Benjamin Moore Paint in Newton, MA

Hello, and thank you for stopping by. We would be glad to help you choose Benjamin Moore paint for your house in Newton, MA, at our counter in Natick or in your own rooms. Tell us what you are painting and what has to stay, and we will help you find colours and finishes that suit the house you actually live in.

Why Newton’s Victorians and big colonials ask more of a paint colour

Newton is really thirteen villages rather than one town. Chestnut Hill, Waban, Auburndale, Newtonville, Newton Highlands, West Newton and Newton Centre each have their own mix of streets and building ages. The houses vary from street to street, but two types turn up again and again: the Victorian and the large colonial. Both are generous with windows, and both are hard on a paint colour that has only been seen on a small card.

A Victorian room is usually tall, with deep mouldings, a picture rail or a cornice, and a bay window pushing out from one wall. The bay pulls light in from three directions, so one wall colour shows three different faces as the sun moves. Tall sashes add long runs of casing and sash to paint, and the plaster walls between them are often narrow. In a colonial, the rooms are squarer and more regular, but there are many of them, and a centre hall lets you see from the front door into four rooms at once.

Stock answers rarely fit these rooms

The bay windows and tall sashes in these houses usually need custom sizing for blinds and drapery rather than stock, and paint is no different in spirit. A colour that looked right in a showroom under even light may turn chalky in a north-facing bay or too strong on a tall wall under a high ceiling. The way through is to choose for the room as it is: its height, its windows, its woodwork and the way the light falls.

Period detail is part of the colour plan

Where a Victorian still has its original woodwork, the trim, the picture rail, the ceiling and the wall can each take a different colour or sheen. That gives you more to decide, and more ways to make the room feel right. We help you work out which pieces of the woodwork to pick out and which to let recede.

At the paint counter for Newton homes

Benjamin Moore for walls, ceilings and woodwork

Interior Benjamin Moore paint for plaster walls, tall ceilings and painted woodwork, mixed for you in Natick.

Exterior paint and stain for many-coloured houses

Benjamin Moore’s exterior paints and stains are on our shelves too. A Victorian front may carry a body colour, a trim colour and one or more accents, and we help you choose them as a set.

Colour against period fabric and paper

Paint sits beside drapery and wallpaper in a Victorian room. The pattern books live under our own roof, so the paint is chosen against the actual pattern, not a memory of it.

A room planned in one place

Every line we sell is here: blinds, shades, drapery, wallpaper, Benjamin Moore and flooring. One conversation can cover the bay window, the walls and the floor beneath them.

Colour for tall rooms and tall windows

Height changes how a colour reads. A wall in a room with a high ceiling shows much more paint at once than an ordinary wall, and it sits further from the light at the top. These are the questions we usually work through for a tall Newton room.

Picture rails and the upper wall

Many Victorian rooms have a picture rail set some way below the ceiling. The band of wall above it, often called the frieze, can be painted with the ceiling, painted with the wall, or given a colour of its own. Painting it with the ceiling brings the ceiling down visually and makes a very tall room feel closer. Painting it with the wall keeps the room tall and simple. A separate colour, sometimes a lighter version of the wall, gives a period feel without darkening the room. We can lay out cards for all three so you can compare.

Painting around a bay window

A bay has narrow strips of wall between its sashes, a ceiling of its own and often a window seat below. The light in it is the brightest in the room, so a colour that looks right on the main walls can look washed out in the bay. One answer is to keep the bay in the trim colour so it reads as one lit piece of woodwork. Another is to carry the wall colour into the bay and accept the change in tone. Both work; the choice depends on the treatments you plan for the windows, so we often look at them together.

Sashes, casings and deep mouldings

Tall double-hung sashes have long frames, a meeting rail and, often, divided panes. In an old house, the casings around them may be wide and layered with several profiles. These surfaces take a hard-wearing finish that can stand up to being handled, and the sheen you choose will either show off the profile of the moulding or soften it. Glossier finishes pick out every curve and every flaw. A softer sheen is kinder to old woodwork that has been painted many times.

Plaster walls

Older plaster has a slight wave and texture that flat and matte finishes hide well and shiny finishes reveal. If your walls have been patched over the years, tell us; it changes what we suggest for the finish on the main walls.

The outside of a Victorian

Exterior colour on a Victorian is a set rather than a single choice. The body of the house, the trim, the sashes, the porch details and the front door can each carry their own colour, and a scheme of several colours suits houses of this style. The aim is a set that picks out the architecture without becoming busy.

We suggest starting with what cannot change: the roof, any stone or brick at the foundation, and a porch floor or steps you are keeping. Then choose the body colour, then the main trim, and only then the accents. Bring photos of the house from the street in daylight and, if you can, from the side, so we can see where the trim colour will run. A large colonial is usually simpler outside, with a body colour, a trim and a door, but the size of the walls means the body colour has to be tested at a good scale before you decide.

Spaces in older Newton houses that deserve a second look

A few kinds of room come up often in the Victorians and colonials around Newton’s villages, and each has its own paint question.

