For the Trade
Trade FAQ
Top questions from interior designers and architects specifying our finishes
For the Trade
Top questions from interior designers and architects specifying our finishes
For Specifying Trade Partners
These are the questions we hear most often from interior designers, architects, and contractors specifying Alchemy Wall Studio finishes on their projects. Answers are written for the trade professional evaluating us during specification, with cross-links into our finish care guide, spec sheet library, and trade program where useful. If your question is not covered here, your project team can reach out directly and we will respond within one business day.
Lead times depend on scope, finish selection, and how far along your project schedule is when we come in. As a guideline, residential trade projects run two to four weeks from signed proposal to project start, and commercial or hospitality projects four to eight weeks to allow for substrate coordination with your project team. Registered trade partners receive priority scheduling on the studio calendar — when you are ready to mobilize, we hold a slot for your installation window rather than queuing behind retail inquiries.
Our minimum project size for trade partners is 100 square feet of finished surface. Anything below that threshold is genuinely a small accent wall or a single-room refresh, and we have found those projects are best served by our residential consultation path. If your client is a registered trade partner with a sub-100-sq-ft scope — a powder room, an entry niche, a fireplace surround — we are happy to quote case-by-case. Reach out through the partnership form and your project team will get a direct response.
Every finish we install ships with a written care guide tailored to the system used on your project. The general principles: dust with a soft dry microfiber, clean only with water or a drop of pH-neutral soap, avoid abrasive cleaners entirely, and keep interior humidity stable between 40 and 60 percent. The full per-finish guide — covering limewash, Venetian plaster, hand-painted murals, and wallpaper — is published on our resources hub and is the version we recommend including in your client-facing project handover package.
Substrate requirements vary by finish system, and we document each one in the per-finish spec sheet — including acceptable substrates (typically drywall, plaster, concrete, brick, and previously painted surfaces), required moisture levels, and finish tolerance. Most decorative plaster systems require a Level 4 or Level 5 drywall finish with no telegraphing seams, and limewash requires a breathable substrate free of acrylic primers. We coordinate directly with your project team during pre-construction to walk the substrate and confirm preparation is complete before mobilization. If your project team would like to spec the substrate section themselves, the downloadable spec sheets cover the same notes your contractor will need.
Registered trade partners receive dedicated pricing across three tiers based on annual project volume with the studio. Tier 1 covers single-project collaborators and includes sample support, dedicated estimating, and priority scheduling. Tier 2 covers firms specifying three or more projects per year and adds preferential finishing rates and on-site consultations with your project team. Tier 3 covers hospitality and developer partners specifying at scale and includes custom specification authorship, on-site mockups, and a studio liaison for your design team. We do not publish tier rates — every project is quoted against scope — but the partnership form is the fastest way to see which tier your firm qualifies for.