Painting a Renovated and Extended Home in Annandale: Period Front, New Extension, One Finish

AKD Painting painted the full interior of a renovated and extended house in Annandale: the original front rooms with their arched hallway, deep cornices, ceiling rose and leadlight, plus a new two-storey rear extension and attic level with kitchen, stair, skylit hallway and bedrooms. The brief was simple to say and hard to do: one finish across a 120-year-old front and a brand-new back, so nobody can tell where the old house stops.

Project snapshot

Location: Annandale NSW 2038, Inner West Sydney
House: period front (arched hallway, cornices, ceiling rose, leadlight sash windows) with a new rear extension, first floor and attic rooms under the original gable
Scope: every wall, ceiling, cornice, skirting, door and architrave, plus new built-in joinery, under-stair storage and wardrobes painted on site
Scheme: one warm neutral carried through old and new, white ceilings and trims, a soft sage green in one bedroom
Sequence: after the plasterers, carpenters and tilers, with a final coat and touch-ups after fit-out
Warranty: 5-year written workmanship warranty

Two houses in one

Annandale is a suburb of Victorian and Federation houses on tight blocks, and the standard way to get more room is to keep the front and build out the back. That leaves the painter with two very different substrates under one colour. The front rooms here are original set plaster with deep run cornices, picture rails, a ceiling rose and four-panel doors that have taken a century of paint. The extension is new plasterboard, square-set in places, with raked ceilings and skylights that throw hard light across every wall. It is the same situation we describe on our heritage and Federation house painting page, only with a new build attached.

Repainted Victorian hallway with arched openings and pendant lights in an Annandale home — The original hallway: arches, cornices and skirtings repainted in soft white

Period front room in Annandale with leadlight sash window, repainted walls in warm neutral and white cornice — Front room: warm neutral walls under the original cornice, leadlight kept clean

Repainted Federation-era room in Annandale with deep cornice, picture rail and white panel door — Old set plaster, deep cornice and a four-panel door, all brought back to crisp lines

Renovated bathroom in an Annandale period home with ceiling rose and freestanding bath, walls freshly painted — Bathroom in the original part of the house, ceiling rose kept and picked out in white

How the job ran: in progress and finished, room by room

The crew came in once the plasterers, carpenters and tilers were out, with the black-framed glazing masked, the new stair treads and balustrade wrapped, and drop sheets over the new floors. Ceilings went first, then walls, then the trims and joinery, room by room from the attic down so nobody was working over a finished space. Each pair below is the same room from the same spot, mid-job and finished.

AKD painter rolling the first coat on the gable wall beside the arched window in an Annandale attic bedroom — **In progress:** first coat on the gable wall beside the arched window

Attic bedroom with arched window, curtains and painted raked walls in an Annandale renovation — **Finished:** Attic bedroom under the original gable, arched window kept

AKD painter cutting in above the kitchen cabinets in an Annandale extension, cabinets masked during fit-out — **In progress:** cutting in above the kitchen cabinets, joinery masked

Wide view of the new kitchen in an Annandale extension with painted ceiling, walls and cabinetry — **Finished:** The kitchen from the dining end

AKD painter on a ladder painting the extension ceiling in Annandale before the joinery went in, black-framed doors masked — **In progress:** ceilings first in the extension, doors masked

Open-plan rear extension in Annandale looking back to the kitchen and stair, walls painted in off-white — **Finished:** Looking from the new extension back through the house

AKD painter cutting in the stair wall in an Annandale home with the treads and balustrade masked — **In progress:** stair wall cut in, treads and balustrade masked

New timber staircase with black balustrade and painted under-stair joinery in an Annandale home — **Finished:** Stair and under-stair storage, joinery painted in the wall colour

AKD painter on the upstairs landing of an Annandale home, skylight wall cut in and balustrade wrapped — **In progress:** landing walls cut in, balustrade wrapped

Upstairs hallway with two skylights and freshly painted raked ceiling in an Annandale home — **Finished:** raked ceilings and skylights in the new roof space

AKD painter on a ladder painting the raked ceiling beside built-in wardrobes and a skylight in an Annandale attic — **In progress:** raked ceiling and built-ins under the skylight

