour that was only ever judged at one time of day.

Note which room the sample is destined for and whether that room receives direct sun, and at which part of the day it arrives.

Direct sun changes both colour and sheen dramatically, and it also affects how a finish ages in that particular position.

Record how the sample looks under the artificial light you intend to keep, rather than only under whatever is fitted at the moment.

If the lighting is changing, ask the designer or the electrician what the new light source will be before judging any colour sample.

Note whether a finish looks different as you move past it, since sheen and texture shift with the viewing angle and with the direction of the light.

Sheen is judged badly from a static view, and walking past a sample is the closest thing to how the room will really be experienced.

Write down whether the sample looks the same lying flat as it does standing upright, and decide it in the position it will occupy.

A material chosen flat and then used vertically can read as a different colour entirely, particularly where there is any texture.

Photograph the sample in position as a record, but make the decision with your eyes, since a camera adjusts colour on your behalf.

Phone cameras correct colour automatically, so a photograph is a useful record of position and a poor basis for a colour decision.

Ask what the pattern repeat is and how it would read across the area you intend to use it on, since a small piece hides the repeat entirely.

A repeat that is invisible on a swatch can dominate a wall or a floor, and it is a straightforward question to ask before ordering.

Request a larger piece for anything with movement or natural variation, such as timber, stone, terrazzo, a woven fabric or a hand-finished surface.

Ask the supplier how much natural variation to expect between pieces, since a single sample cannot represent a variable material.

Note whether the sample has a grain direction, a face and a back, or a leading edge, and ask which way it would be laid or cut in your room.

Direction is decided on site if nobody decides it beforehand, and the outcome is very visible once the room is finished.

Ask whether the sample is a finished piece or an unfinished one, and what any subsequent finishing would change about its colour and sheen.

Unfinished samples routinely look lighter and flatter than the finished material, which surprises people at the worst moment.

Write down the join, grout line or seam that will exist in reality but does not appear anywhere on the sample you are holding.

Junctions decide how a finish reads more than the material does, and a swatch shows a material with no junctions at all.

Note whether the sample was cut from the middle of a sheet or a batch, since the edges of many materials look noticeably different.

Edge and middle can differ enough to matter, and asking makes it clear how representative the piece in your hand really is.

Ask how the material is expected to change with use and with light, and record the answer in the supplier's own words rather than your summary.

Many finishes are meant to change, and knowing that in advance turns an alarming development into an expected one.

Describe who lives in the household, including children and pets, and put that description to the supplier before settling on a finish.

Suppliers answer a general question generally, so the specific household is what produces a useful reply.

Ask what cleaning the finish needs and what should never be used on it, then decide honestly whether that suits your household.

Cleaning and maintenance guidance must come from the manufacturer or supplier for the specific product, since it varies between ranges.

Test the sample against the everyday reality of the room where you can do so harmlessly, and stop well short of damaging it.

Ask the supplier before testing anything on a sample, since some treatments can damage a material or make the sample unrepresentative.

Record whether the finish shows dust, marks, water spots or footprints in your own trial, and ask the supplier what to expect over time.

What shows on a surface is the most common regret with a finish, and a short trial with a sample gives an honest preview.

Note whether a repair or a replacement of one area would be possible, and ask what such a repair would look like afterwards.

Ask the supplier and the installer whether a localised repair is possible for this material, rather than assuming a damaged area can be swapped.

Bring the samples together with the finishes that are staying, including the floor, the worktop, the doors, the stair and the window frames.

Samples are usually compared with each other when the real test is how each sits with the elements that will still be there afterwards.

Note the elements you cannot change at all, and judge every sample against those rather than against the other samples on the table.

A sample that wins a comparison can still lose against the floor it has to live with, which is the only comparison that matters.

Check samples against any existing timber that is staying, since the undertones in older timber are hard to predict and easy to clash with.

Timber that has aged in place carries colour that a sample library rarely anticipates, and it is a frequent source of a near miss.

