Picking a colour from a chip is one of the hardest jobs in residential painting. The chip is six square centimetres on a desk under fluorescent light; the wall is twenty square metres in a north-facing room with raking afternoon sun. We've watched a lot of beautiful colour-on-paper choices land badly on actual walls — and we've fixed enough of them that we've developed a process for getting it right the first time.
Decorating and colour consultation is included free with any accepted quote — we'll come back, walk the rooms with you, look at your existing furniture and floors, talk through undertones, finish levels and how the colour will read at different times of day, and recommend a palette and a sheen for each room. If you'd rather book a consultation as a standalone service (you're not painting yet, you just want help thinking it through), we offer that too at a flat fee.
What's included
- On-site walk-through with samples
- Undertone and light analysis
- Sheen recommendations per room
- Furniture and floor coordination
- Sample boards in-situ
- Palette write-up to take away
- Brand and product recommendations
- Available standalone or with quote
Common questions about decorating & colour consultation
Is the consultation actually free?
Yes — included with every accepted quote at no extra charge. We'll come back to walk through colours with you, bring sample pots if you want to try a few in-situ, and write the palette decisions up so you've got something to refer to. The free version is for clients we're painting for; if you want a consultation without booking work yet, see the next question.
Can I book a consultation without committing to the painting work?
Yes. Standalone colour consultations run at a flat fee (around $250 for a typical 3-bedroom home, more for larger or multi-storey houses). The fee covers an on-site walk-through, palette recommendations, and a written summary. If you book the painting work afterwards, we credit the consultation fee back against the job — so it costs nothing if you do go ahead.
What do you actually do during a colour consultation?
Walk the rooms in natural light, look at how the existing flooring, furniture and fixtures sit together, identify the undertones already in the space (warm/cool, yellow/grey/pink), recommend three to five colours that will work, and explain why each one will or won't read the way you want. Then we put sample boards or sample-pot patches up on the actual walls so you can see them in your light, not the showroom's.
Do you have a particular brand you recommend?
No strong allegiance — Dulux, Wattyl and Taubmans all make excellent paint. Each brand has signature palettes that work better in certain rooms (Dulux for whites and neutrals, Wattyl for richer warm tones, Taubmans for bold accents) and we'll guide you to whichever brand suits the colour story you want. The application performance is more brand-driven than the colour itself; we'll tell you the practical differences as well.
What if I've already chosen colours but want a second opinion?
Happy to do that — bring out the chips or the colour names and we'll walk through them with you in the rooms they're going in. Sometimes the answer is 'yes, perfect'; sometimes it's 'almost, but go one step warmer'; occasionally it's 'this one is going to read badly under this room's light, here's why'. We'll always explain the reasoning so you can decide for yourself.
How do you handle colour matching for older homes or heritage palettes?
Heritage palettes need extra care because the colour names you're working from (federation green, colonial cream, Queenslander red) aren't standardised across brands and don't always match the period authentically. We can match an existing colour from a sample (a hidden patch behind a switch plate, or a small chip), recommend Dulux Heritage or Resene Heritage range for period-appropriate colours, and advise on how the colour will weather differently from a modern formulation.
Do you help with feature walls, or recommend against them?
Both — depending on the wall and the room. A feature wall behind a bedhead, fireplace, or in a powder room often works beautifully; a feature wall on a poorly-lit hallway end almost always looks worse than a single colour through. We'll tell you which side of that line your room sits on. Either way, we'll cut a clean line at the edge and not let the feature paint bleed into the surrounds.