Attic room with skylight and built-in joinery painted to match the walls in Annandale — **Finished:** Built-in joinery under the roofline, painted to disappear into the wall

Getting old plaster and new board to match

The old rooms were filled, sanded back and sealed first, so the hairline cracks, old brush edges and patched spots in the set plaster would not telegraph through a light colour. The cornices and rose were cut in by hand, with the mouldings kept crisp rather than filled in with paint. The new plasterboard in the extension got a full sealer coat so it drank the colour evenly, then both halves of the house were rolled in the same system, the same two coats and the same direction. Under the skylights and the big black-framed windows, where raking light shows every roller mark, that consistency is the whole job.

New kitchen in an Annandale extension with marble island, painted walls and rangehood — The new kitchen: fresh plasterboard, low-sheen walls, joinery painted on site

Living room feature wall with green tiled hearth and freshly painted walls in an Annandale renovation — Living room feature wall in the extension

The details that make it read as one home

A renovation like this lives or dies on its joinery. The under-stair storage, the wardrobes and the built-ins tucked under the attic roofline were all painted in place in the wall colour, so they read as wall rather than furniture, and the white trims run unbroken from the original skirtings to the new architraves. The stair sits against the new walls with its black balustrade, the ceiling rose in the old bathroom was kept and picked out in white, and the leadlight and sash windows at the front were masked and cut in rather than painted shut.

Stair void with skylight and black balustrade, walls painted white in an Annandale renovation — The stair void from the top landing

Finished attic room in an Annandale home with built-in joinery under the roofline painted to match the walls, new carpet — Attic room finished: built-ins under the roofline painted to match

Upstairs and the attic

The new first floor and attic sit under the original gable, so the rooms have raked ceilings, dormers, an arched window that was kept from the old roofline, and skylights over the hallway. Raked ceilings meet walls at odd angles and every join is on show, so the cutting in up here was done by hand with no tape lines, and the one colour departure in the house, a soft sage green in a bedroom, was chosen to sit with the neutral rather than fight it.

Bedroom painted in a soft sage green with white trims in an Annandale home — A soft sage green in one bedroom, white trims throughout

Annandale and the streets around it

We paint this kind of house every week across Annandale and its neighbours: the terraces and semis of Leichhardt and Stanmore, the workers cottages and Victorian rows of Glebe and Camperdown, and the renovated Federation homes on the Rozelle side of the Bay Run. If you are mid-renovation and want the finish to match the money you have spent on the build, see our interior painting and residential painting pages, or ask us to walk the house with your builder before the plaster is signed off.

Questions renovating owners ask

When should the painter come in on a renovation and extension?

After the builder's trades are finished and before the floors are sealed or the joinery is fitted out, wherever the program allows. On this Annandale job the walls, ceilings and trims were painted once the plasterers, carpenters and tilers were done, with a final coat and touch-ups after the fit-out so nothing was marked.

How do you make old plaster and new plasterboard look the same?

The preparation is different but the finish is the same. Old set plaster and cornices get filled, sanded and sealed so hairline cracks and old paint edges do not show through, while new plasterboard gets a full sealer coat so it takes colour evenly. Both then get the same two coats of the same system, and we roll the old and new walls in the same direction so the texture matches under raking light.

Do you paint new joinery and built-ins on site?

Yes. Under-stair storage, wardrobes and the built-ins under the attic roofline on this job were all painted in place, in the wall colour or a matching white, so they sit quietly in the room instead of standing out as furniture.

Does a renovation repaint come with the same warranty as a full house repaint?

Yes. Every AKD interior job carries our 5-year written workmanship warranty, whether it is a single room, a full house or a renovation where old and new sections meet.

More AKD projects: the Newtown cottage and terrace exteriors, the pressed metal ceiling restoration, the timber deck restoration, the commercial exterior repaint, the strata exterior repaint in Canada Bay, protective coatings at IKEA Rhodes and the before and after portfolio.

Renovating an Inner West home?

AKD quotes the whole house in writing, old rooms and new, with one finish, one program and a 5-year workmanship warranty.

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