A comparison of two schemes is an experiment with one variable. Most comparisons go wrong by having several: scheme B photographed from a better angle, in brighter light, with the sofa moved. The preference that comes out is real, but it is a preference for a picture. The method below keeps the comparison about the finishes.
1. Decide what the comparison is meant to answer
Write the question down before making scheme B. "Tile or timber in the kitchen and living room?" is a question two schemes can answer. "Which of these two rooms do I like?" is not, because it has no way of telling you why. The question decides which surfaces change and which stay.
2. Hold everything else constant
| Hold steady | Why |
|---|---|
| Layout and furniture | A moved sofa changes which floor shows, and how much. |
| Viewpoints | Each view crops the room differently. A wider view of B is a different picture, not a different scheme. |
| Light | Colour and contrast depend on the light. See below. |
| Drawing style and scale | Compare plans at one scale and one style, so a pattern is the same size in both. |
| Sample size | A large sample of one and a chip of the other is not a fair test. |
Pick two or three viewpoints before you start and use exactly those for both schemes: the view from the door as you walk in, the view from where you sit most, and the plan. A viewpoint is a position, a direction and a field of view; changing any of the three changes the picture.
3. Change a limited set of surfaces: an A/B example
An example kitchen and living room, 4.0 × 6.0 m, with the kitchen run along one end. The question is the floor and the kitchen fronts: warm timber throughout, or a cooler tile floor with dark fronts. Everything else stays.
| Surface | Scheme A | Scheme B | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Floor | Oak boards, along the room | Large pale grey tile | Changed |
| Kitchen fronts | Oak | Graphite | Changed |
| Walls | Warm white | Warm white | Same |
| Worktop | White stone-look | White stone-look | Same |
| Sofa fabric | Oatmeal | Oatmeal | Same |
| Layout and furniture | As drawn | As drawn | Same |
| Viewpoints | V1 and V2 | V1 and V2 | Same |
| Light | Daylight, one setting | Daylight, the same setting | Same |
Two surfaces changing is enough to answer the question and few enough to read the result. If you prefer B, you can still ask a follow-up: was it the floor or the fronts? A third scheme, with oak fronts on the tile floor, answers that. Had every surface changed at once, you would know which room you preferred but not which decision to keep.
The same discipline works for larger choices. Compare the base (floor and walls) first, settle it, then compare joinery, then accents. Each round has a small number of variables and builds on a decision already made.
4. Why changing the light confuses the comparison
Colour is not a fixed property you see; it is the material and the light together. Warm evening light or lamps push every surface warmer and soften contrast, so warm white walls and an oak floor drift towards one tone. Bright, cool daylight separates them and makes greys look greyer. Direct sun adds hard shadows that make a textured tile look rougher than it will on a dull day.
So if scheme A is seen in daylight and scheme B in the evening, or B simply in brighter light, the difference you notice may be the light. You would choose a time of day, not a finish. Keep the light identical for both, and if light matters to the decision (a room used mostly in the evening, say), compare both schemes in daylight and then both in evening light, as two separate rounds.
The same applies to physical samples. Put A's and B's samples side by side in the same spot at the same time, rather than looking at one in the morning and the other after work.
5. Judge the whole room, not a swatch
A finish that is lovely on its own can be wrong at the scale of a room. From each viewpoint, look at:
- Balance: does one surface dominate more than you intended? A dark front along the whole kitchen run is a lot of dark.
- Contrast between neighbours: floor against fronts, fronts against worktop, wall against joinery.
- Edges and thresholds: where the floor meets the hall, where a tile meets a board, where joinery meets a painted wall.
- The plan as well as the views: the plan shows how much floor each material covers and where the joints and changes fall.
Then write the trade-off in one sentence, as for any comparison: A is warmer and quieter but the oak fronts disappear into the floor; B gives the kitchen a clear edge and a hard-wearing floor, at the cost of a cooler room in the evening.
6. Record the decision with swatches and a schedule
A decision that lives in a photo gets lost. Record it as a finish schedule: one row per finish, each with a code, the surface, where it goes and what is still to confirm. Pair it with a swatch board, a physical sample or a printed swatch labelled with the same code. Note which views and which light the comparison used, and the date.
| Code | Surface | Finish | Where | Still to confirm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F01 | Floor | Large pale grey tile | Kitchen and living | Sample approved on site |
| F02 | Walls | Warm white paint | All walls | Washable finish in the kitchen |
| F03 | Kitchen fronts | Graphite | Kitchen run | Confirm sheen with sample |
| F04 | Worktop | White stone-look | Kitchen run | Check heat and stain data |
The example records scheme B. The "still to confirm" column is the honest part: a scheme chosen on screen or from small samples is a decision about direction, and each finish still needs its sample and its product data checked. Choosing the finishes in the first place is covered in how to choose finishes that work together.
Finish schemes, furniture arrangements and room layouts
Comparing finishes assumes the layout is settled. If the question is where the sofa goes, that is a furniture comparison (how to plan a furniture layout); if it is where the walls go, it is a room-layout comparison (how to compare room layouts). Mixing the three in one comparison is the commonest way to learn nothing from it.
Doing this in Gridsnap
A finish scheme in Gridsnap is a named record of a project's finishes. With Gridsnap Pro you can save one, preview another on the project with every change listed, switch the plan and the 3D view between the current finishes and the scheme at the same camera, and compare the two as plans at one scale with a room-by-room table of what differs. The steps are in saving and comparing finish schemes. Looking at, renaming and deleting saved schemes stay free.
The parts that keep the comparison fair are free: a saved view fixes a viewpoint and also keeps the 3D style and, in Realistic, the Light (Daylight or Interior); in a scheme preview, View from puts the camera on one. The finish schedule gives every finish a code that matches the legend on a Textured plan export. When the layout itself differs between the alternatives, a design option (Pro) is the right tool instead.