This secluded Georgian residence is one of Woollahra’s grandest homes. It was built in the 1880s and redesigned by acclaimed architect Professor Leslie Wilkinson in the 1930s. We started work in April 2017 and completed in December 2018. The scope of work was to repaint and restore all previously painted and paintable surfaces. The building was terracotta in colour and the new owners were changing it to a beautiful white. All the interiors were also painted.

It was a huge project where adherence to regulations involving works to heritage work had to be followed carefully. We started by removing old layers of lead paint with lead paint management procedures, while a builder restored doors, shutters and window frames. There were thousands of hours just in preparation alone. Most interior surfaces required four – five coats.

For this project, we used Resene Paints. The exterior was completed with a coat of Resene AquaShield which combines the water repellent properties of silicones with a special surface micro-structure, which considerably reduces the contact area for water and dirt. Although it has excellent weather resistance, as with most waterborne finishes it allows the building to ‘breathe’ so that water vapours from inside are able to pass through the paint film to the exterior.