Double parlours and pocket doors

Some Victorians have a front and back parlour joined by a wide opening or a pair of pocket doors. When the doors are open you see both rooms as one; when they are closed, each is its own room. Colours for the pair need to work both ways. A common approach is a single wall colour through both, with the back room given a slightly deeper or lighter version, so the two read as related but not identical.

Additions and newer kitchens

Many older houses have been extended over the years, with a kitchen or family room added at the back. The addition often has lower ceilings, larger modern windows and plain trim, while the old part of the house keeps its tall rooms and deep mouldings. Paint is one of the simplest ways to make the two halves feel like one house. Carrying the same trim colour through both, and choosing wall colours that move gently from old to new, helps the join disappear.

Enclosed porches

A porch that has been closed in with windows on every side is the brightest room in many older houses. There is little wall to paint, and much of it is window frame. The trim colour does most of the work here, and the ceiling, often beadboard, is worth a colour of its own. A pale blue or a soft green on a porch ceiling is a long-standing tradition on older New England houses, and it is a pleasant thing to bring indoors.

Front halls with original woodwork

Where a front hall still has its original stained staircase and panelling, the wall colour has to suit the wood rather than compete with it. Warm, muted colours usually sit well against old stained oak or chestnut, while a bright white wall can make the wood look heavy. Bring a photo of the stair and the panelling, and we will help you find a wall colour that flatters it.

Kitchens and baths in tall old rooms

An old bathroom or kitchen with a high ceiling can feel cold and echoing. A wall colour carried up onto the ceiling, or a ceiling a shade warmer than the walls, makes a tall utility room feel more comfortable. These rooms also see steam and splashes, so the finish should be one that wipes clean.

Planning a Newton house from the hall outward

In a centre-hall colonial or a Victorian with rooms opening off a front hall, the hall is the anchor. A plan that starts there tends to hang together.

1. Settle the woodwork first. Decide whether the trim stays one white throughout, or whether some rooms keep stained or period-coloured woodwork.
2. Choose the hall and stair. These are seen from every room and from every floor, so they set the tone.
3. Pair the rooms you see together. The parlour and dining room on either side of the hall are seen at once through wide doorways; choose them as a pair.
4. Treat the bay rooms as their own case. Look at the bay in morning and evening light before you settle on the wall colour for that room.
5. Leave the upstairs for last. Bedrooms, the attic floor and the back rooms can then follow the palette you have built below.

What to measure and bring before you buy

A few notes before you come to the counter will make the visit quicker and the order more accurate.

• Wall lengths and ceiling heights. Ceiling height is the number most often forgotten, and in a tall Victorian room it matters a great deal.
• Window and door count per room. Tall windows and bays take a lot of wall away and add a lot of trim.
• What the walls and woodwork are now. Old gloss on the trim, dark colours on the walls or bare patched plaster all affect what goes on first.
• Photos of each room. Take them at the time of day you use the room most.
• Anything the paint has to live with. Fabric, wallpaper, rugs, tile and the wood of the floor.
• Which rooms come first. If the work is being done in stages, tell us the order. We can then make sure the colours chosen for the first rooms leave room for the ones that follow, so the house still agrees with itself when the last room is finished.

Visit our Natick counter, or invite us into your Newton home

You can begin at the counter, at home, or at one and then the other.

At the counter

Paint has been sold from our store since 1947, when it opened in Natick as a wallpaper and paint shop. At the counter you can go through colour cards, talk through the sheens for walls and woodwork, and have your Benjamin Moore colours mixed. The wallpaper books, fabric books and window treatment samples are a few steps away, which is useful when a colour has to suit a pattern.

Bring your notes and photos. If you want to tell us ahead of time what you are working on, use the contact page or the call button.

At your house

A colour that suits a Victorian parlour in daylight can look quite different under the lamps in the evening, and the only true test is in the room. With a free in-home consultation we visit you, so we can see the height of the rooms, the bay and the light, the floors and the furniture. It is especially useful when paint, window treatments and wallpaper are being chosen at the same time. You can read what happens at a visit on our in-home design consultation page.

When a painter or a designer is involved

If a painter is doing the work, bring their questions about finishes and preparation and we will answer them with you. If a designer has drawn up a plan, bring their selections along; paint can then be fitted to the papers and fabrics already specified.

Pairing paint with the rest of a Newton room

In a house with bay windows and tall sashes, the windows are a large part of every room, so paint and window treatments work best when they are chosen together.

• Our window treatments in Newton page covers blinds, shades and drapery made to measure for bays and tall windows.
• If a room is getting a feature wall or a papered dining room, see wallpaper in Newton.
• For floors, read about flooring in Newton, covering hardwood, carpet and luxury vinyl.
• Our Newton page brings every line we offer for Newton homes together, and you can browse the whole Benjamin Moore offer on the paint page.
• For a longer look at choosing these as one plan, see coordinating paint, wallpaper and window treatments.

Talk to us about painting your Newton house

Let us know which rooms are on the list, what state the woodwork is in and which fabrics or papers are already settled. From there, your Newton colour plan can take shape one room at a time. Write to us using the contact page, where you can also request a free visit at home, or press the call button to talk it over by phone.