Friday 20 July 2012

Verandahs and Sleepouts

I'm not a Queenslander, in fact, I've only been living in Brisbane for around ten years. The timber and tin Queensland vernacular housing style is still a bit of a novelty to me, and I just happen to love it.


I'm not sure what was traditionally used to finish the timber floors on the verandahs (which in some cases became sleepouts) but I've seen both painted and clear finished versions.

Unfortunately the front verandah on our house is in a sorry state, and I assume most of it will need to be replaced, however I don't want a "new" looking deck in it's place.

As you can see in this photo, our verandah floor has been painted green

Our architect has recommended two timber finish options:

1) semi-transparent stain in charcoal, or
2) paint finish - colour TBC

I've seen Owen and Vokes use this colour on a couple of jobs now, and I know some of you will absolutely love it:

O+V - Holland Park Sleepouts

O+V - West End House
The photo above is one of their current jobs. You can see the enclosed verandah, which happens to wrap around three sides of the house, has been painted in the same shade of green (you can see the paint tin on the bottom right hand side of the photo.)

This particular shade of green is a favourite of mine, and I'm thinking of using it on our house. I wonder how well it will wear compared to a stain finish?

8 comments:

  1. My mum has a very similar colour green on her verandah and it looks great, she I think used a semi transparent wash though so you can also see the grain. I like the green colour choice(no surprise there) but not sure how it will wear. We have paint on Betsy's deck and it has not worn well- however the deck is not covered and yours will be. They can get scratched by kids on ride ons etc and sometimes peel if in full sun. We had a painted front verandah at the last place and we only repainted it to sell, it held up quite well.melx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mel - thanks for your input. Still a lot of decisions to make. xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello...just came across your blog and I love it!

    We live in a cottage in Red Hill that we are hoping to start renovating some time soon...although now that Baby C is on the scene I can see myself doing nothing but talking about renovations for the next five years!

    Anyway, it is funny that you mention this green because our front verandah floor is exactly this colour!
    I hadn't really thought about it as a traditional colour.
    I am fairly certain that the paint on our front verandah as been there for years and years and years and is still in good condition!

    Cheers,
    Mother Down Under
    http://motherdownunder.blogspot.com.au/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, So glad you dropped by. I could have done with some baby advice years ago when I had my first child. I figure if I keep practising I'll eventually get it right!

      Delete
  4. Thank you for sharing this blog post on Verandahs and Sleepouts with us. This is such a lovely post and I really enjoyed the pictures you shared with us. I can't wait to share this with my girlfriend she loves this kind of stuff and is always online reading blogs like this. I'm definitely going to subscribe so we can both keep checking in, thank you again for sharing Caroline!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Caroline - reading through your blog (plenty of time today with 2 sick boys) it's interesting to see we've got plenty of similarities in design taste! My house and front deck is in this white/green combo. Our front deck (not under cover) floor (in the green) hasn't stood up so well but this isn't surprising since it's not recommended to paint timber dark colours if you want durability...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry to hear about the sick kids - actually I should feel more sorry for you. Looking after poorly children is not much fun - it has been a doozy of a year for the flu. xx

      Delete
  6. Lovely photos, I especially like the classic black and white photo! My aunt also has a similar green color on her verandah. She adores the color green so much! I wouldn't be surprised if she paints the whole house green someday hahaha!

    ReplyDelete