Words —
Ashley Wong, Wall Treats Founder
Do you remember when your knee hurt and you called your cardiologist? Probably not. However, when a villa needs repainting, suddenly a painter is a painter.
The gap between a painter and a master painter specialising in character homes
In a new build, a wall is just a surface, whereas in a hundred-year-old home, it’s a blend of timeless materials, diverse substrates and a century of other people’s decisions that untrained eyes can’t easily spot. Knowledge, experience, patience, dedication, love for the craft, commitment. Only time and hard work forge a specialist.
Under the visible coat, there may be six or seven older ones, at least one of them lead-based. The boards beneath could be kauri that spent centuries growing, with matai at the threshold and rimu further in. Three timbers, three needs, three victims when the same tin of paint is used. You cannot see the wrong decisions on handover day. They fail in patches, usually by the second summer.
Our heritage multi-award-winning master painter has his say
Daniel Zapata, Wall Treats’ master painter and co-founder, learned all this in a mountain village in Peru, where nobody built anything they expected to replace. He still sands fretwork by hand: “A machine can’t feel a carving,” he says. “It just makes everything the same depth.” Someone sat with a chisel in 1912 to shape the swirls above your verandah, and then a rotary sander erases them in 90 seconds in 2026. Nobody on site notices until the scaffolding comes down.
Ask Daniel about colour, and he’ll talk about what’s underneath instead. Paint, he says, is the last thing that happens on a character house and the first thing everyone asks about.
Heritage preservation at the core
I grew up in Singapore, around shophouses with porcelain shards pressed into lime plaster to make the friezes above the doors. Craft was in the building, not applied over the top of it. Auckland’s character homes were made the same way, by people who expected someone would care later.
Whenever someone asks me about the difference between a painter and master painters specialising in heritage homes, such as Wall Treats, I bring up the Ecce Homo of Borja. A fresco painted circa 1930 and ‘restored’ by a well-intentioned amateur Spanish woman in 2012. After the touch-up, the town lost a painting that was part of its history and the internet was flooded with memes. Good intentions, but wrong hands. No undo button here. Authenticity is irreplaceable.
When done properly, a heritage- sympathetic painting project preserves the historical value and fabric of your home. Patina is a testimony of time. Your villa or bungalow won’t look brand new, it will look like itself. Not like the restored Ecce Homo, but the original. The point is to make your home look good while honouring its enduring charm, just as its builders intended, not like a knockoff version of itself.
Late spring to late summer is the best time for exterior painting. Have a painting project for your character home? Reach out to Wall Treats, featured this month in Verve’s Best in Painting category.
Book a no-obligation consultation at colour@walltreats.co.nz
