TL;dr - Go with Arana. I've used Arana on three projects. Each and every time, they've hit it out of the park with superb work done on schedule, great communication, and reasonable prices. I've also worked with several other painting contractors who managed to deliver exactly none of these. Even though they had solid reviews and made a great first impression. Arana is not going to be the lowest price option. But between the quality of the work and the other benefits of dealing with a super-professional, tightly managed operation, any small premium you pay is going to be money extremely well spent. A lesson I wish I had learned several jobs earlier! Better late than never, I suppose. But seriously, go with them. They are that good. read more

We hired Arana to completely repaint the exterior of our home. The previous paint job by the houseflippers we bought it from was poorly done and there were several areas where the paint was flaking, or looking like crocodile skin. They were not the cheapest bid we received on the project, but felt that the services offered were well represented by the price. We also appreciated that their bid included a 1-hour consultation with a color consultant - Cass Morris was great and we are super happy with the colors she guided us to. The painters (Felipe and Valentin) arrived promptly each morning and were meticulous about their prepwork and painting. They also uncovered our outside lights and cameras at the end of each day so it wouldn't be a safety concern. At the end of the job, my walkthrough only revealed 3 small areas that needed attention which were promptly handled. Their cleanup was excellent and we are very happy with how our house looks. Would highly recommend their services. I would definitely use them again. read more

I tried to refrain from writing a poor review, but after 7 months, I'm still irked by my experience with Arana. I contracted with them to repaint some of my exterior, 100 year old, wood windows; as well as replace a broken, single-pane of glass in one of my casement window's lites. It was for the most part, a small job. As to the painting, I overheard the foreman tell the painter "not to spend a lot of time on this job"; though the results, less than a year later, seem fine. As to replacing of the window lite, the foreman approached the task in a hurry with seemingly no experience or care; it was a complete botched job. In his attempt at removing the old glazing, he chiseled away large pieces of the mullion wood and unceremoniously tossed the wood pieces into our garden. He then set the new glass without glazing points and puttied on globs of glazing that was poorly shaped - due to all the wood he had removed. The glazing he applied also extended well past the inside mullion lines, making the view out that particular pane stand out from the others due to the sloppy, catawampus application of glazing. I ended up removing all the glazing he applied and redoing it myself. However, despite all efforts, the mullions around the lite look misshaped due to all the wood he chiseled off. Perhaps on bigger jobs they are more careful, but on this small job, the quality was far from craftsman like. read more

Good service and quality results. Had my house painted for the second time in about 12 years. This is the best!. Professional service! Good value for your money. read more

We just had a crew of three gentlemen from Arana paint much of the interior of our house. They were a pleasure to work with, very accommodating, and took time and great care. We are very happy with the work, and would recommend them in a heartbeat. Joanna B., Oakland read more

We recently bought a house in Alameda and hired Arana to do a complete repaint of interior rooms. Suffice to say, they did a phenomenal job. The house was not in a good shape and needed more than quite a few repairs to make the new paint shine, and we were in a tight move-in schedule. The crews, Juan, Julio, and Mundo, are meticulous on their work and just kind people to work with in general. Their managers, Steve and Jonathan, are always keeping us in the loop and communicated well. We are also surprised and delight to see Arana himself came out to did some finishing touches and paint the inside of entrance door for us. Needless to say, Arana is running a great company here. The interior painting work got a lot of compliments from our friends and our other contractors. read more

Arana just finished re-painting our house. We actually signed the contract about 4 months ago, but we understood at the time that the painting would occur later in the summer, which is what happened. They're definitely busy so if you know you're going to be painting your house in the coming year, would recommend reaching out sooner rather than later. They're busy for good reason -- they care about their craft and do great work. We are very pleased with the quality of the work. They had a crew of two at our house for two weeks, plus a foreman who came for a few hours every day. We also touched base with various members of the Arana team by email to coordinate and communicate both before and during the job. Sometimes the communications were a little confusing because there were so many people on the Arana side, but ultimately everything got through and most importantly, the job was done to our satisfaction and also to the specs. Would definitely use again. read more

