I remember painting our house matt black. It was in 2003 and it took five attempts to achieve the right colour. Carl, at Porters Paints then located in Waterloo in Sydneys Eastern Suburbs, patiently mixed batch after batch of Stone Paint Coarse making it darker each time.
If you look at any paint manufacturers colour specifiers today you will find a wide range of rich, dark colours, but fifteen years ago that wasn't the case.
Each time I asked for a shade darker we were running the risk of making the finished product glossier than desired. I wanted a matt black, or nearly black, but not quite. But it had to be matt. Not glossy. Poor Carl, but the end result was stunning and head turner for neighbours and passers by alike.
It's funny to think back to that moment now as almost every second house is painted dark with white or a version thereof.
