About Us

Surface Painters Ltd is locally owned and operated by James Spence and partner Andree Kelman.

James was born in Dunedin and raised in Hamilton, while I (Andree) was born and raised in Invercargill. Later, in 2002, we met and got to know each other while working on a skifield in Wanaka during the winter seasons. We decided to start a life together in Wanaka, working at the skifield during the winter seasons and painting during the off seasons.

In 2005, we made the decision to move to Marlborough to be closer to family here and continued to hone our paint skills while working for a local painting company. During this time, I had a call up from a  friend and former employer in Nelson to open and become manager of a successful jewellery and bead shop in Picton.

After a few years of working for other people, James gave into his desire to be self-employed and do things better by becoming Picton Painting Services in 2008.

Then an opportunity presented itself - a local spray painting business was up for sale! With a huge influx of painters to Marlborough in recent years and more competitions for the same jobs, we saw this as a great time to diversify and broaden our skills. So, we bought that spray painting business. With our wide knowledge of products and applications in the house painting industry this was a natural progression.

With much hard work and long hours learning and perfecting a new skill, we turned this small spray painting business with only 1 main client into a busy enterprise to date with 7 major Marlborough joinery firms on board and many casual new and repeat customers.

During this time (2012), we rebranded as Surface Painters Ltd, as this name suggests that if it has a surface - we can paint it. (And also because James is an 'ace surfer'!) 

With our clientele growing steadily, our work has spoken for itself. We have grown to where we are today. We do not have a great need for advertising as our clients have been our best testimonials and they spread the word about us.

When working on a project, our aim is:

• to provide the best experience for the client
• to explain the process clearly,
• to keep the client informed,
• to provide the highest quality finish on new and old surfaces,
• to enhance the project to its best,
• to protect it for years to come.

We are big advocates of restoration and reduction of waste by promoting the idea of taking something old of quality construction and giving it a new life, reviving it for future generations.

We love seeing the different items of furniture that come to us, sometimes of beautiful old timbers, and get great satisfaction bringing them back to their former glory (often better) and preserved for the client to happily enjoy for years to come.

Our goal for the future is to eventually diversify into design of our own joinery, and to showcase some creative and different painting techniques that can be achieved.