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Painting Tips
Expert guides for interior and exterior painting projects. Learn techniques, tools, and tips from experienced professionals.
Wallpapering Tips
Complete guides for wallpaper selection, installation, and maintenance. Transform your space with beautiful wallpaper.
Cedar Maintenance
Field guides for cedar cladding in Central Otago — why it greys and blacks, when to refresh the oil, and when to strip and restore.
Latest Painting Tips & Guides
Expert advice to help you save money and achieve professional results on your painting projects
What's on Your Interior Timber? How to Identify a Mystery Clear Coat Before Recoating
Two quick on-site tests (a light sand and a solvent rag) that tell you whether the old clear coat on your timber walls, ceilings or joinery is oil or water based.
Ghosting on Walls and Ceilings: The Science Behind Those Shadowy Grid Marks (And How to Stop Them Coming Back)
Faint dark lines tracing the framing on your ceiling, or shadowy stripes up a cold wall? That's ghosting - a build-up of fine soot on the coldest points of the surface. Here's the physics behind it, how to tell it apart from mould, and the prep that actually keeps it gone.
Grey, Brown or Black? How to Read What's Actually Happening to Your Cedar
Weathered cedar can finish grey, brown-black or furry black from the exact same UV start - and each one means something different. A Wanaka painter's field guide to telling them apart and knowing what each one needs.
The Chemistry of Cedar: Why Your Cladding Goes Grey, Black and Peels (And What a Stain Actually Does)
Why does cedar go grey, black or start peeling in Central Otago? A Wanaka painter explains the actual chemistry of cedar cladding and how penetrating, film and migrating stains really work.