Before and After: Window Frames With Dulux Paint

The exterior of our house has had a huge transformation and with all of these home improvements we have stuck with an exterior colour scheme of cream of grey: Classic cream render and downpipes, Limestone courtyard, Charcoal roof and driveway, Ironstone gutters and facias and Jarrah garage door and courtyard slats.

 

The colour that just doesn't seem to go anymore is our white window frames - there's nothing else white out the front of the house so it's added another colour to the palette. The white gets a bit lost against the cream render and with the new limestone fence now built it has become apparent that the white has got to go!

 

As timing would have it Dulux has some new colour booklets and I was sent some to check out their tips on picking colour combinations that work together. Finding colours that go together can be pretty daunting so it's good to see some set colour schemes. Flipping through the booklets has given me the inspiration to be bold with my colour choices outside, but still making sure the colours will work together.

My favourite pages from the Dulux Colour Booklets - I love my greys both inside and outside!

My other favourite is the Colorbond range - We have Colorbond Ironstone Gutters and Facias,
Colorbond Classic Cream downpipes and Colorbond Charcoal as our roof colour

Dulux offered to send me some paint to try out their colour schemes - first we picked a prepcoat Dulux 1 step oil based primer, sealer, undercoat in White. This undercoat was oil based and had a stronger paint smell and had to be cleaned up with Mineral Turps. These oil based paints give a really strong bond and protection which is what you want for exterior paints that are up against the elements and strong Australian sunshine all the time.
 

We also needed the right type of paint for our wooden window frames and chose the Dulux Aquanamel in Gloss which is the paint you should use for doors, windows and trim. As for the colour, we went through Dulux's huge range of exterior paint colours and picked out Dulux Colorbond Monument and had the paint tinted to that colour.

Unlike the prepcoat, this is a water based paint which is so much easier to clean up all you need is water, it didn't smell as strong as the oil based paint (better for allergies!) and they were really fast drying too which helped because we didn't have to leave the windows open for long we could close them soon after painting.

 

Our Dulux paint and supplies

  

Dulux Colorbond Monument

Armed with our paint, brushes and supplies we were good to get cracking and give these old and worn out window frames a new lease of life.

  

Before - White window frames

 

In need of some colour inspiration!

 

The frames were sanded back with an electric sander to remove all the flaking paint and rough edges. For the hard to get at areas sandpaper was used. Any gaps, cracks and imperfections were filled with builders filler, then sanded back again lightly with sandpaper. 

 

Sanding off all the old flaking paint

Our cordless sander makes the job a lot quicker and easier!

  

It's so important to spend as much time as you can on the preparation otherwise all your hard work will be a waste of time, the paint won't last it will peel and look terrible!

Once the frames were filled and sanded smooth, they were cleaned and wiped over with a wet cloth to remove any dust and dirt. Then the windows were taped up with painters tape to protect the glass.

We were then  ready to paint on a primer and undercoat - for that we used Dulux All In 1 Primer, Sealer and Undercoat. These oil based paints are a bit smelly but they really are the most durable for exterior use. The smell had disappeared by the next day and it was touch dry within about 6 hours so we could shut the windows just before bed time!

 

Carefully applied painters tape to all the windows

 

Then on goes the Dulux primer/sealer/undercoat paint

 

One frame down and one to go!

When the undercoat was completely dry a few hours later, we were ready to put some colour on these beauties. On goes the first coat of Dulux Colorbond Monument .... there's no going back now!

Now for some colour ....

Mr brother and Mr P made a great painting team!

 

Here's a tip: Get yourself some angled brushes when painting windows and trim they make it so much easier to get into all the grooves and make cutting in around the frames heaps easier too.

 

Window frames can be a little fiddly to paint

 

Many hands make light work!

A few days later we applied the second coat of paint, that's not because it wasn't touch dry enough to paint but because of the wet weather we couldn't paint outside until we had some sunshine!

 

 

Painting on a second coat of Dulux Colorbond Monument on the Living Room window

 

Monument is a similar colour to our roof and driveway which is Charcoal

Once the paint had dried the colour darkened ad had more depth, it was looking really good and is a pretty perfect match to the roof colour too.

Now onto the Master Bedroom windows

Both windows all painted



Lexi the Site Manager is never far away keeping an eye on our work!

 

Peeling the tape off to reveal the windows is such a good feeling I get all excited and butterfly's  .... that moment of Oh My God What Have I Done!?!?
 

To remove the tape I use a knife to break the seal between the paint and tape, it makes peeling the tape off
a lot easier without the fear that you'll pull the paint off with it

The last of the tape coming off

 

I'm so impressed because this tape was on for about 3 weeks all up and it didn't peel the paint off at all!

 

So here we are .... It was a bold move but it really paid off, the windows are definitely stand out features now. I've become so much braver with my colour choices, after all it's just paint you can always scrape it off and repaint it if I don't like it. But I love it.

After - I love the depth of the colour 

Really like how Monument contrasts against the Classic Cream walls



The colour scheme is now working well together

Don't you just love a good before and after!

Yet another big transformation to the front of our house .... here's a bit of a flashback to our home when we moved in almost 5 years ago now to how it looks today. Still a bit of landscaping to do out here in the new Courtyard but we are definitely getting there and you'll be seeing lots more progress in the coming weeks.

 

Before - Our house when we bought it almost 5 years ago ....
 



Now - The power of paint and a lot of hard work!

What do you think of the White vs Monument window frames?

Would you be brave and use bold colours for your home exterior?

 

 

Sharing with link parties:

Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays

Home Coming - The DIYers

The Dedicated House - Before And After Wednesday

Disclosure: Dulux partner with bloggers such as me to help promote their product. As part of this promotion I was given some Dulux colour booklets and paint to review. I have not received any payment or compensation for this review. I have not been told what to say about this product, I am free to form my own opinion and share them in my own words. All opinions are my own.

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[All other images my own]