Our Story

Robert “Bob’ Morgan comes from a family heavily involved in the building and construction industry with a great love of the arts. Bob initially persued a signwriting apprenticeship at the age of 15 and completed this at 19 years old. Once qualified, the attraction of restoration and building lead Bob to work for a company as a contractor repairing Victorian painted buildings in large restoration projects of Victorian period homes. A newfound love of the construction, painting and restoration meant Bob left the signwriting trade.

Bob headed overseas and worked one summer as a painter and decorator on multiple heritage projects in Boston USA, followed by a summer in the UK working as a painter on restoration of heritage homes. These experiences abroad gave Bob a greater love and appreciation for restoration and achieving peoples dreams through repainting their homes and businesses.

Upon returning to Melbourne, Bob completed a painting and decorating apprenticeship, he worked for a few years as a contractor, working with Wallpaper Specialists, Scaffolders and various forms of the painting industry. Bob then completed his third apprenticeship with a Certificate 4 in Plaster and Restoration Moulding, which included restoration of cornices, ceiling roses, mouldings and various exterior renders and solid plasters.

Bob’s dream of opening his own business Sublime Painting and Decorating came to life in 1997. Sublime Painting now works extensively with heritage projects, architectual new builds, commercial buildings, body corporate dwellings, insurance work with some of the leading insurance companies, real estate agents and landlords, wallpaper hanging and decorative practices. Bob was taught Wallpaper techniques by some old timers at a time when wallpapering was going out of fashion, however he did learn to love the old techniques and learnt the various styles of application and uses in cutting techniques. Bob is now at the forefront of wallpapering in its current state of revival.

Along the journey Bob and the team at Sublime Painting have the studied and mastered the additional skills required to complete jobs on time and under budget, these include first aid, working at heights, scaffolding, project management, site management, council liaison, architect and builder plaster restoration, colour consulting, inspections and quotations, basically becoming the complete package in painting and decorating.

Sublime are constantly learning and passing that knowledge on to all staff. By keeping up to date with new techniques and new materials, attending paint and decorating expos, researching new techniques and paint programs for architects and writing paint specification for some of Melbourne’s leading architects and builders. Robert has a firm belief in teaching the painting and decorating trade to the youth in the trade, continually striving to pass on skills to the next generation of apprentices that we employ.

Growing up in the Eastern suburbs, Robert has an appreciation for Edwardian and Period homes, having observed and being involved in multiple renovations throughout his childhood.