Look at the samples from the doorway between two rooms, since finishes are often judged from the threshold rather than from the centre of the room they sit in.

The view from the threshold is what visitors and the household see repeatedly, and it exposes clashes that are invisible up close.

Note whether a metal finish is being introduced that has to live alongside existing ones, and decide whether mixing them is acceptable to you.

Mixed metals are a legitimate choice and an accidental one, and deciding which of the two you are making is worth a moment.

Record which sample you keep returning to and which one you find yourself defending, since the difference is usually telling.

A choice being defended is often being justified rather than liked, and noticing that before an order is placed is valuable.

Ask whether the material is held in stock or made to order, and what would happen if more of it were needed part way through the work.

Availability shapes how much has to be ordered at once, and it is a supplier question rather than a design one.

Ask whether the material comes in batches and whether a later order would come from the same one, and get the answer in writing.

Batch matching is a supplier question for the specific product, and the answer should be obtained in writing before quantities are settled.

Ask whether an offcut or a spare can be kept, and decide now where in the property it would be stored so it can be found later.

A retained spare is often the only way a future repair can be matched, and it is far easier to ask while the order is still open.

Ask what the supplier needs to know from the installer before an order is placed, and make sure the two are speaking to each other.

Orders placed without the installer involved are the ones that arrive in the wrong quantity or the wrong preparation.

Ask who is responsible if the delivered material does not match the agreed sample, and record the answer before anything is ordered.

Terms about matching, tolerance and remedy vary between suppliers and locations, so confirm what applies rather than assuming a remedy exists.

Note whether the sample you agreed can be kept and referred back to, or whether the supplier expects it to be returned to them.

A sample that has gone back is a comparison you can no longer make, which matters most at exactly the moment you need it.

Label every sample with the room and the element it relates to, together with when the decision was made, and keep them together in one place.

Unlabelled samples become anonymous very quickly once they have been chosen, and nobody can reconstruct what was agreed from a pile of them.

Write down the full description a supplier would need to identify the material again, rather than relying on a colour name alone.

Colour names repeat across ranges and change over time, so a fuller description is what makes a reorder possible.

Photograph the labelled sample in position and keep that photograph together with the written record of the decision.

The photograph shows the context and the label shows the identity, and together they answer nearly any later question.

Record what you rejected and why, so that the same option is not brought back and considered again at every subsequent meeting.

Rejected samples reappear with a different name surprisingly often, and a written reason ends the discussion quickly.

Ask that the agreed sample be marked and kept by both sides, so there is one shared reference if a question arises later.

A single shared reference is what turns a disagreement about the delivered material into a straightforward comparison.

Keep the record where somebody else in the household could find it without needing to ask you where it is.

The person who chose the finish is rarely the person on site the day the question is asked.

Ask whether a larger trial area can be prepared where the decision is significant and the material allows it.

Whether a trial area can be made, and where, is a question for the installer and the supplier; do not apply or fix anything yourself to test it.

Note when a decision depends on something that does not exist yet, such as a wall colour or a joinery finish, and hold it rather than guessing.

A finish chosen against an imagined context is a guess dressed up as a decision, and it is usually the one regretted.

Record honestly when you simply cannot tell from the sample, and say so rather than choosing something to keep things moving.

Owners frequently choose under pressure, and saying that a sample is not enough is a legitimate and useful answer.

Ask what the consequence of waiting would be and who else it affects, so a deferral is a decision rather than a drift.

Knowing who is inconvenienced by a delay lets you weigh the deferral properly instead of avoiding the question.

Note where a sample looked right to you but the household disagreed, and resolve that before an order rather than after delivery.

Finish disagreements left until the material is down are much harder to settle, and the sample stage is the easy moment to have them instead.

Write down which decisions you would want to see mocked up in place, and ask whether that is possible before assuming it is not.

A mock-up is more often available than owners expect, and asking takes almost no effort at the point where the question still matters.