Workmen -- or Bandits?

Across the nation, gangs of workmen are swindling homeowners. Will you be next?

Here's how the scam works. Gangs of laborers, often from the UK, come to Australia on short-term visas. They go door to door, offering work such as painting and roofing at unbelievable prices.

"Unbelievable" is the operative word. After the homeowners pay for the work, the workmen run off with the money, leaving a shoddy job behind.

Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson has warned householders to refuse these incredible offers. "While the offer of cheap work can be tempting, it usually ends up costing more because you end up having to pay to fix a poor quality or incomplete job," Robinson said.

It's true. Reputable firms don't send people door to door offering bargains. We don't need to. Courtney & Wise, for example, has been painting  homes, businesses, and public buildings in Sydney for over half a century. We won't be knocking on your door with a shady story.

Instead of chancing having to pay for a poor quality job, and then having to pay again to have the damage undone and the work done over, be cautious in hiring. When you consider hiring a firm to do any work on your house, check up on them:

• How long have they been in business?
• Do they carry insurance? Ask to see the papers. 
• What certifications do they have?

Check our complete list of questions to ask before you hire a contractor.  You'll be glad you did.

Exterior Paint Colours

Close your eyes and think of the house you've always dreamed of... Is it a sunwashed pastel bungalow on the beach? An imposing grey castle with ivy twining up the sides? A slate blue geometric wonder?

Now open your eyes. Don't think you've chosen the colour for painting your exterior now.

First, you have to consider the architecture of your home. A pink bungalow on the beach is fine, but an imposing pink castle is not an option: you are not a Disney princess. We've written before in this blog about which colours work with which architectural style, and Courtney & Wise have won awards for heritage painting, so you can count on expert advice from us.

You also have to consider the existing colours of the house. The roof, brick or stone walls or chimneys, windows which may or may not be paintable -- even the paving materials of your drive or roadway will affect your colour choices.

When you think about harmonizing with surrounding colours, don't forget neighboring buildings. Mature plantings may also influence your choices. If your flowering trees are a pleasure to you in the spring, you don't want to paint your house to clash with them.

A colour consultant or your painting and decorating firm can help you with the next essential step: make your dreams work with the reality of your building and setting.

Spring Colours for Painting Your House!

We can scarcely wait for spring!

This season, we're still enjoying green for interior house painting, but the new greens are acid greens, yellow greens. They look fresh and new with bright white or shades of grey.






Blue greens are still favorites.This is a restful look, and still looks elegant with brown and biscuit shades.




Spicy hues are big this season. Pair them with cool colours for the newest look, or mix them for an energizing effect.


Clover reds and deep pinks aren't just for bedrooms, and they're not just for feminine rooms. We like them mixed with the other colours in this post for an intense pop of colour, or with deep neutrals.

Fun With House Paint

Painting your home or workspace can be a serious undertaking. That doesn't mean that it can't also be fun.

Here are some whimsical ways to add your own touch to your home painting:

• Paint the inside of closets and cabinets in a fun, surprising colour. Wallpaper can be great, too. You'll only need small amounts, so you can splurge -- or use leftovers from other projects.
• Paint pegboard in a workshop or studio. Bright colors, stripes, or even a mural can be inspiring, or you can paint the outlines of tools where they belong to keep the whole place shipshape.
• Paint a floor cloth. Use gesso to prime canvas, and then paint it with the colours from your home, or with a colour that contrasts in an eye-catching way.
• Use leftover housepaint to give a new look to old wood furniture or decorative objects like picture frames or candlesticks.  Swirl it in old glass vases, too. This isn't the way to paint precious objects, but it's a fun way to make good (environmentally responsible) use of old paint, and your art objects will look great for several years.

Whether you make use of leftover paint or choose a small quantity of a completely new colour, these ideas can make your space special.

Impressive Rooms

When do you want an impressive room?

A waiting room for your office. A foyer for a flat. A powder room in an entryway. These are rooms that you might want to punch up with a luxe look.

How can you get maximum flash in a small space?

• Deep, rich colours Sapphire blue, ruby red, or amethyst can make even a small room look lush. Pair rich colours with sophisticated neutrals and fine woods or go with a monochromatic look.
• Elegant materials Marble, velvet, or crystal are splurges, but in small quantities they enrich a small space without breaking the budget. Think about metallic or suede finish paints, too.
• Multiple shades of the same colour Paneling picked out in several shades of the same rich colour looks elegant. Fake it with crown molding or trompe l'oeil painting, if the room doesn't already have paneling.

Add artworks or flowers at eye level for a room that makes a statement. 

Exciting Rooms

When do you want an exciting room?

In a child's playroom, for stimulation. In a room made for entertaining. In a workroom or studio, to encourage creativity and new ideas.

It's not hard to do:

• Use warm colours Red, yellow, and orange are warm, energizing colours. Mix them up for a particularly lively effect. Saturated shades of pink and orange or red and yellow can work together well if they're similar in intensity. Or choose a greyed tone like saffron or oxblood red and add a pop of shocking pink or clear lemon yellow in cushions or other accent furnishings.
• Use shine Metallics, shiny textures, or shimmering fabrics add energy and excitement to a room. Use glossy paint on window sills and sashes.
• Use multicolours Mix bright colours in a room to up the energy level. Paint floorboards a bright colour in a room with contrasting walls. Think about bright white walls in a room you plan to fill with intensely coloured furnishings for brightness without excess.

