Richmond American upgrades: the Home Gallery appointment, and what to add after closing

Updated October 25, 2026

The short version: spend your Home Gallery budget on what goes into the walls, floors and cabinets, because that’s what’s hard to change later. Use the progress tour and the orientation to collect what you’ll need for the things you add yourself: wire locations, window sizes and the trim paint. Window coverings come after closing, one room at a time if you like.

Shutter Boys and Shade Boys aren’t connected with Richmond American. What follows about Richmond American comes from its own published pages, linked in the sources; the rest is our own advice.

Richmond American in brief

Richmond American says it has helped homebuyers “since 1977,” and its About page names Sekisui House U.S., Inc. as its “parent company”^[8]. It builds across the West and in a handful of eastern states. That spread matters for what you add later: a west-facing family room in Phoenix or Las Vegas asks for different things than a bedroom in Portland or Denver, and the advice below tries to say where.

The Home Gallery appointment

Richmond American calls its design center the Home Gallery™, and for homes built from the ground up, “this is when you’ll have your Home Gallery™ design center appointment,” right after the contract is signed^[3]. Buyers building from scratch get a “complimentary appointment with a professional design consultant,” and the choices include cabinetry, countertops and backsplashes, flooring, lighting and paint, plus items such as a home theater or security system^[2]. Its design studio page adds door hardware, appliances, fireplace options and faucets to the list, and says the consultant will “walk you through every quality option” to “balance beauty, function, and budget”^[1].

The sequence, from Richmond American’s own homebuying timeline: the process “begins with a phone call from our Home Gallery™,” then the appointment itself, where “you’ll see hundreds of ways to tailor your home’s look,” and it “wraps up with a presentation of all the swatches, chips and samples you’ve chosen”^[4]. That last step is the one to keep. The swatches, chips and samples are the record of your trim colour and cabinet finish, which is what a shutter has to sit beside for years.

What to choose at the Home Gallery, and what can wait

This is our rule of thumb, not Richmond American’s advice:

• Choose there: cabinetry, countertops, flooring and tile, and anything that needs wiring run before the drywall goes up. Lighting, a home theater and a security system are on Richmond American’s list for a reason: the wires go in during framing^[2]. If you think you’ll want ceiling fans or a motorized shade one day, ask whether a fan-rated box or an outlet near the window can be added now.
• Can wait: anything that fixes to a finished surface. Window coverings, most light fixtures you swap for your own, closet organizers and hardware can all be added later without opening a wall, and you’ll choose them better once you’ve seen how the sun moves through each room.
• Ask about: the trim paint colour and sheen, and the window style in each room. Neither changes your Home Gallery budget, but both decide how shutters fit and match later.

Window coverings in a Richmond American home

Window coverings aren’t mentioned on the Richmond American design pages we read^[1][2], so most owners plan their own. In a new subdivision the first priority is usually the bedrooms and anything facing a neighbour, because the houses are close and there are no curtains on move-in day. The rest can follow over the first year, once you know which rooms get the afternoon sun.

Shutters suit the bedrooms and street-facing windows of most new homes: they close for privacy, tilt for light, and have no cords. For a sliding door or a wide wall of glass, a shade often works better; that’s covered below.

From contract to the end of year one

These steps come from Richmond American’s own pages; the last column is our suggestion for window coverings at each.

The progress tour: photographs you’ll use later

Richmond American says that once “we’ve finished your home’s foundation, plumbing, wiring and framing, we’ll take you on a tour”^[4]. It’s the only time you’ll see inside the walls. Take a photo of every window wall, straight on, with something for scale. Years from now, when you fit a shutter, a curtain rod or a shade bracket, those photos show where the studs, wires and pipes run beside each window, and you won’t have to guess where it’s safe to drill.

