Want to see our stunning colours in person?
Note: In an outdoor environment, concrete products naturally develop a patina over time, which enhances their appearance and adds to their timeless appeal. While the colour swatches above and our small-format paving samples provide a good representation of our colour palette, it is important to note that there may be a slight colour variation between the samples and the actual colour of your finished products.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the different finishes available?
Anston's standard, most popular finish for all our concrete products is a shot-blasted finish, which highlights the beautiful, sensuous texture of concrete.
Customers can select from a light, medium or heavy level of shot-blasting. Light blasting results in a smoother texture and heavy blasting results in a rougher, grittier textured finish.
For products made using our EcoPebble, Ironstone or Mineral Range colours, a heavier level of blasting will reveal more of the stone aggregate in the mix.
Certain products in our range of concrete furniture, bollards, and planters, customers can be produced in a smooth, off-mould/off-form finish. This finish is achieved when products are stripped out of the moulds with no further treatments applied to the surface. This creates a very industrial visual style and is most suited to large-format, flat edged products as opposed to curved products, due to the presence of visible seam lines from the moulds.
Certain products can be further enhanced with a honed finish, where the surface of a shot-blasted product is ground to remove the roughness of the shot-blasted texture. This achieves a silky smooth finish that is pleasing to the touch.
Honed furniture products can be treated a step further to produce a polished finish, which uses finer grits to grind the surface, making it even smoother with a shiny, glossy appearance.
Anston's standard product pricing includes a off-mould or shot-blasted finish. Additional fees apply for honing and polishing.
Will my products be uniform in appearance?
Compared to natural stone products, concrete pavers offer much more uniformity from paver to paver. However, there will still be some slight variation in the paved surface, and pavers will never be identical.
Pavers and products made from our exposed aggregate concrete mixes (i.e. Ironstone, EcoPebble, Mineral ranges) will not produce the exact same amount of visible aggregates per product, due to the random distribution of aggregate material throughout the concrete during the manufacturing process. Hence, some products may appear to have more exposed aggregate than others. This is a typical characteristic of our exposed aggregate mix designs.
The finished shot-blasted concrete surface of our products usually reveals some small air pockets or bubbles - this is a natural feature that adds to the texture and raw beauty of concrete.
Can Anston make custom colours?
Yes, Anston can assist customers with custom colours and concrete mix designs. Mix designs can be customised by using different base colours or aggregate materials to set them apart from standard colour mixes.
If the design intent requires a pigmented colour outside the spectrum of natural, earthy colours (i.e. vivid reds, blues or greens), it will require the addition of coloured oxides.
Changing the aggregates within a concrete mix design also provides a unique way to customise the colour and overall appearance of a product. Alternative aggregates we have used in the past include crushed red brick, coloured glass fragments and miniature seashells.
It is important to understand that the addition of oxides or special aggregates can lead to a significant increase in product cost and lead times, due to the sourcing of materials and to enable an iterative development process.
Do you offer colour matching of existing paving?
No, Anston does not offer colour matching. Due to concrete's propensity to change and weather in the outdoor environment, it is virtually impossible to produce an exact match of new paving with old. The longer the paving has been installed, the more it will have been subjected to dirt and grime build-up, weather conditions and general wear and tear.
Even if sand and stone materials are sourced from the same quarry, the nature of these organic raw materials makes them prone to variation over time, which can present as changes in colour. Furthermore, Anston's concrete mix designs have been continuously developed and refined over our many years of operation. Thus, a batch of Murray paving produced in 2025 is likely to look quite different to a Murray paver that was produced 20 years prior.
If you are hoping to match an existing paving installation, our recommendation is to track down the name of the product colour if possible, and to choose a colour from our existing range that best matches the current appearance of your installed pavers.
For a physical colour comparison, contact us to arrange an appointment at our showroom, or order colour samples here.