The visual appearance of aircraft interior parts with a structured surface coating is critical for the overall perception of the interior. Currently, the assessment of the surface is done based on the subjective impression of experts. To reproduce this capability in a sensor system a regression modelling approach is proposed that balances the problem of having few sample data, a complex relationship between physical properties and high-level perception and the need to reproduce the experts' opinions as accurately as possible. Results are presented from a real world experimental assessment with coating and quality control experts.