You could have the Sherwin colours mixed in Dulux, Wattyl, etc. if you're still unsure of quality. Painting is expensive as it's labour intensive yet the material part is relatively cheap so buy a quality brand you trust rather the cheaper one. I'd always buy Australian made as it's be formulated for our our climate and keeps locals in jobs.

We used dune for our fascia, Windows and verandah posts with woodland grey gutter and roof. I have to say I have been a little disappointed with it as once it got a bit dusty it didn't seem to have enough contrast anymore. Our house is red brick and I wish now I had have gone more in the white direction.

Definitely agree with Amber Tiles above. Natural stone will require continuous sealing over their lifetime but it is an easy process and well worth it. The efflorescence are unfortunately unavoidable if the salt is in your paver/concrete. Get on to the sealer straight away and it actually prevents it from coming out all over the place. Are you concreting in the pavers? There is different trains of thought on efflorescence. You can wait for it to come out or you can seal it straight up. If you wait you will have to acid wash them down and let them dry prior to sealing. You may end up doing this anyway. Efflorescence take elbow grease to get off. 1 part hydrochloric acid to 10 parts water usually, with a scrubbing brush. As it's acid make sure you follow the instructions to clean stone down. I had to increase the acid proportion 1/5 to get the efflorescence off. *** It can etch the paver so trial it first. If you have a heated gurney wash it down using that. Tip: get the acid off straight away and dont do it in full sun. The acid if left to dry can stain your limestone a rust colour. Do a meter at a time. Use a good penetrating sealer and make sure you keep the name for future sake. Depending on the look you like get the appropriate sealer ie natural, wet look etc. Again, trial it first to see if its what you like. As for fence, monument is an awesome colour. Will bring the look of space in. Will be a big job. Are you doing this? Monument is a Colorbond colour. Nearly all brands of paint do it but each brand has a slightly different pigment base. If you do go this way, see if you can find out what brand your builders used and use the appropriate outdoor wood fence monument paint so the base pigment is the same. I hope this helped. Anneke

we buy our own paint and our tradesman paints it on...You have every right to expect him to use the products you want but i would ask why he prefers a particular brand and insist that unless he can make sure that the colour is exactly matched he needs to change brands (or you may need to change painters) why not check directly with your local specialist paint shop to compare the colour, the differences in the brands in quality and price....if your painter has quoted on the whole job including paint he may be getting a trades discount for using his preferred paint but if you only have to pay for his labour you might pay more for your choice of paint but you will have exactly what you want