FAQs

When can I collect my paint?

We have thousands of unique items in store. As you can imagine, it can sometimes take us a little while to locate your exact items. Tins are sometimes accidentally mis-shelved and prove tricky to find. If you have bought paint online, please either:

   a. Give us 24 hours to locate your item on the shelf, OR

   b. Wait for our "Ready for pickup" notification to arrive, OR

   c. Give us a call to check that we've located your items

before visiting us in store. 

If you're in a big rush and we're not open on the day you need paint, give us a call before you place your order and we'll try to accommodate early pickup. Custom colour mixing may add an extra day.

Can you deliver my paint within Sydney?

We have found one courier company that is willing to transport opened water-based paint. Courier costs start at $35 for a single item, and become relatively cheaper by cubic metre as the size of a shipment increases. In September 2024, shipping 2 x 15L tubs to outer Melbourne cost $80. 

Because of the minimum courier cost, you are highly unlikely to save money buying a quantity of paint from us that is 4 litres or less.

Can you deliver my paint interstate?

We may be able to arrange interstate delivery if:

a. Your order is exclusively water-based paint, and

b. Your order value is over $150 before shipping, and

c. Your paint is contained one or more plastic tubs, or can easily be transferred to plastic tubs (i.e. enamel paints are unsuitable), due to the high risk of tins becoming damaged in transit and leaking paint. 

If your order meets all of the criteria above, send us a message enquiring about shipping prior to placing your order. As a guide, shipping two 15 litre tubs of paint to Melbourne or Brisbane cost around $80 as at October 2024.

How much paint will I need?

This one is tricky. We've got some information to help you figure this out on the "DIY tips" page of our website. 

Can you sell me a smaller quantity of a listed type of paint?

Yes we can. If you can see a listing for paint you want, but there's too large a quantity, send us an email saying how much of the tin or tub you want. The minimum quantity we will split off from a larger tin is 1 litre. We usually have empty tins or tubs that we can decant paint into and we'll create a listing for the smaller amount you want so you just pay for what you need. If you have your own container we'll probably offer you a discount because you've saved us the time of washing out an empty tin or tub.

If you would prefer your paint to be poured into a new plastic tub, add "Empty 4L tub" to your cart before you check out.

Can you tint paint to the colour I want?

The short answer is "yes". Please read the process on the “Pricing and Custom Orders” page of our website.  

Can I mix my own paints to get a colour and sheen level I'm after?

Yes, you can, provided you're mixing interior water-based paints with interior water-based paints or mixing exterior water-based paints with exterior water-based paints. You can also combine solvent-based paints of the same type.   

It is also possible to mix paints of different sheen levels to get a sheen that is mid-way between the two. If you do this, be mindful that if you need more paint than you originally bought, it's going to be hard to exactly match the unique sheen level from your first batch when you mix up more paint.

We hope it goes without saying that you cannot mix oil-based and water-based paints.

Do you sell bathroom and kitchen paint?

The difference between ordinary interior paint and bathroom/kitchen paint is the addition of an anti-mould agent, and we sell this additive.

You can pick any paint you like (water-based or solvent-based) and add it to your cart, then search "mould" using the search tool at the top right of the page and add the 1L quantity of anti-mould additive.

When you reach checkout, make sure you adjust the number of anti-mould additive items to match the volume of paint you need treated. For example, if you want to treat a 4 litre tin of paint, buy 4 units of anti-mould additive.

If you are buying more than one kind of paint, please leave a note at checkout saying which paint you want treated with the anti-mould additive. If you forget to leave a message we'll get in touch to clarify this.

If you want to buy the anti-mould additive to paint you have at home, bring a small container with you. The ratio is 5ml of additive per litre of paint.

Help! I didn't buy enough paint for my project! What do I do?

We do not currently offer a tinting service to produce a fresh batch that is an exact match for a particular colour, but there is a solution! We suggest that you note the brand and type of paint (e.g. Dulux Wash&Wear Low Sheen) and take a sample of the paint shade to your local hardware store. The sample would ideally be painted on a material (such as cardboard) with a similar level of reflectiveness to the surface being painted.

The hardware store will have a spectrophotometer that will enable them to tint a new tin of paint to closely match the colour you bought from Circle Paints.

What if I decide I don't like the colour I bought? 

We want satisfied customers. When you collect your paint, we will ask you to check that you're happy with the colour.

We know that colours can look different in real life to how they look online, so if you arrive at our store and don't like the shade, we'll offer you the options of:

• a full refund, or

• a swap for another colour on the shelf, or

• adjustment of the colour on the spot by mixing the original colour with another colour (or colours) at a charge of $15 per mix.

Most of our customers who have wanted to change their colour have opted for the last option. All have been happy with the adjusted colour we've mixed for them.

Please be aware that it can take a few days for our payment provider (Shopify) to process a refund. We can't speed up that process.

What if I change my mind after I've bought paint from you? 

If you bought paint and take it home, then decide that you want a different colour, we will exchange it for you if the paint is returned in 

Can I trust that the paint is good quality?

We believe so! We trust that the paint inside a tin or tub is what's on the label, but we also check that the consistency is what we're expecting based on the type of paint. We occasionally judge that paint has been watered down for spraying, in which case we send the paint to Paintback instead of trying to sell it.

95% of the paint we have in stock is Dulux product. We have a small amount of Resene, Wattyl, White Knight, Taubmans, Berger Gold, Porters Paints, and British Paints. The brand of paint is noted on the product listing. Resene, White Knight, and Porters are all considered to be premium paints, as are the top line Wattyl products.

Taubmans (owned by PPG) and Berger (owned by Dulux) have slightly lower coverage than the other brands listed above. Dulux Professional and Wattyl Trade are also lower specification products than the premium range of these brands, and you may find the coverage less satisfactory (opinions vary on this!). The exact type of paint will be described in the listing, so you know what you're getting. We don't mix brands of paint.

We don't sell the "budget" paints that have appeared on the market recently (hello Aldi Deco and Spring!). Trade painters don't use it, and we don't recommend it because the coverage is not as good. It generally takes additional coats to achieve an adequate result. 

If you are not completely satisfied with the quality of the paint you buy from us, bring back your unused paint and we will cheerfully provide a full refund.

Why do you charge money for your paint when you get it for free?

Circle Paints has substantial overheads - principally rent, paint transport, and cataloging costs - which it needs to recoup. The price of our paint is as cheap as we can make it while still remaining viable. We are currently wholly run by a group of fabulous volunteers.