The Wonga Project: Crafted with Integrity, Tested by Storms

When you see the Master Painters Queensland Awards logo beside a project, it’s more than a badge — it’s a mark of integrity, craftsmanship, and care. To even enter, a company must hold a current QBCC licence, operate soundly as a registered Australian business, and employ a fully qualified tradesmen with a Certificate III in Painting & Decorating. Membership in Master Painters isn’t a formality; it’s a commitment to industry standards, community, and continual growth.

Once entered, projects are judged on three key pillars: client experience, craftsmanship, and complexity. The judges — including NACE-qualified coating inspectors — look at everything from surface preparation and application technique to innovation, attention to detail, and finish quality. Yet the client’s voice carries just as much weight. Their testimonial reveals whether value, professionalism, and trust were felt through the process. And beyond all the metrics, there’s something subtler the judges still notice — the love behind the work. When care and consideration are poured into a space, it’s tangible. You can feel it when you walk in.

At Crafted Finishes, we set our sights not just on category wins but on the Grand Award itself — the recognition of consistency and excellence across multiple projects. Whether we achieve it this year or the next, or in 5 years matters less than the pursuit itself. That pursuit refines how we lead, how we work as a team, and how we serve our clients. The Gympie Project is a reflection of that spirit in motion.

A stunning transformation of a home in Wonga

A Project That Evolved into a Contender

When we began the Wonga Project, we expected an ordinary interior-and-exterior repaint. It followed closely on the heels of our Flaxton restoration — a heritage job we assumed would be our primary award entry. But midway through Gympie, as challenges stacked up and creative solutions emerged, we realised this project had a fascinating story of its own - one worth telling.

Queensland’s wet season didn’t make it easy. Torrential rain and cyclone Alfred cut access to the site, yet our six-person team kept momentum. The home’s previous paintwork was a mix of DIY enamel, mismatched colours, and drips/runs everywhere. Every surface demanded correction before artistry could begin.

Inside, timber archways coated in old polyurethane were revived, walls re-surfaced, and a kitchen restored piece by piece in our spray booth — a booth we didn’t even own when the project began as we usually refinish on-site. Fortune and generosity intervened: a friend donated a booth midway through, and that serendipity allowed us to bring the cabinetry back to life in a high-gloss Italian polyurethane finish worthy of a showroom mid cyclonic weather. We used Sayerlack 2k Polyurethane imported from Italy by 22Chroma on the Gold Coast. https://www.22croma.com.au

Then came the kitchen benchtop.

Our clients loved "Shiny", in the current trend of matte and satin finishes, this project brought our love of gloss back, and we didn't hold back!

When our clients looked at their outdoor glass table and asked if we could give their new micro-cement top a glass-like gloss "Like that" — something unheard of in that material. Micro-cement typically embraces natural texture with only a light sealer on top, not mirror polish high build epoxy! But curiosity is the craftsman’s spark. After testing and trialling, we discovered a gel-based epoxy from another manufacturer that could merge with the micro-cement system. The result? A world class hybrid surface: a luminous, high-gloss micro-cement benchtop that saved the client more than $10,000 in replacement costs.

Georgio Graesan's "Iper Vetro" clear epoxy gel over a cementitious micro cement base tinted deep black with oxides.

The Details That Define Us

Across the home, small touches carried big impact — lime-washed brickwork, two-pack refinished door handles, and colour transitions that honoured the architecture while refreshing it for modern life. Outside, 75 metal columns presented another challenge: peeling acrylic over oxidising hot-dip galvanising. Manufacturers recommended oil enamel, but we knew better. Instead, we applied a two-pack exterior-grade polyurethane — the Ferrari of coatings — sprayed on site to perfection. Our apprentice Ben spent days sanding, filling and priming the posts to prepare them for a sprayed high gloss finish. The result stopped visitors in their tracks, including one who couldn’t believe such a finish was achievable outside a spray booth.

Each of these choices — from product selection to problem-solving — embodies our approach: clarity, integrity, and service. Gympie tested us with weather, logistics, chemistry, and time, but it revealed who we are when faced with adversity: craftsmen who adapt, persevere, and still deliver beauty.

For this project we sourced ideal materials from numerous brands to achieve the finishes;

• Internal Paint - Haymes Paint

• Internal Trim Paint - Resene Lustacryl

• Exterior Paint - Haymes Solashield

• Exterior Red Posts - Norglass All Purpose Primer with Dulux Weathermax HBR 2k Topcoat

• Kitchen Cabinets - Italian Sayerlack 2k Polyurethane

• Kitchen Bench - Cemher Micro Cement over Rockcote base finished with Georgio Graesan Iper Vetro.

As the project neared completion, the impact of the transformations became clear. Homeowners and business owners expressed their delight at the stunning results, with numerous testimonials highlighting how the new look lifted spirits and improved property values by as much as 25% with help from the bathroom reno.

More Than an Award Entry

The Gympie Project represents everything the Master Painters Awards stand for — skill, innovation, teamwork, and love of craft. Whether it takes home the trophy or not, it already changed how we operate. It reminded us that excellence isn’t a destination; it’s a way of working, one decision and one brushstroke at a time.

For us at Crafted Finishes, this project wasn’t just painted — it was crafted.

For more on the awards ceremony and awards: https://www.mpa.org.au/excellence-awards/excellence-awards-info-brochure/

For those curious: Before Photos;