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Case studies

Projects

Pottery Studio won Gold at the 2025 Master Painters NZ Awards. More results are hoped for from this year's entries.

Painting · Epsom

Architectural, Epsom

A full exterior in black, white and red — a scheme that only works if every edge is exact, because a hard colour break gives a wavering line nowhere to hide. The result reads as deliberate from the street and still holds up close, at the joinery. This is the job to point a client at when they want to know whether a bold exterior can be done without it looking approximate.

Entered at the 2026 Master Painters New Zealand Awards, Christchurch, 3–5 September.

In motion — a run through the work.
The full frontage of the house seen from the lawn, gables and verandah in view.
Frontage
The house from across the lawn, framed by trees.
From the lawn
A tall view of the two-storey elevation with balcony and gable.
Elevation
The courtyard side of the house with brick paving and planters.
Courtyard
A gable end of black weatherboard with a single red vertical trim line.
Gable end
The entry door in white and red, beside a leadlight window and brick wall.
Entry
An awning window with a white sash and red reveal, open against black weatherboard, beside a red downpipe and box gutter.
Awning window
Cream french doors in a red-painted frame under a black soffit, seen past a grapevine.
French doors

Timber · Private library

Private Library

A neutral stain, left open so the grain carries the building. The finish gives timber a warmth that paint cannot reach — quiet, even, and consistent enough that the eye never catches on a join. This is the finish to ask about when the timber itself is meant to be the thing you notice.

The timber elevation with clerestory windows above.
Timber elevation
The glazed elevation of the pavilion seen from three-quarters.
Glazed elevation
The pavilion photographed straight on, symmetrical across its length.
Straight on
Cedar posts and vertical board cladding under the pavilion’s deep eave, an awning window propped open above.
Under the eave
The corner of the cedar-clad pavilion in full sun, vertical boards running past a pale stone base.
Corner elevation
Close detail of the vertical cedar boards and their finish.
The boards, close

Timber · Karaka

Varnish, Karaka

Exterior timber has a harder life than anything indoors. Sun bleaches it, water gets into it, and once the coating has gone the timber starts going with it. Here the joinery was stripped back and rebuilt in stain and varnish — a film that takes the weather so the wood underneath does not have to. The before and after on this project is the clearest argument there is for maintaining a finish rather than replacing joinery later.

The facade of a cream country house with two dormer windows above a hedge-covered pergola.
Dormer facade
The full house and its clipped garden seen from an elevated angle.
House and garden
Varnished timber bifold doors opening from a tiled veranda, the garden reflected in the glass.
Veranda doors
Varnished french doors set into a pale stone wall.
French doors
A varnished window in a stone wall framed by ivy.
Stone and ivy
Close detail of the varnished timber, showing sheen and grain.
The varnish, close
Tall gable glazing and doors with the finish worn back to dull, greyed timber.
Before — the finish worn away.
The same gable glazing after stripping and revarnishing, the timber deep and even in the sun.
After — stripped, stained and varnished.

Timber · Stain

Pottery Studio

Gold for Excellence in Staining — Master Painters New Zealand Awards, 2025.

A board-and-batten studio in a deep, warm dark brown tint, finished inside and out. It reads almost black in shade and turns to full brown the moment the sun is on it, as in the first shot here. A tint that dark is the least forgiving thing to stain: the depth has to hold across every board and every batten, or it goes flat in one place and patchy in the next. It holds. The award is for the finish, not the building.

The long elevation of a dark brown stained timber studio under dappled light from a tree.
Long elevation
The studio mid-project, with mobile scaffolding standing against the gable end.
In progress
Dark brown stained board-and-batten walls meeting at an angle at the studio entry.
Entry
Close view of the dark brown stained vertical boards and battens beside a window.
Board and batten
The angled dark brown board-and-batten gable of the studio above a tiled apron, looking out across the lawn.
Angled gable
The studio entry under its raking roof, above a courtyard of patterned terracotta tiles.
Entry and courtyard