Peaceful Rooms

When do you want a serene room? In a baby's room, to encourage calm days and peaceful nights. In an office, to make concentration easier and reduce stress. In a dining area, to slow down meals and create a more relaxed atmosphere for entertaining.

How do you get a peaceful air in your home or business?

• Cool colors Soft blue, toned-down greens, and even gentle shades of purple give a cool and peaceful feeling.
• Sophisticated neutrals Shades like greyed brown, mushroom, and creamy biscuit tones give a calm background to a room.
• Smooth, matte textures Shiny or rough textures add movement and excitement to a room -- not the effect you're after.

With these backgrounds, you can build a variety of effects with furniture, art, and soft furnishings.  Soft taupe walls add sophistication to an otherwise pink room, but it can also give depth to a room furnished in white or warm a navy blue room without contrasting too brightly with the cool intensity of blue.

Use these strategies to create a haven in your home or workplace.

We've Got a Network -- Have You?

At Courtney & Wise, we're specialists: we do painting and decorating. Have done for two generations. We're very good at it by now, as you can imagine, and we stick with it. We don't say we'll jump in and do your roofing on the side.

So how can we help you if you need more than painting and decorating done?

We can share our network with you. We have connections with the best of Sydney's carpenters, builders, plasterers, colour consultants, and home handymen. You don't need to search, check references, or worry about whether you've made the right choice. We can steer you right.

Industrial Coatings

At Courtney & Wise, we enjoy painting homes, bringing renewed pleasure to families, helping people make their living spaces a source of pride and joy.

We also enjoy making public buildings and workplaces a source of satisfaction to the workers and to the public. So we offer a variety of industrial coatings, including 2 pack epoxies.

What's that?

Epoxy coatings are designed to protect against chemicals and other extreme conditions where ordinary house paints would fall down on the job very quickly. In a restaurant kitchen, a workspace where water is often used, or a surface subject to extremes of weather, you need something special.

2 pack epoxies include both a base resin and a hardener. The two substances have to be used together in specific proportions. This results in a surface that can cope with extreme circumstances.

A beautiful workspace can be as important as a beautiful living space. Why shouldn't you have both?

Lead Paint: Still an Issue?

It's easy to think of lead paint as one of those historical issues,something modern people don't need to think about. The truth is, lead-containing paint was used all over Australia until the 1970s, and in some areas it continued to be used even later than that.

Is your home more than 40 years old? Has all the paint from before the 1970s been removed? If you live in an older home, then the chances are good that even small home repairs may expose you and your family to chips of paint containing lead. Repainting or papering walls can stir up dust and chips that lead to significant exposure.

Acute exposure to lead can cause damage to the brain and to the kidneys, sometimes fatal damage. Chronic exposure, even at low levels, can affect blood pressure, kidney function, and the body's ability to use Vitamin D. In children, even low levels of exposure can effect growth and development, and can affect hearing. Lead exposure may also increase cancer risk.

Even small amounts of lead, such as the amount encountered by someone breathing in dust stirred up when preparing a wall or a child touching paint chips and then putting her fingers into her mouth, can cause low level lead poisoning. This can result in anemia, headaches, and impaired mental functioning. 

So we're settled that lead isn't something to play around with.

If you're planning to remove old paint, you should have it tested for lead. If you do in fact have lead paint in your home, you should have it removed by professionals. Courtney & Wise, and other certified lead management experts, have undergone intensive training, and can do this safely. Clearance testing and blood testing are wise follow-ups, especially if you have young children.

So are you safe if you leave your old paint alone and paint over it? Not necessarily. You're likely to find dust and chips from paint in areas where the paint is disturbed, such as on window sills, where old paint may be rubbed by window sashes. You may find it in metal roofing, too, or the paints used on metal roofing and galvanized fences. If your house has a DIY history, you may even find it in the soil, where lead-based paints have been improperly disposed of and have leached into the ground.

And of course, the old paint is only contained if it's not disturbed. If you have young children, check the areas where they sleep and play carefully to be sure there aren't any signs of chipping paint, or of paint being scratched or otherwise disturbed. Remember that animals will sometimes scratch a skirting board or a door, and check for evidence of this kind of disturbance.

If you have an old house and decide to go ahead and paint it on your own, you should at the very least be sure not to work on a windy day, to close all vents throughout the house to keep any paint dust or chips from circulating through the air, to wear protective clothing, and and wash up completely (including washing your hair) as soon as possible after doing the work. Have children, pets, and pregnant women leave the house while the work is being done, and be sure not to track paint chips or dust from the work area into other parts of the home.

If you hire a painting contractor to take care of the painting of an older building-- and we recommend that you do so -- then make sure that they are Lead Paint Management Certified. The safety issues are significant, and there is no reason to take chances.