Matt Rojewski

Painting a heritage home requires extra care: use period-authentic colour schemes, handle any pre-1970s lead paint safely, and choose breathable products suited to old masonry and timber. Heritage-listed homes or those in conservation areas may also need council approval before changing exterior colours.

Colour psychology suggests matching a room's colour to its purpose: calming blues and soft greens for bedrooms, warm neutrals and earthy tones for living rooms, energising yellows for kitchens, and restful, spa-like tones for bathrooms. Room aspect and natural light also affect how a colour feels, so always test on-site.

You can usually paint the interior of your own apartment (lot property) without strata approval, but changes affecting common property — like exterior walls, balconies or hallways — typically need owners corporation approval. Always check your strata by-laws first. Professional apartment painters handle building access, protection and neighbour coordination.

Bathroom tile resurfacing in Sydney typically costs $1,500–$4,000 for a full bathroom, compared with $8,000–$35,000 for a renovation. It's a professional restoration — deep cleaning, repairs, bonding agents and wet-area coatings — that lasts 7–10 years and takes days, not weeks, with no demolition.

Exterior paint typically lasts 7–10 years in Sydney, though this varies by surface and exposure. Coastal homes exposed to salt air and intense UV may need repainting sooner, while sheltered surfaces and fibre cement can last 10–15 years. Quality paint and proper preparation are the biggest factors in longevity.

To remove mould before painting: fix the moisture source first, then clean the mould with a suitable mould treatment, let the wall dry fully, sand and prime with a mould-resistant sealer, and finish with an anti-mould paint. Painting over mould without treating it lets it grow back through the new paint.

Restoring a timber deck involves cleaning, sanding back the weathered grey layer, repairing damaged boards, then applying a penetrating deck oil or stain to protect and colour the timber. Coastal decks in Sydney and the Illawarra need re-coating more often due to salt air and intense UV.

Weatherboard needs the most preparation — sanding, end-grain sealing and flexible acrylic paint to handle timber movement. Render requires an alkali-resistant sealer and full curing before painting. Brick is highly porous and needs a penetrating sealer, and once painted it must be repainted permanently.

Resurfacing (respraying or refacing) kitchen cabinets in Sydney typically costs $2,000–$8,000 and takes a few days, while replacing with new custom cabinetry costs $10,000–$30,000+ and takes weeks. Resurfacing suits structurally sound cabinets; replacement is only worth it if the layout or carcasses are failing.

Exterior paint usually peels because of moisture getting behind the paint film, poor surface preparation, or painting over a dirty, glossy or unprimed surface. Other causes include incompatible paint layers, UV damage, salt air, low-quality paint and paint that has simply reached the end of its life.

2026 paint colour trends in Australia move away from cool greys and stark whites toward warm, layered tones: warm neutrals like taupe and mushroom, earthy terracotta and rust, olive and sage greens, rich burgundy, and dusty mineral blues — reflected in Dulux's Ethereal, Elemental and Evoke palettes.

The best time to paint a house exterior in Sydney is spring (September–November) and early autumn, when temperatures are mild, rain is lower and paint cures evenly. Interior painting can be done year-round, with winter ideal thanks to stable indoor conditions.