About

Most of what makes a painted room look right is decided before the first coat goes on. A finish can only be as good as the surface beneath it, and a surface can only be judged in the light the room actually receives. So we begin by looking: at the substrate and the condition of the existing paint, at how the room is used, and at where the light falls across it through the day.

From that survey we write a specification, setting out the surfaces, the preparation each one needs, the products, the number of coats and the sheen. You know what is being done and why, and so does everyone working in the house. We would rather spend longer at the survey than discover halfway through a job that a wall needs replastering or a sash needs a joiner.

Preparation is the greater part of the work, and it is where a finish succeeds or fails. Walls are washed down and lightly abraded to give the new paint a key. Cracks are raked out rather than filled over, and filler is built up in thin layers and sanded flat, so that nothing reappears when low sun crosses the wall. Bare timber is knotted and primed, new plaster is given a mist coat, and failing paint on doors and sashes is taken back to a sound edge.

In older houses we assume nothing. Earlier layers of paint may contain lead; lime plaster needs a finish that lets it breathe; a hairline crack in a cornice can be the visible end of a longer movement. Each is understood before it is covered. There is more on this in why preparation matters and on our preparation page.

Good decorating is a series of small, deliberate decisions. The order in which the parts of a panelled door are painted, so that no wet edge dries against another. Where the cutting-in line sits on a cornice. When to brush and when to spray, and how to keep a sprayed finish from looking out of place in a period room. How long to leave one coat before the next, which depends on the product, the temperature and the air rather than on the programme.

None of this is visible when it is done well. It shows only when it is done badly: brush marks across a stile, a ridge along an architrave, a ceiling that flashes where it was patched. We aim for rooms in which you notice the colour and the light, not the paint.

We choose products for the surface in front of us rather than out of habit. Lime plaster, old distemper, new gypsum, softwood joinery, hardwood doors and painted stucco each behave differently, and each needs a coating system that suits it: sometimes breathable, sometimes hard-wearing, often a balance of the two. Where an architect or designer has specified a manufacturer or a colour, we work to it, and we will say plainly if we think a product is wrong for the surface it is meant for.

Paint is only part of it. Fillers, primers, abrasives and brushes all leave their mark on a finish. We follow each manufacturer’s data sheet for preparation, drying and recoat times, and allow for the conditions on the day.

We work in homes that are lived in, often around families, collections and other trades, and we behave accordingly. Floors, stairs and furniture are protected before preparation begins, and the protection is checked as the work moves through the house. Dust is controlled at source, rooms are left orderly at the end of each day, and working hours, access and any rooms that are out of bounds are agreed before we start.

Period houses ask for particular care. We do not remove original features without asking, we point out anything that needs a specialist, and we treat a Victorian cornice or a Georgian shutter as something to be kept, not something to paint around.

When the work is complete, we walk through it with you in daylight, room by room, and put right anything that is not as it should be. We leave you a written record of the colours, products and sheens used in each room, so that touching up or matching in later is a matter of reference rather than guesswork.

A well-decorated room should age slowly and evenly. That is what all the detail is for. You can see some of the homes we have worked on in Residences.