The painter who shows you the prep.
Brushline has painted homes across the Northern Rivers NSW since 2011. In that time we’ve learned the thing homeowners actually want isn’t a lower number — it’s a quote they can trust. So we built the business around making ours legible.
Most painting goes wrong before the brush ever touches the wall. A quote with no primer line. A “no prep needed” promise. Two coats that turn out to be one. By the time the homeowner can see the problem — the colour ghosting through, the topcoat lifting at the edges — the painter is long gone and the tin is empty.
Brushline started in 2011 with a simple idea: write the quote so the prep is impossible to hide. Wash, sand and fill, masking, primer, number of coats, the paint brand and product, the cut-in — seven lines, each with a price. Put next to a cheaper quote, ours doesn’t look dearer. It looks complete. That’s usually the whole conversation.
A homeowner can’t inspect the prep on handover day. So we make it something you can read on the quote instead — before you sign, not after it fails.
Today we cover interior, exterior, roof, commercial and strata, and the specialist work — lead-safe prep on pre-1970 homes, heritage colour matching, render and steel systems — across the Northern Rivers NSW, with no travel surcharge within 40km of Ballina.
Three things we won’t compromise on.
We quote the prep, not just the colour
Sixty to eighty percent of a paint job is the work you never see — the wash, the sanding, the filling, the primer. So we put it on the page, line by line, with a dollar figure beside each. It’s the part the cheap quote leaves off, and the part that decides whether your paint lasts two years or ten.
The right scope, not the biggest one
Sometimes the honest answer is a patch and a touch-up, not a full repaint. We’ll tell you which one you actually need — even when it’s the smaller job — because a homeowner who trusts the first quote is the one who calls back in five years.
Everything in writing
Itemised quote on letterhead, licence number, paint brand and product named, variation rules spelled out, warranty stated with its exclusions. No cash-only handshake, no “$4,500 the house” by text.
Who we’re the right painter for — and who we’re not.
We’d rather lose a job to a fairer fit than win one we’ll both regret. Dan’s honest about who Brushline suits.
If you want the cheapest number on the street, we’re probably not your painter. If you want a quote you can read, a crew that prices the prep, and a finish that holds up — that’s the whole business.
Licensed, insured, accredited — and happy to prove it.
Licence
NSW 284 551C
Shown for any job size, on request.
Insurance
Public liability to $20M
Certificate available before we start.
Warranty
7-year workmanship
In writing, with exclusions named.
Accreditation
Dulux Accredited
Premium paint systems
Accreditation
Master Painters NSW
Member since 2011
Brushline Painting Co. is a composite reference site — the licence number, ABN and contact details above are illustrative placeholders, not a real operator. On a live build these are the real, verifiable credentials of the painting business.
A small crew, not a call centre.
Dan Mercer
Founder & lead painter
Spent ten years on other crews watching prep get cut to win the price, then redone on someone else’s dollar. Started Brushline in 2011 to do it the other way — quote the prep, in writing, every time.
“I’d rather lose the job to a fair quote than win it by hiding the prep. The ones I win on an itemised page are the ones who call me back in five years.”
Renae Okafor
Project coordinator
Books the walkthroughs, builds the seven-line quotes and runs the handover. The reason you get a call back within a business day.
Sam Whitlock
Senior painter
Prep and finish specialist — render, heritage colour matching, lead-safe work and the fiddly cut-in that decides how the job reads up close.
What happens from first call to handover.
Walkthrough + itemised quote
We measure, test surfaces, and return a quote split into 7 lines.
Colour + product
You pick brand, finish and colours. We check compatibility with your surfaces.
Contract + 10% deposit
On letterhead, licence number, variation rules in writing.
Prep day(s)
Wash, sand, fill, mask, prime. The longest step on a clean job.
Cut-in + coats
Edges cut by brush, walls rolled, proper drying time between coats.
Handover + tins
Daylight walk-through, touch-ups, labelled leftover tins for each room.
Read before you get quotes
Want a quote you can actually read? Let’s start there.
Tell us what you need painted. We’ll book a walkthrough and send a quote you can actually read.