The best colour consultation happens on your own walls. Put big sample patches up, look at them morning and evening, check how light or dark each colour is, and check council or strata rules before you buy paint. Here's how we help you choose at the quote.
A good colour consultation happens on your own walls, in your own light, not at a shop counter. Paint large sample patches, look at them at different times of day, check how light or dark each colour really is, and check any heritage or strata rules before a tin of paint is bought. That's how we help owners choose across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie: we bring sample pots to the free quote visit and work through the choice with you on site.
Below is the method we use on our own jobs, what the numbers on a colour chart mean, how colour affects heat on walls and roofs, and the approvals that can apply in parts of Newcastle. It works whether you're choosing for one room or a whole house.
Every house has parts you're not painting: the roof, if it's not part of the job, face brick, stone, tiled paths, timber floors, the front fence, and the neighbours' houses either side. Your new colours have to sit with all of them. Stand across the street and look at the house as a whole before you look at a single chip. A roof in a warm red, a brick base in brown and cream, or a grey Colorbond roof each narrows the colours that will work on the walls.
Inside, the fixed parts are the floors, benchtops, tiles and big pieces of furniture you're keeping. Bring a cushion, a tile offcut or a cupboard door into the conversation. It's much easier to pick a wall colour against the things it has to live with.
A colour on a chip and the same colour on a wall can look like two different paints. A large area reads darker and stronger than a small chip, and the light in each room changes it again. A south-facing room gets little direct sun, so warm whites can look grey there in winter. A west-facing room in the late afternoon can push a pale green toward yellow.
This is how we test, and you can do it yourself:
Paint big patches. At least the size of a large sheet of paper, in two coats, so the old colour doesn't show through and change the result.
Use more than one wall. Put each colour on a wall that gets sun and one that doesn't. Outside, try the front and a side wall.
Look three times a day. Morning, midday and evening, and at night under your own lights for interiors. A colour you love at noon may not be the one you like at dinner.
Narrow it to three. More than that and the patches start to blur together. The Hamilton owner in our sample projects tried three sample patches on the living room wall before picking the grey-green that went on.
Paint the patches on card if you prefer. A piece of white card painted in two coats can be moved from room to room and held against trims and floors, without leaving patches on the wall.
Many paint makers print a light reflectance value, or LRV, beside each colour. Resene, one of the paint makers that publishes the figure, explains it as the share of light a surface reflects compared with the light falling on it. Black sits at 0 and white at nearly 100, with every other colour in between.
Here is where it helps.
It tells you how light a colour really is. Two greys that look similar on a chip can be quite far apart in LRV, and the lower one will look noticeably darker on a whole wall.
It helps with small or dim rooms. Resene says high-LRV light colours and glossier finishes suit rooms you want to look larger, while darker, low-LRV colours and matt finishes make a room feel cosier. A dark feature wall works best in a room with plenty of light. Our page on interior painting covers sheen for each room.
It matters outside. Resene notes that very dark, low-LRV surfaces can get very hot, that light colours like white generally last longer than dark ones, and that some exterior surfaces have a recommended minimum LRV, so mid to dark colours aren't suitable on everything. It advises checking with the supplier of the surface before you paint it dark. We check the product and the surface before we quote a deep colour on any wall that takes full sun.
On a roof, the figure to look at is solar absorptance: how much of the sun's heat a surface takes in, where a lower number means a cooler roof. BlueScope says the eleven cool roofing colours in its COLORBOND steel core range all have a solar absorptance of 0.45 or less, and that they have the potential to improve comfort, reduce the need for air conditioning and lower energy bills. It also says actual performance depends on many things, including the roof's shape, the insulation and the type of building.
When we repaint a roof, the new colour is a roof paint, not BlueScope's factory finish, so the paint maker's own data is what counts. If heat matters to you, and on a west-facing house in a Newcastle summer it usually does, ask for the solar absorptance or the cool-roof rating of the exact paint colour you're considering. Our page on roof painting explains how we prepare and recoat Colorbond and tile roofs.
A lighter roof doesn't have to mean a white house. A pale grey roof with mid-toned walls and a darker trim is a common pairing, and it keeps the darkest colour on the smallest areas.
The City of Newcastle's Development Control Plan 2023, Section E2, lists nine heritage conservation areas: Cameron's Hill, Cooks Hill, the Glebe Road Federation Cottages in The Junction, Hamilton Business Centre, the Hamilton Residential Precinct, the Hamilton South 'Garden Suburb', Newcastle City Centre, Newcastle East and The Hill. The Garden Suburb area takes in parts of Hamilton East, Hamilton South and Merewether, and the DCP describes its housing as a consistent palette of face brick and painted weatherboard.
Each area's statement lists exposed face brick (and, in most, stone) on facades and front fences among the things to keep. So in these areas, plan your colours around the parts that are already painted, and check with council before painting any face brick. You can read the controls in the DCP's Section E2.
If your house is in one of these areas or is a listed heritage item, check with council before you settle on a new scheme, and ask whether the change needs approval. We look up the address and check before we quote, so you know before any paint is bought. Our page for painters in Newcastle covers the suburbs where this comes up most, and the Merewether weatherboards in our sample projects show a two-colour scheme on an older house.
On a strata building, the strata plan sets out what is common property, and in our experience colours there are a decision for the owners corporation, normally through the strata committee. Some by-laws also cover what owners can change on their own lots. If you own a unit or townhouse, check with your strata manager before choosing a colour for anything visible from outside.
The same courtesy applies to a shared fence or a semi-detached house. A quick conversation with the neighbour before the colour goes on saves a lot of trouble afterwards.
You don't need to arrive with a final colour. Bring a photo of a house you like, a paint chip that caught your eye, or just the colours you know you don't want. At the quote visit we bring sample pots, put patches up where you'll see them in different light, and talk through how each colour behaves on your house. The quote then names every colour by maker and product. If cost is part of the decision, our post on how much to paint a house explains how the number of colours affects the price. When you're ready, ask for a free written quote and tell us you'd like help with colours.
No. Colour help is part of our free quote visit. We bring sample pots, look at the house and the light with you, and help you narrow the choice down before you commit. We don't sell a separate colour consultation, so there's nothing extra to book or pay for.
Bigger than you think. A thumbnail chip or a small brushstroke makes almost every colour look lighter and brighter than a whole wall will. We paint patches at least the size of a large sheet of paper, two coats so the old colour doesn't show through, and put them on more than one wall.
Resene, a paint maker, notes that very dark surfaces can get very hot. BlueScope says its cool roofing colours have the potential to improve comfort and cut air conditioning use, while noting that real results depend on the roof's shape, the insulation and the building. If you're repainting a roof, ask the paint maker for the figures on the exact colour you're considering.
Often you can, but check first. The City of Newcastle's DCP lists nine heritage conservation areas, including parts of Hamilton, and each sets out what council wants kept, including exposed face brick and stone. Before we quote a new colour scheme in one, we check your address with council so you know whether the change needs approval.
Pick the white once you've chosen the wall colour, and test it beside that colour, not on its own. A warm white next to a cool grey can look dirty, and a stark white next to a creamy wall can look blue. We hold trim whites up against your sample patches so you see the pair together.
Not for common property. In our experience, colours on the outside of a strata building are decided by the owners corporation, usually through the strata committee, and the by-laws may say more. We can bring colour boards and sample patches to the meeting so the committee decides with the real colours in front of it.
A few lines and a photo or two is enough. We'll ring to book a look, then leave you a written quote with every surface and every coat on it. No obligation, and no follow-up calls chasing you if you decide to wait a while longer.