My parents recently had their front door refinished by Arana. We selected them based on the positive Yelp reviews. We were, however, very disappointed in the quality of work. During the refinishing process, we observed sizeable black spots and staining in various places. When we brought this to the attention of Arana, we were told that they were unwilling to remedy the issue. Needless to say, we are not happy with the finished product. I've included photos and hope others will find this review helpful. read more

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I am an East Bay realreal estate agent but was looking for painters for my own new home. Catherine had been referred to me by a trusted loan broker in the area. I called her up to do some work at our old house before we sold it, and then asked her to give me a bid for our new home. Her team did the work while I was away on vacation. I came back and everything was back in place and the work is exactly as I had hoped. No complications, no worries about security, no extra charges, and no delays. A great job overall! read more

I used this painting company for the exterior of my house. The paint job looks great, they cleaned up every day. There was never a mess. After completion they inspected their work and did touch up where appropriate. This company is highly recommended. I would use them again any time for indoor and outdoor jobs. read more

This company came well recommended by a business associate. I was impressed by their response time as soon as I emailed them. Steve came over to give us an estimate and was very thorough in his walk through of our project. Juan R came over to do a project walkthrough; he addressed all of our concerns. He also arrived on the first day to get everything organized and checked in a few times during the project. We painted LR, DR, Hallway, Entry Way and MBR and all doors in those areas. While it was extremely painful to have to vacate more than half of our house, Daniel (lead painter) and his team of Clemente and Antonio were very neat, highly skilled and considerate. I cannot say enough good things about Danny and how he managed his team. He made sure that everything was done correctly, he has a eye for details, and was Johnny on the Spot with our requests. I highly recommend this company; ask for Danny to be your lead on the job! Lastly, this company was not the most economical, but we received a fair price for the quality of the work, which was excellent. I am sure all the leads are as good as Danny given the high standards for this company. read more

I found Arana Craftsman Painters from a recommendation by an interior designer on Next Door. Designers - I'm an Architect - tend to be sticklers for detail and quality craftsmanship. My wife and I hired them to paint the exterior on one side of our stucco home that had been repaired. Their painter Jonathan did a fantastic job and was a pleasure to have around. They just completed a second project that included interior and exterior staining of a new wood window and patio door to match an existing mahogany NanaWall. It also included interior and exterior painting. The results are excellent. It was a pleasure working w/ Ernesto and Victor and another Jonathan. Friendly yet very professional and committed to doing things right. read more

Catherine and Ernesto of Arana Craftsman Painters are a dynamic duo when it comes to residential and commercial painting. I have used them on my landscape projects many times to help my clients reimagine the full exterior of their properties, the house, its colors, and how they relate to the new landscape design. Their crews are a delight. There is always a professional manner, attention to detail, and amazingly clean work sites. Especially important: there is never any damage to the landscaping! This is my highest praise! Hire them and explore colors, professional care, and the latest in green practices for painting professionals. They are the best! read more

I keep putting off writing a review because I want to add pictures. However it's been 9 months since they finished the job, and I don't seem to be getting around to posting pics, so... Arana did a simply fantastic job. First of all, not only was our house covered with lead paint, the previous painters had primered over a lot of what needed to be scraped off. (We had to fire them over this plus half a dozen other things.) Arana did what they said they'd do, when they said they'd do it. They explained everything. They were thorough. The boss checked back in a week after they finished to make sure nothing was missed. They communicated about everything. They said hello to our "helpful" cats every day. What a lovely experience! read more

