Ingredients or inspiration - Por que no los dos?
We have made paints from waste materials, an array of historic natural recipes and foraged materials for our Melbourne Design Week show ‘Impure and Natural’ where we basically used the studio walls as a gigantic sample board for all manner of experimental, circular and natural finishes.
✔️ A finish inspired by an oyster and made from oyster shells?
✔️ A eucalyptus green surface stained with Eucalyptus ink from a broken tree branch outside the studio?
✔️ Egg tempera, then use the remnant shells to make a paint? Sure, why not!
Come along and see what was made possible (and what went wrong) when we saluted the ‘right way’ of doing things, and marched down the path of impurity and imperfection, wandering down the road of unbridled experimentation and then trying to find our way back to the world of architectural finishes.
Ticket allocation is now exhausted for our #melbournedesignweek opening event this Thursday, but please join the wait list (link in bio) if you were planning to come along, or drop by this Friday or Saturday 11am-5pm to see the studio exhibition and have a chat if you so desire!
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Paint making ingredients on a WIP: Historic lime washes, eucalyptus ink, avocado ink, pigments
📸 @mikebakerphotographer
Vessels: @jordan.l.wood
Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and is curated and delivered by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Visit designweek.melbourne to view the full program.
@ngvmelbourne@creative_vic #creativestate #creativevic #ngv
Join us at Scanlan & Makers HQ, Abbotsford on Thursday May 21st 5:30-7:30pm to discover what wild concoctions we have been brewing up this Melbourne Design Week!
Share a glass of vino courtesy of the wonderful @harbinger_wines pictured here chilling amongst just a few of the experimental, historic, foraged and waste ingredients we have turned into paints.
There’s been thrills and spills… come and see the successes and toast a few epic failures, as we celebrate impurity, imperfection and experimentation in the pursuit of sustainable finishes with soul, and keeping historic trade and craft skills alive.
Tix to the opening and talk are free, but please book via
the link in our bio, as capacity is limited.
Our studio exhibition will also be open Friday May 22 and Sat May 23, with Clare Scanlan available for a chat.
Image:
📸@mikebakerphotographer
Handcrafted vessels and wine label by the incredible talent @jordan.l.wood
Side note: @jordan.l.wood also collected the sap pictured bottom left… you know they’re a true friend when they bother to bottle sap for you!
Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and is curated and delivered by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Visit designweek.melbourne to view the full program., which runs May 14-24.
@ngvmelbourne@creative_vic #NGV #MelbourneDesignWeek #CreativeVic #CreativeState
We’ve been sitting on this little secret for SO long… and it’s finally time to share… Post House is going to be on Restoration Australia! We go to air in FOUR weeks from today! 🥹💫🤍
No, we haven't seen it yet 🫣
And yes, there were moments we questioned everything…
Working with @anthony_burke__ was an absolute joy. He is warm, wise, and surprisingly funny, and had us in stitches every time he was on site.
Flashback to a particularly entertaining day of filming, spent working on the kitchen walls (between other bouts of chaos) with the dream team @the_patina_factory@scanlanandmakers . 🩵🩷🤍
Thursday May 28. 📺 Mark it in the diary! ✨
Scanlan & Makers are pleased to present ‘Impure & Natural’ an exhibition with opening night talk at our Abbotsford workshop as part of Melbourne Design Week, 2026.
Opening night will be Thursday 21 May. Tix are free and available at the link in our bio, or via designweek.melbourne
‘Doing away with (but with deep respect for) a purist approach to natural and handmade materials, our walls will be swathed in a wild melange of paints, finishes and pigments resulting from material experiments with historic recipes, foraged and waste materials, hybrid brews and barely tested systems in a celebration of the inherent beauty and versatility of these natural, breathable and craft materials.
This work at once acknowledges how essential breathable and historic coatings are to the preservation of buildings and as an alternative to petro-chemical based coatings, but is also deeply rooted in a practice where the opportunity to install a fully functioning ‘pure’ system is incredibly rare.
So we invent, we compromise, we experiment.
What if we boil some eucalyptus leaves? Some avocado pits? What if we made lime wash from the leftover oyster shells from the same restaurants we paint? How can we make all that stick to existing acrylic walls? What does this communicate about place?
Come and see what on earth we have made, and learn a bit more about why and how to use natural, handmade and experimental coatings in professional projects.
We truly believe that these skills, recipes, and knowledge (both the purist and impure approach) are craft and trade skills not just worth saving, but worth using.’
Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.
Pictured: material experiments with natural lime and watercolour paints using Vivianite pigment from Demon’s Bluff, VIC. Exquisite ceramic vessels by @jordan.l.wood
#MelbourneDesignWeek #NGV @ngvmelbourne
One from the archives. Shan taking care of some detailing at our Geelong pub project.
I believe these walls are now gone… they were some beauties! Wish I’d captured more of this special project for @technearchitects
Custom ‘artist’s patina’ using various layered plasters, paints and glazes chosen for how they react and interact with each other for maximum soft depth.
Old things… the metal edit, part 1. #verymetal
The pressed metal ceilings at @mountainculturebeerco in Richmond (previously Fox Friday) by visionaries @studioy.com.au
This project saw us finding multiple ways to make metal look old, whilst protecting the underlying structure from corrosion.
Yes that right, we protected steel and tin from rust and then rusted it 😂.
But going back a step: rust is awesome and authentic to this old factory, but no one wants steel beams falling on their head.
So, to fit the brief, we used multiple performance and decorative coating systems and devised many different methods to offer beautifully handcrafted patina in keeping with the age of the building, whilst protecting the structure itself from damage.
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This one is perhaps the simplest and consistently one of the best: @porterspaints White Liquid Iron and Instant Rust, coaxing the rust to develop over time just in areas of the panels.
Stay tuned for more old metal things or make contact if you have a project that needs some patina
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First two 📸 by the very excellent @mikebakerphotographer
Build: @jointly_built
Joinery: @ethereal_projects
Thanks to @jordan.l.wood for your assistance with this beautiful patina and everyone who joined our team and somehow braved both the icy cold and hot sun to deliver this project ❤️
Studio experiments and sampling lately.
Cameo by the avocado-ink snake on lime and gypsum plaster 🐍
Lots of imperfect, natural and handmade finishes in this lot 💖
Mineral Paint… but make it atmospheric ☁️💫
Those seeking a premium, breathable coating suitable for harsh exterior conditions (like the coast) and heritage projects where permeability is essential… Mineral Paint might be your guy.
And since it’s us, we have worked out a multi-tone hand-brushed application that mimics the cloudy patina of lime wash (still natural, still breathable, but without the weathering).
Mineral Paint is applied over bare mineral and masonry substrates, and is tinted with inorganic pigments so it is extraordinarily resistant to fading, making it ideal for murals, or areas where low maintenance is required.
Happy to talk through the feasibility of Mineral Paint versus other natural options, compare it to acrylic alternatives and even develop custom finishes using Mineral Paint for your project. Hit us up :-)
A STAR ON THE CEILING!! For the goddess @therealkateceberano
Natural finishes, allllll the chic vibes, all the nuanced colour… but let’s have some fun!
It was an absolute honour to be trusted with the one and oly @therealkateceberano ideas for this space.
When a client has their own language of colours and materials that aligns with ours, the journey is as much of a joy as the end result. This space is yet to be completed, so get ready for some wild colour as we finish this special room full of vibe for the wonderful Kate. ❤️ 🌟
Colour is our love language ❤️
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Mercurial and hard to pin down, changing in every light; colour is as much poetry as science… we spend countless hours in the studio developing, matching and honing colour across natural and performance materials because when the colour is luscious, everything else falls into place.
It’s less about perfection and more about harmony… it’s the vibe.
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Amy and Clare are both trained colour matchers, both with backgrounds in art and commercial paint production. But everyone on our team is continually practicing with colour onsite and in the studio.
Yes, we can customise a finish from the ground up, but sometimes all that’s needed is a really beautiful colour, applied by hand… that hums a secret little tune just for you🎵
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📸 @mikebakerphotographer
Behind the scenes creating this custom heavily layered strata/rammed earth plaster finish for @mitchellandeades for @thenakedduckcafesydney at @parramattasquare
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Because this install was interstate and rather technical, after many rounds of intricate sampling we collaborated with absolute legends @bespoke.haus (venetian plaster) and @justinemcallister (muralist) to deliver this. This turned out to be a veritable dream team as we faced down quite a few technical challenges to deliver this one.
The end result is incredibly tough, and it’s custom upon custom upon custom.
Now we’ve arrived at this process, using a full @calcecompany system, each layer can be customised to suit the softness/texture/drama/colour palette required.
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One day I’ll get beautiful finished photos to show the end result in all its glory… but thought you might like a little insight into the mess of creation in the meantime!
