Despite very strict planning laws, we’re famous in London for the way we put modernist buildings next to fabulous old buildings. Somehow, it all seems work. House prices have also driven owners to add extensions, often using the same mixture of new and old. Personally, I think it works very well most of the time….
Every year about this time, Dulux, issue their predictions for our colour choices in the coming year. We saw their presentations for 2016 at a briefing held at the McLaren motor centre in Woking, and when I could take my eyes off Jenson Button’s Formula 1 car there was some interesting news. Besides the colours, the…
Our good friends in the weather service are predicting plenty of rain and storms for this winter. No-one has ruled out a plague of woolly mammoths. The last really wet winter caused all manner of problems in properties across London, and this is the time of year to start preparing for the onslaught. Even a mild London…
Redecorating your home (or office) is going to involve a certain amount of disruption, like it or not. Good decorators* will keep it at a minimum, but I thought a planning checklist might be useful. It might help to give an idea of how much work will be needed, and how long it may take. (*The term…
There’s nothing as individual as choosing colours. You can get endless advice on the internet, not to mention friends and relatives. You might even appreciate some of it. As decorators we’ve learned to be careful about offering opinions – but it’s nice to know what is possible and what’s out there. Here are links to the…
(click on the photos to expand) We recently completed the decorating for a full refurbishment of the famous 1 Lombard Street, the Square Mile’s most established restaurant and arguably it’s best placed. The restaurant is sited in pole position next to Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London, and…
I like to think I’m a manly sort of man. I know which end of a screwdriver to hold, and I have plenty of good words for when electrical items don’t work. So I was drawn to a website called “The Art of Manliness” – just to see if they had it right, you understand….
I promised you a useful email, and at last here it is. We only deal with a better class of client, and we know you will want to treat our beautiful paintwork with the love it deserves after we have packed up and gone home. But accidents happen. In the photo above some child prodigy has…
I’m sorry about lowering the tone of my newsletters. I really, really try to make them informative and worth your while. But then someone presents me with information like this, and all my good intentions vanish in a puff of smoke. You may have seen my recent newsletter about painting with peanut butter. The client who asked us…
We get unusual requests from time to time. But this was probably the strangest. Someone wanted their room painted with Peanut Butter. We can usually tell when we’re being wound up, but it wasn’t April 1st – and this caller seemed to be completely serious. Yes, he said, he wanted real peanut butter. On the walls and…
Our recent redecoration of a beautiful family home in Kingston on Thames was featured by The Resident magazine. Owner Jacqualene chose light taupes and white to take full advantage of the light and modern interior, which has rooflights and floor-to-ceiling sliding glass panel walls in the large kitchen and living room. She chose a subtly…
We recently had the pleasure of completing a signature project, the refurbishment of Lindley Hall in Westminster. This classic Edwardian building is owned by the Royal Horticultural Society and used for a wide range of events. Dating back to 1904, the Hall is an echo of Britain at its finest. King Edward VII wanted the…
Sky-high house prices in London are resulting in a lot more home improvements. And we’re always happy to help. I happened to be looking at some old paint charts and thought it was interesting how much they reflect the times. The 1970’s look very strange – here’s the Dulux catalogue from 1975: And this shows the…
Feel a touch of Spring in the air? Just the tiniest whiff? As we move ever closer to Spring-cleaning time, a fresh crop of Dulux and Farrow & Ball colour charts have started to poke their heads though the snow. But since most of us spend our lives entirely surrounded by paint (yes, it’s everywhere…
Latest news suggests London house prices are cooling off – just a little. But for any of our customers who are not Russian billionaires (I know there are one or two of you) the news is not all bleak.If your thoughts are turning to home improvements, what better start to the New Year than a new…
Lesson One: hanging on brick walls Planning to decorate the house this year? Perhaps you like the understated elegance of this example? Even if you’re not so brave, I thought you might like a decorator’s tips on how to make decorations stay up without incurring a repair bill in the New Year, so here are some…
As I drive around London in my van I have to think about something. So what about this: Is there a collective noun for decorators? I sometimes use old-fashioned anglo-saxon words to talk about my workmen, but really they are warm and cuddly people. They deserve a proper collective noun, one that isn’t a swear-word….
I always thought it would be nice to have a roof garden. Somewhere to relax and maybe enjoy a frolic in the sun with the benefit of complete privacy. In my mind’s eye it would be something like this: Imagine my surprise when I took a ladder up to my roof and found that I already HAVE a…
School holidays apparently see a spike in insurance claims – kids cause an average £176 of home damage a year, according to insurance industry figures from Policy Expert. More than a quarter of this damage is caused to paintwork and interior décor. A survey of parents found that the top excuse for causing damage in…
If you want to get creative, read this first I read two stories about Star Trek themed houses this week. Both of them (surprise!) in the USA. One fan spent $300,000 on converting his New York basement into the bridge of the USS Enterprise. The other did an entire house in Florida. Surprisingly, at least one of…
One of these days I’m going to get lucky. I’ll get home early on Friday, the sun’s still shining on my garden, the barbecue has been lit & my favourite beverage is chilling gently in the fridge. I always seem to fall at the same hurdle; getting home early. But I’m working on it. But the view…
The great British Summer is threatening once more. With it come to mind all the wonderful things we’re going to accomplish this year, like losing those extra pounds ready for the beach (hmm… I may move that one down my list a little…) or getting those new wardrobes you’ve been talking about since you…
Sorry to keep coming back to this, but you might have seen my previous newsletter about green paint in bedrooms, and how it’s supposed to promote…well, let’s say, night-time exercise. Bad luck for the owner of this bedroom. And as we come to Easter it struck me that all the seasonal symbols – eggs, rabbits…
The quotation above is one of my favourites from Mark Twain. Working in the decorating industry, I see a lot of men with hammers. They’ll hit anything. So when salesmen urged half of London to replace old wooden doors with UPVC, they weren’t necessarily just thinking about the commission. I’m sure many of them genuinely believed in…
All this rain is causing damp problems to homes all over London, even in areas which have avoided flooding. I hope you’ve not had any serious damage, but I thought you might want to know the main things to watch out for. Water can get into walls through various ways, including: Cracked or missing roof tiles Gaps around door and window frames Breaks in…
I’m becoming an expert at boring people at parties. If you invited me round this Christmas, you’d probably regret it. It’s not as if I wander around Fulham watching paint dry, but my wife thinks I’ve been learning more about paint this year than is healthy. Take colours. There are two ways to pick your colours…
Crikey, it’s nearly Christmas already! The John Lewis TV ad has started, which I believe marks the official start of the Christmas season. Hollywood usually gets the blame for the modern Christmas, but did you know that Prince Albert invented Christmas trees here in London? Well, sort of. Queen Victoria and he set up a…
Sales of green paint have been going well since my last newsletter (in case you missed it, it’s supposed to be the paint equivalent of viagra). But I thought I should raise the tone a little. We sometimes find houses with old paint finishes that haven’t been redecorated since the 70’s, and often enough we…
Everyone knows the story about painting the Forth Road Bridge (by the time the painters reach one end they have to start again at the beginning). Here’s something I didn’t know: the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is painted in ‘International Orange’, but the US Navy originally wanted it in yellow and black stripes,…