Our house looks beautiful and we have received lots of compliments. However, the process of working with Arana was not completely smooth. They were one of the higher bids we received, but because they had really good reviews we decided to go for it. The company sent an estimator to walk around our house with us and gave us a detailed written estimate which we appreciated. They said we would have a foreman who would be the main point of contact and he came by the house and introduced himself. We got the estimate in late summer and I was concerned about whether we would have time to get it painted before fall rains started, but they assured me they could get it done before then. However we ended up having to wait awhile before our start date. I was stressed. The day before they were scheduled to paint, we scrambled to move everything away the sides of the house and get the porch cleared off. The morning they were supposed to arrive, I got up early to make sure I was ready to greet them but no one came. After a few hours I called the company and got voicemail. I left a message that fI was wondering where the painters were. Eventually I got a call from the president of the company, who said she was trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Our job ended up being delayed a few more weeks. It happened a lot faster than we expected, and our property was treated well. The crew was nice. The main guy we saw a lot, Bob, doesn't speak much English, but he was really nice and always had a smile. He put up our color samples and helped us figure out which one ot pick and what to pick for the porch to go with it. Arana also provided a color consultant, but honestly Bob was just as helpful. One thing that confused me is that after we got the initial estimate, the company gave us an additional estimate for the cost of scaffolding on the tallest part of our house. But they never ended up needing any scalffolding. I don't believe we paid that additional invoice however so it's OK, it was just confusing. Unfortunately, when the job seemed to be done, our front porch immediately started peeling and showing flecks of the old color through. They came back and tried to touch it up, and it immediately happened again. We looked at the porch and saw that it was full of ridges from previous paint jobs. It didn't look like they had done much prep work to the concrete. And in between the painters' visits to our house, it was now raining. We had a little trouble communicating this issue with the company. We emailed our foreman and he would send Bob over to fix things, but when Bob got there he didn't seem to know what he had been sent there to do. Often I would talk to one person, explain the problem, and then end up explaining it all over againt to someone else. After the attempted fix, we agreed with the company that we needed to wait until spring. One day, shortly after the quarantine started in March or April, Bob showed up unannounced and said he was going to repaint the porch. I told him I wasn't comfortable having anyone work on the house at that moment, and he left. I called Steve and he said that Bob was actually just supposed to assess it, not paint it. Again, communication issues. We didn't hear from them for a few months, and then the company's billing person emailed me asking me to pay the remaining balance. I replied explaining that the job had not been completed, and then they scheduled a time to finish the job. Bob came back and scraped and sanded the porch, and then repainted it. This time, the scraping was thorough enough, and the air is dry enough, that it seems to be taking. So all in all, Arana did great work, but they have so many people working at the company that communication can be a little confusing and I feel like the fee we paid was paying a lot of extra people's salaries. If I had it to do again I would hire a smaller operation where I could talk to just one person throughout the process. read more

We don't think we would use Arana again nor recommend them They worked too fast for their own good as they had errors in their work that needed fixing. Some errors they did fix afterwards but only after we pointed them out. Some errors still remain and we will need to hire another paint contractor to actually fix Arana's work since they have chosen to ignore our contact now. Do they not actually stand behind their work? We guess not. There are areas (such as corners and near baseboards) where they didn't even bother to paint with a brush, thinking we wouldn't notice. The old paint can be seen when looking up in the corners. We have high ceilings and they didn't bother to get a high enough ladder to reach these areas with a brush! This is just plain lazy. Arana seems to have great pre-sales communication but horrible follow-up customer service. Ernesto got defensive when we began pointing out errors in the work and then didn't want to deal with us any more. We really should have not paid the final balance until all issues were taken care of-our mistake. The price we paid was quite high as well. We feel like Arana charges premium pricing but delivers more of a budget type service. They'd like to think of themselves as a premium paint contractor, but they do not seem to deliver that at all in our opinion. UPDATE 4/29/11: This is the same type of business owner reply seen on Yelp all the time. So typical. When the business owner knows they failed to provide acceptable customer service, and cannot provide a good reply, they try to say the review is fake. Catherine's claim below that we are not a real client is case in point. Her trying to divert, is just plain laughable and serves to exemplify that Arana doesn't care about actually taking responsibility. read more

These are people of integrity, and they take great pride in their work. Give them a try. You won't be sorry.

