Federation Home Interior in Five Dock: Pressed Metal Ceilings, Leadlight Joinery and Clean White Walls

AKD Painting repainted the interior of a Federation home in Five Dock: green, yellow and grey walls taken to a clean white, pressed metal ceilings scraped back and refinished, and the leadlight windows, front door and timber joinery cut in by hand. The house was empty for the job, so the crew could work through it room by room without moving furniture.

Project snapshot

Location: Five Dock NSW 2046, Inner West Sydney
Home: Federation house with pressed metal ceilings, picture rails, fretwork arches, leadlight casement windows, a fireplace with timber mantel and a stair to the upper level
Scope: walls, ceilings, cornices, picture rails, skirtings, doors, window joinery and built-in shelving through the whole interior
Method: loose paint on the pressed metal scraped by hand, sound paint kept, stains sealed, then finish coats; joinery cut in by brush around the leadlight glass
Warranty: 5-year written workmanship warranty

What we started with

Like a lot of Five Dock’s older brick homes, this one still had its original detail: pressed metal ceilings in most rooms, fretwork over the doorways, leadlight in the windows and the front door, and a fireplace with a carved timber mantel in the front room. The walls were a mix of colours from different decades, with mint green in the living rooms, butter yellow in the hall and front room, and grey in a back bedroom. Some of the pressed metal had started to flake.

Federation living room in Five Dock before painting, mint green walls, pressed metal ceiling and arched opening — **Before:** mint green walls under the pressed metal ceiling

Stair hall in a Five Dock Federation home before painting, green walls with patch marks — **Before:** the stair hall with patched green walls

The front room

The front room shows the change best. The yellow walls and cream picture rail band went to one clean white, so the fireplace, the built-in shelves and desk and the pressed metal ceiling carry the room instead of the wall colour. The tiled hearth and the cast iron insert were protected and left exactly as they were.

Front room of a Five Dock Federation home before painting, yellow walls, fireplace and pressed metal ceiling — **Before:** yellow walls and a cream picture rail band

The same Five Dock front room after painting, white walls, fireplace and built-in shelves — **After:** one clean white, the fireplace and ceiling carry the room

Finished fireplace mantel and doorway with leadlight fanlight in a Five Dock Federation home — **Finished:** the mantel and the doorway beside it

Finished front room in a Five Dock Federation home with built-in shelves and the door to the stair — **Finished:** built-in shelves and the door through to the stair

Pressed metal ceilings

Pressed metal ceilings carry every coat of paint since the house was built, and when the build-up gets too heavy it lets go in flakes, taking the older coats with it. Where the paint had failed here, the loose material was scraped off by hand along the pattern, the sound paint was kept, and marks and stains were sealed before the finish coats so the relief stays crisp. On a house of this age the early coats are treated as lead-based, as set out in our guide to lead paint in older Inner West homes. For a ceiling that needed a full restoration, see our pressed metal ceiling restoration project.

Pressed metal ceiling in a Five Dock Federation home with flaking paint before preparation — **Before:** paint letting go across the pressed metal

The same pressed metal ceiling in Five Dock after repainting, pattern crisp and white — **Finished:** the same ceiling with the pattern kept sharp

Pressed metal ceiling in Five Dock scraped back and ready for sealing — During prep: loose paint scraped off, ready to seal

AKD painter on a step ladder scraping the edge of a pressed metal ceiling in a Five Dock bedroom — In progress: scraping back along the ceiling edge

AKD painter cutting in under the cornice of a pressed metal ceiling in a Five Dock Federation home — In progress: cutting in under the cornice

Leadlight windows and the front door

Leadlight is the part of a Federation house you cannot replace, so the window and door joinery was done entirely by brush. Sashes, frames and sills were prepared and cut in by hand around each pane of coloured glass, and the front door and its leadlight transom were painted from a step ladder with the glass protected. No spraying goes anywhere near glass like this.

AKD painter on a step ladder painting around the leadlight transom above a Five Dock front door — **In progress:** the front door and its leadlight transom

Leadlight casement window sash with amber glass being repainted in a Five Dock Federation home — **In progress:** a leadlight casement sash, cut in by hand

AKD painter preparing a leadlight window sill in a Five Dock Federation home — **In progress:** preparing the sill and frame

The bathroom ceiling

The bathroom ceiling had yellowed and marked over the years, which is common where steam and a wall heater have been working on it. It was cleaned and sealed with a stain-blocking primer so the marks cannot bleed back through, then finished in white.

Stained and yellowed bathroom ceiling in a Five Dock Federation home before painting — **Before:** a yellowed, marked bathroom ceiling

The same Five Dock bathroom ceiling after sealing and painting white — **After:** sealed and finished in white

Bedrooms

The bedrooms got the same treatment as the rest of the house: walls, ceilings, picture rails and skirtings in white, with the leadlight windows cut in by hand. For more on homes like this one see our guide to heritage and Federation house painting and our interior painting page, or for the local area our painters in Five Dock, with nearby work in Haberfield, Drummoyne and Abbotsford.

Finished bedroom in a Five Dock Federation home with a leadlight window and white walls — **Finished:** a bedroom with its leadlight window

Finished bedroom in a Five Dock Federation home with white walls and a pressed metal ceiling — **Finished:** white walls under the pressed metal

Questions about painting a Federation interior

Can pressed metal ceilings be repainted without losing the pattern?

Yes. Loose paint is scraped off by hand along the pattern, sound paint is kept, and the ceiling is sealed and finished in coats thin enough to keep the relief sharp. A ceiling that has failed across most of its area needs a fuller restoration, which we quote separately.

How do you paint leadlight windows without damaging the glass?

By brush only. The glass is protected, sashes and frames are prepared by hand, and every edge against the glass is cut in with a fine brush. Cracked putty or loose lead is noted at the quote so it can be repaired first.

Is it better to paint a house interior while it is empty?

It is quicker, because rooms can be done in order without moving furniture. We paint occupied homes all the time too, working room by room with everything covered.

Do older Five Dock homes have lead paint?

Homes built before 1970 are treated as having lead-based paint in the early coats. Preparation is done wet or with extraction, with containment and clean-up to match, and no dry sanding or burning off.

What warranty comes with an interior repaint?

Every AKD interior carries our 5-year written workmanship warranty.

More AKD projects: the Federation home interior in Five Dock, the Marrickville park amenities block, the Annandale renovation interior, the Newtown cottage and terrace exteriors, the Canada Bay strata exterior, the pressed metal ceiling restoration, the timber deck restoration, the commercial exterior repaint, protective coatings at IKEA Rhodes and the before and after portfolio.

Repainting a period home in Five Dock?

AKD inspects the house, quotes the preparation and the paint system in writing, and backs the work with a 5-year workmanship warranty.

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