Behind the brush
Woodfield Decorators
Painting has been part of Matthew Woodfield’s life for as long as he can remember. The Auckland-based painter and decorator runs Woodfield Decorators and first picked up a brush as a teenager.
“I started painting at 16, so have been doing it for 35 years,” he shares. “My grandfather was a painter and had a business up in Kaitaia, and all my uncles and heaps of my cousins are painters too.”
Image by Emily Chalk Photography
“I started painting at 16, so have been doing it for 35 years,” he shares. “My grandfather was a painter and had a business up in Kaitaia, and all my uncles and heaps of my cousins are painters too.”
Matt hasn’t always been New Zealand-based during the three decades of his career, however. He had a six-year stint working in Australia doing industrial spray painting in the mining industry. He says that while it’s no picnic and quickly sorts the men from the boys, the job builds resilience and work ethic. “It’s very good experience and forces you to mature and become a good worker. You’re doing mostly 12-hour days, sometimes longer, and there’s no such thing as weekends.”
There have also been times when he tried to explore other industries, but somehow the brush always came calling and found his way back to painting.
Images by Emily Chalk Photography
“Even when I left to go to Australia I wanted a break from painting, but every job I seemed to go to, they worked out that I was a painter. I tried to get into engineering, and even though I love working with metal I fell back into painting again,” Matt says. “The same thing happened when I came back from Australia – I joined a building company as a hammerhand, then sure enough, I ended up painting the houses I built. So I’ve tried all these different jobs but I’m better at painting. I’m good at it – it’s what I know and what I do.”
Better business
Matt started Woodfield Decorators in 2017, and says that setting up his own outfit was a natural progression.
“You start getting sick of working for people. For five years I’d been transitioning into doing this. I'd been collecting bits and pieces, so by the time I left I had clients and enough gear to get me started.”
Image by Emily Chalk Photography
As many business owners experience, staffing has been a challenge and presented many ups and downs.
“I’ve got two guys who work for me right now. I had up to six at one point, but it got too much and was too challenging. It’s definitely more stressful. It’s been a learning curve. I’ve been through a hell of a lot of guys and some have become really good friends.”
He says it tends to be not what you know but who you know when it comes to recruiting in the painting industry.
“The guy that I rely on the most, I’ve known him since he was 15. He started dating my stepdaughter, so I trained him up,” Matt says. “The other guy who works for me is a good friend of a company I do a lot of work for. I don’t think I’ve ever hired anyone I didn’t really know.”
Despite his work being nice and steady at the moment, 2026 has been tough. “I’ve got a good client list. This year is the first year I went through my whole email list of past clients to see if they needed any work done, which got me a few jobs.”
Team Resene
When it comes to working with Resene, Matt says he loves the product technology and innovation, as well as the support network.
“My rep Dani Johnson is great – she’s been really good to me and I get a bit of work out of Find-A-Painter.”
Images by Emily Chalk Photography
He cites Wairau and Mairangi Bay as his favourite Resene ColorShops, and even got his stepdaughter a job at one.
“The homework they need to do and the product knowledge they need is amazing – if you take it seriously, you can get a really good resume together.”
His favourite Resene product? Lustacryl. “What they’ve done with it – making it waterborne – they’ve worked out how to make paint stick without the oil. It takes me a year now to go through a full litre of turps! It’s better for our skin and our breathing, especially our young fellas. I’m mindful of what they have to do compared to what I used to do.
“My all-time favourite colour is Resene Black White – that’s what I’ll always suggest if someone is umming and ahhing. It’s an amazing colour, there’s a reason why everyone uses it.”
Quick-fire questions:
What’s your work vehicle? I drive a Ford Ranger Ute – I switched from a van around 2008. There’s a compromise as you can’t fit in as much stuff, but you can transform it into a family wagon in the space of 10 minutes.
Fave on-the-job playlist? I listen to podcasts, mainly American stand-up comedy.
Smoko essential? Gotta be a pie.
Site helper? Carly, an English Bull Terrier. I bring her along to the job when I can – she sulks when she can’t come!