I haven't experienced their services so can't speak to that. But I've called twice asking to obtain a quote for exterior house painting, and they won't call me back to set up an appointment, even though the receptionist tells me they'll call back within a day. The 2nd time I even explained that they didn't call back the first time. If they're too busy or not interested, they should just tell me. Very unprofessional. read more

We just completed a painting project with Jonathan and Juan for multiple indoor rooms and the entire exterior. They have been nothing short of professional, on schedule, and very high quality. I interviewed five companies and they were by far the most impressive and thorough in their proposal. Every one of our requests to perform follow-up work was well-received and honored. Each member of the team I came in contact with was courteous and friendly. I would absolutely use their services again. read more

Catherine, Ernesto, Arana Painting are meticulous professionals. The prep work and painting of our 1931 Redwood Heights, Oakland Spanish Revival turned out great. From the estimates, through the prep work and painting, Arana went above and beyond to make sure we were happy with the colors and the details of our home. ARC doesn't treat their home as a fixed time fixed cost project. Ernesto and Catherine have both stopped by unsolicited to see how the house and paint are doing, maintaining their work while it's under warranty. We're putting our house on the market, as part of the inspection process, the inspectors make small holes in the exterior stucco. ARC, on an evenings notice is going to help us patch and paint the holes. Amazing Full-Service! Their services provide long-lasting, great value. I look forward to working with Arana again. read more

Arana did an amazing job on our exterior paint a few years ago. Our house was not easy- we had funky siding over stucco, and hardy-board over our new foundation. Old window, old doors, suffice to say, multiple surfaces! They were professional with their estimates, , realistic, and helpful thoughout the bid process. The work was carried out as promised, on time, and was really well done. In fact 5 years later, our green-green-plum exterior looks fresh. We are finally ready to work on our interior, and I am delighted that Arana is available to do the job. read more

Catherine & Ernesto, the owners of Arana Craftsman Painters, are such a hard-working & honest team & their professionalism and positivity has attracted a wonderful staff & crew that has been with them for many years & this translates into a finely tuned, customer oriented, approach to interior, exterior, kitchen cabinet etc painting jobs. They prep and paint so professionally and clean up and leave your place so tidy, so if you want the best, truly the best, call them so you can experience first hand why the won Oakland Magazine's BEST PAINTING CONTRACTOR! They also offer complimentary color consultations for those who are freaked out about choosing colors which again, creates a truly thoughtful & positive customer experience. read more

Arana repainted my bungalow house this spring, and the small back cottage last fall. The new paint makes a huge difference for a modest house, and was very happy with Arana's service, quality of work and ability to communicate by e-mail. The only glitch was on the back cottage - the door sub-frame wasn't painted nor the masking tape on the new French door windows cleaned off. However, Arana took care of both items in the spring, along with the main house painting. I recommended Arana to my neighbor, who was impressed with the results. read more

My husband and I moved from Texas to California but purchased a condo that had to be completely redone before we moved in. I called Arana because of the reviews I'd read on Yelp plus our realtor told us she'd also heard good things. Catherine was so responsive, helpful and reassuring that she made the whole process easy! She even dropped of color sample books to my sister's house before I arrived so they would be there when I did. We were on such a tight schedule because of carpet that she worked us in -- Steve took the lead from there. He was super! And Ernesto and Franz followed through with efficiency! They even came back on a Sunday to make sure everything was done before the carpet guys on Monday. Thank you to everyone for making this part of our redo easy. Sherie & Jim read more

Arana Painting painted my house 12/09. They did an excellent job, clean, neat and completed on time. They even used the power washer to clean the concrete steps and planters in the back. Ernesto added to my chosen colors, to suggest a contrast and I ended up going with his choice! Best of all, they were willing to negotiate the rate if I was willing to wait until rainy season. Sure enough, we had to wait a day or two from scheduled start, but it all worked out fine. Catherine was quick to answer all of my questions via email. I highly recommend Arana Painting. They are professionals. Eight months later, my house looks great! read more

Catherine and Ernesto work wonders, they helped me turn my tabula-rosa condo into an elegantly coloured world. Being a little hesitant working with bold colours, I really appreciated the patience and help in picking and testing colours that Ernesto and his team provided. After a few hits and misses and some trial and error, in the end everything turned out better than I could have hoped, and both Catherine and Ernesto made sure that that was the case before parting ways. As such, I would strongly recommend them to anyone looking to brighten up their home in the Bay area! read more

