Painting advice.

Flat or matte hides wall imperfections and suits ceilings and low-traffic rooms; eggshell is the everyday choice for living rooms and bedrooms; satin stands up to kitchens, baths and hallways; semi-gloss is for trim, doors and cabinets where you want durability and a clean, wipeable surface.

Take pictures and small items off the walls, clear shelves and countertops, and move anything fragile. We move and cover the furniture and protect the floors, so the big pieces can stay.

It depends on the surface, the exposure and how well the last job was prepped. Sun, heat and humidity are hard on coatings here, so check for chalking, fading, cracking or peeling each spring; those are the signs it is time.

Deep navy and crisp white lead our requests, with soft greige and green close behind. Dark lowers with light uppers is a favorite two-tone look, and navy with brass or gold hardware photographs beautifully.

Peeling almost always comes from moisture, a dirty or glossy surface that was never de-glossed, or paint applied in the wrong conditions. The fix is not another coat on top. It is scraping back to a sound surface, priming and repainting.

It can be painted, but the texture stays. Removal, skim-coating and refinishing is what makes a room read modern. If the house predates the mid-1980s, have the texture tested for asbestos before anyone touches it.

Removed, in almost every case. Seams and texture telegraph through paint and the finish rarely lasts. Stripping the paper, clearing the paste and skimming the wall gives a surface that paints properly.

Test it on the actual wall, in daylight and at night, next to your floors and cabinets. Colors shift with light and with what is around them, and a sample on the wall tells you more than any chip.