Painted finishes are one of the few architectural design features which are routinely and traditionally obscured. Multiple and historic layers of overpaint on architectural surfaces disguise original design intent or color schemes. Often, even with early photographs or archival records, the memory is lost once a surface has been overpainted. A historic restoration is generally not complete without understanding what the earliest or historic color or finish was. Once this paint history has been researched and the decorative intent identified, it can be replicated, to bring back the appearance of a building in its era of significance.

The standard approach to architectural paint research, or paint analysis, has been informally codified through the research and innovation of practitioners over the past several decades and to some extent formalized in recent publications. Understanding an architectural finishes history almost invariably relies on the examination of the physical building fabric which survives. Sequentially applied paint layers, unless deliberately destroyed, will form layer strata following the historic sequence in which applied. When a sample taken from a painted surface is viewed in cross-section, surviving paint layers are generally revealed in sequence, and can be examined and interpreted by a trained coatings microscopist.