I have put this off for far too long! These people are wonderful. This company painted the exterior of my home in May 2018. My house is stucco, with wood trim. The trim was in very bad condition, peeled down to bare wood in some places. This company is great! And everyone is so nice. It seems to be a lot of extended family. Well trained painters, company licensed, bonded and insured. I thought the price was quite fair for all the work this place needed. I chose them out of 5 bids. Every day things were left completely clean and tidy. It took almost 3 weeks to complete the job. It would have been more like 10 days if not for the fact that they had to spend 9 hard working days (!) on prep work alone due to the condition of the house, and a week delay caused by unusual weather. The day they came to begin painting, it was cold and slightly damp. They all agreed that the painting needed to be delayed until the weather was warmer and very dry or else the job would be compromised. On Memorial Day holiday they returned and began painting. Wow, even working on a holiday. The painting part went fairly quickly. My house turned out beautifully. Ernesto, the co owner with wife Catherine, came out near the end of the job and told the painters to scrape all the old paint off of the windows. This was all very old and left by some terrible painter about 3 decades earlier, and was NOT their fault at all. Ernesto said he wanted that done so that my house would represent the quality of the work they do. Wow again! Today I had 2 painters back to do a little "warranty work" that involved mostly a bit of rust that had accumulated on the metal security bars on basement windows. They explained why this happens, fixed it and repainted all 5 bars, even one that was still in perfect condition. I highly recommend Arana Craftsman Painters. read more

I recently worked with Arana Painting on a painting project of an entire loft unit. We where going fast on color selections and so they where very patient with myself (the designer) and also very gracious with the home owner. They did a great job! I would definitely work with them on future projects. Anastasia, Faiella Design read more

Wow. Arana is a wonderful Bay Area contractor. They painted the exterior of my home (circa 1950) and it looks brand new! The job came through on time and on budget. The best part...Catherine is an absolute dream to work with. I would recommend that you hire ARCP for your next project - no hesitation! read more

I received bids from four paint companies before I chose to go with Arana Craftsman Painters. Price-wise they were mid-range. Before the job started we had many discussions about various aspects on their bid. Not only did I have the house painted I also had a front deck painted and back deck stained and then after the job was almost done I asked them to paint my fence. The pre-paint discussions really made me feel good about choosing them. Then, I had a colorist with a contract from Arana help me chose the right color scheme. I am so pleased with the colors. Neighbors keep coming by to compliment the look of the house. Once the team came out to start the prep and paint work it all went quickly and smoothly. Everything was done perfectly. I did not have to ask them to fix anything, which for me was the best (no stress). They communicated about every step of the work. Honestly, they did everything they said they would do and all on time. It looks wonderful! I could not ask for a better paint job. The guys were wonderful to work with, really nice guys at my house each day, such a pleasure. Highly recommend. read more

We hired Arana Craftsman Painters to revive our living room/dining room. The plaster was cracked and peeling in various places, and the room was last painted in about 2005. Everyone we dealt with at Arana was punctual, professional and friendly - just the sort of people we like to do business with. The two-man crew, Jonathan and Moses, did a beautiful job in about 2-1/2 days. They repaired the plaster and primed and painted the room. They left the place absolutely spotless. And the room looks brand new. If you're looking for topnotch results, these are the folks to call. read more

I can't say enough about Arana Craftsman Painters. I hired them for a large interior job for my house which I occupied while they worked and they were amazing. Their communication and scheduling were exceptional--and they are so nice and down-to-earth to work with! I always knew who was going to be at my house and when and they never veered from their planned schedule. Their work was further complicated because they had to deal with just-installed carpet and they handled it like the pros they are. Not a spec of paint anywhere where it wasn't supposed to be! The quality of their work is unmatched. They really are at the top of their game. My newly-painted rooms are gorgeous. I am thrilled with their work and I can't wait to get them in here again do more! read more

I highly recommend Arana Painting to anyone who's talking about having some work done. They did a superb job painting my home... excellent preparation work, they cleaned up every day, were respectful of my property, did fantastic finish and detail work. I do a lot of gardening and they were very careful with my plants which was very important to me. Their prices are competitive and their work outstanding. read more

no change, but I want to reply to the reply. we received no such call or email or letter reminding us of any warranty check in. We do however receive unsolicited junk mail from them. Asked them to stop and they did, then when we had them out for another quote (having forgotten about this issue), they started sending again. Had someone here for a quote and mentioned the recently expired warranty and showed the damaged paint and got no response at all. They're super expensive too. read more