At the orientation: collect the paint names

Richmond American’s own advice for the orientation is practical: bring a note-taking method, a camera and a permanent marker, label paint cans by use, mark the HVAC filter size, and photograph paint labels, breaker box labels and system settings^[5]. Do exactly that for the trim. The trim paint label is what a shutter colour match is made from: brand, colour name and sheen. The same colour in a different sheen looks like a different colour on louvers, because they catch the light at every angle. White is our standard colour; if your trim isn’t a white close to ours, the designer lets you name a paint to match instead, which adds to the price, so try it on one window first.

Fitting shutters without creating a warranty question

Richmond American “offers limited warranties on certain building materials, home systems and workmanship,” with “longer-term warranties on major structural items”^[7]. Its pages we opened don’t list the terms or exclusions, so read the warranty documents you receive at orientation; the orientation is where it explains “the process for submitting an online warranty work request”^[7]. Whatever the terms say, three habits keep things simple:

• Report first, fit second. The warranty request form asks you to “submit one request that includes all known issues”^[6]. If a window sticks, a lock doesn’t catch or a sill is damaged, put it on that request, and wait for the repair before anything is screwed to the frame.
• Photograph every window before you fit anything. Dated photos of clean frames answer the question of who caused what, if a frame ever needs attention.
• Fix into the trim or jamb, not the window unit. Our install guide fixes the shutter frame into the window opening. If you can’t tell whether a screw would go into the window itself, ask your Home Care Specialist at the first check-in. Check that latches and locks still work with the frame in place.

What a whole house adds up to

Most owners don’t do every window on move-in day. Here is a made-up four-bedroom house, not a Richmond American plan, priced in stages from our live price list:

Each window is priced on its own, so the stages add up to the whole; splitting an order only means each part ships separately. Keep the louver size, moulding and colour the same from the first order so later rooms match. The designer prices your own sizes in a few minutes.

Other upgrades worth planning

Window coverings are one of several things new owners add in the first year. Most of these are easier and cheaper if you asked about the wiring or conduit at the Home Gallery. Timing and HOA notes are our rule of thumb; check your community’s rules before anything goes on the outside.

If you’re still at the financing stage, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s homebuying tools are a sound place to check loan estimates and closing costs before you commit to upgrades^[9].

Outside, and the rooms where shades suit better

Shutter Boys makes wood shutters. Our sister company, Shade Boys, makes the rest: windproof motorized patio shades that run in side tracks, for a covered patio or porch, which you can fit yourself or have a local installer fit, and indoor roller, solar and patio door shades made to measure. A sliding door or a wide wall of glass is often better served by a shade than a shutter; bedrooms and street-facing windows are where shutters earn their keep.

Anything fixed to the outside of the house usually goes to the homeowners association first. Ask for its architectural review form before you order patio shades, and expect it to ask for the colour, the mounting and a photo of a similar product. Shade Boys’ HOA guide covers what boards usually look for on the windows; no product is approved everywhere, because each association decides for itself.

In Richmond American’s sunnier markets, Arizona, Nevada, Southern California and Utah among them, the covered patio is often the room people use most from spring to fall, and the one that’s hardest to use at four in the afternoon. A side track shade on the open sides keeps that room usable; inside, a shutter on the west-facing windows does the same for the family room.

Questions worth asking your design consultant

These are questions, not claims about what Richmond American offers; answers vary by community.

• Does this community offer any window coverings, and are they installed before closing?
• What paint colour and sheen is the trim, and will touch-up paint be left at closing?
• Which windows are sliders, single-hung or casement, and which way do the handles project?
• How deep is the window return, from the room side of the trim to the glass?
• Can a fan-rated box or an outlet near the patio door be added at the wiring stage?
• What does the HOA require before anything is added to the outside, such as patio shades?

Trim colour and window depth matter most for shutters: one decides the colour match, the other which louver size tilts freely. Our new-build guide covers the rest of the first year.

Richmond American states we cover

Our region pages show housing and weather figures for cities in the states where Richmond American builds, and what they mean for shutters: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington. It also builds in Maryland, Tennessee and Virginia, and around Washington, DC.