Arana did a great job on our house in Berkeley 9 years ago. Last time, it was the whole house and it looked great and aged well. Now, we needed help after moving rain downspouts plus other 1907 house wear and tear, particularly on the hot sun/heavy rain south side of the house. Instead of trying to sell us on a whole house job, Arana proposed just doing the south side and spot-fixing the other areas where minor repair and touch-up was needed. Perfect! The house looks great again and we are protected for a number of years into the future. The crew were all courteous, friendly and efficient. We couldn't be happier and will recommend them to neighbors and friends. Bruce R, Berkeley read more

This is a very difficult review to write. I believe that Ernesto and Catherine are people of integrity, yet they did terrible work at my home. Their prices are top dollar, but still I chose Ernesto because of both Yelp reviews and the references that Arana provided me. Their references were impeccable. I had carefully arranged to have the painting done while my tenants were away on vacation. Arana called me to tell me that the work was completed. When I arrived I was nearly in tears when I saw the quality of the work. Ernesto seemed surprised too for he had not inspected the work prior to telling me the work was done and apparently did not supervise his crew. When I arrived to finalized payment, I saw the french doors hinges were not firmly attached, there were areas that were not painted, yet even worse was the painters destroyed the beautiful details of the original 1916 windows in my home. I had spent years restoring my home. I was heart broken. Ernesto became very defensive. Catherine stated they wanted to have the opportunity to correct the work. To their credit, they did come back and tried to remedy the work, but the damage had already been done to the character of the windows. And to make matters worse, they started work one day and then they left the job for several days. No communication. Again, when they said they were done, there still was some windows not painted and their were handprints left on the exterior of the french doors. Catherine asked me not to post a review on yelp, but given the fact that there are only five star ratings I think people should know that they are not perfect. I would think twice about leaving them to work on your house while you are on vacation. I really do not doubt that Arana is a good company, and my experience was probably was an anomly. I frankly am confused by my experience with Arana in contrast to the overwhelming positive reviews. All these 5 star reviews cannot be fiction. Just make sure you are home to supervise and check on the quality on a daily basis. read more

Did not use them, but requested a quote. Long story short, they missed 2 pointments (I took time off from work but they did not show up and did not bother to call ahead of time either). When the quote came in (I assume they finally made it to the house without me knowing it), it was much higher than the other two other quotes (basically twice as much as the middle quote) and with almost no flexibility for other options... Having said that, just want to be fair, my house is quite a distance away from Oakland, but I would appreciate an honest upfront communication, especially if they don't really want to come out this far. read more

I used Arana to paint my house, and I am happy to report they did a really fantastic job. My house is surrounded by shrubs and other vegetation. I had gotten a bid from another paint contractor that was contingent upon my removing most of the vegetation. Ernesto (the owner of Arana) looked at my house and told me that they could do their work without disturbing any of the vegetation. For that reason alone, I was happy. Arana sent a crew of 2 people to work on my house. They completed the job on schedule in about 7 days. The crew did great work. They were meticulous about the prep work (the most important part of painting any house). They cleaned up after themselves everyday. They were hard-working. And, the end result is that my house looks REALLY TERRIFIC. I recommend these guys and I will use them again in the future. (As a bonus, they also cleaned all my screens and windows) They do excellent work for a reasonable price. read more

We bought a 1920's Berkeley home that need a great deal of work. Arana's bid came in around the middle of the 5 bids we received, but we were impressed with their professionalism, quick response rate, and 5 year warrantee. We are now about 2 years from when they completed a beautiful job, and they contacted us to see how the job was holding up. After a quick look around I noticed a couple places that needed attention, but overall the paint job still looked wonderful. When I let Catherine know, she had a painter out within a week to service their warrantee. Arana is clearly a class act and I highly recommend them for your next home painting job. read more

I hired them to clean and paint the outside of my house and do minor repairs, I give them 3 stars as I didn't find this company to be exceptional in any way so 3 stars for average. read more