If lockdown ends, the house guests are coming. Better get ready now…..
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If lockdown ends, the house guests are coming. Better get ready now…..

All the talk is about coming out of lockdown. When that happens, beware: house guess can’t be far behind. Stock up on biscuits – and what about the paintwork? We’ve all had it easy for a year but golly – with foreign holidays off the agenda, redecorating looks like the thing for 2021. Beat the…

Anti-COVID Paint? Could be….
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Anti-COVID Paint? Could be….

It’s probably not going to solve the worldwide coronavirus problem overnight, but it’s good to see some developments that look as if they will help. In May of this year some of the world’s leading coatings specialists gathered (virtually) at the Royal Society of Chemistry, in collaboration with the British Coatings Federation, to discuss how…

Redecorate, or move to Hartlepool: your choice. How the housing market affects Londoners
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Redecorate, or move to Hartlepool: your choice. How the housing market affects Londoners

he UK property market is breaking records since the end of lockdown. ‘Sales agreed’ across the country from mid-July to mid-August add up to more than £37 billion. In London, instead of the usual summer slowdown. we’ve had the highest number of homes being put up for sale since March 2008. Rightmove say they are seeing a…

Is it worth paying more for Farrow & Ball?
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Is it worth paying more for Farrow & Ball?

It’s a question that comes up frequently. With Farrow & Ball paints often costing twice or three times as much as comparable Deluxe and Crown paints – both good quality brands – is it really worth paying the extra? Will you be able to tell the difference? From a professional decorator’s viewpoint, here’s what I…

Take your seats for the Colour of the Year 2019
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Take your seats for the Colour of the Year 2019

Forget Brexit. Forget the Party Conferences. The real news of the week is next year’s Dulux Colour Of The Year. Now it may be easy to get a cheap laugh at the expense of the people whose job it is to entice us with new colours that reflect our collective subconscious hopes, ambitions and fears. (That,…

Choosing white paint – simple, surely?
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Choosing white paint – simple, surely?

Recently we’ve seen some customers getting very creative with their use of different shades of white and it got me thinking. Always dangerous. It won’t surprise you to hear that white is the most popular paint colour. But white comes in a wide range of shades – even “Pure Brilliant White” can vary considerably between manufacturers. Here’s…

If the dog tells your child to write on your wall, can you blame grandma?

If the dog tells your child to write on your wall, can you blame grandma?

I’ve always thought the biggest danger to interior walls comes from, well, accidents. People like me trying to put up shelves, or spilling a glass of wine when England score a penalty. Not a bit of it. It’s children. They make you and me look like amateurs. And London kids are among the worst. Insurance…

Redecorating boosts your house value – but what colours sell best?
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Redecorating boosts your house value – but what colours sell best?

When I was just a lad, I convinced my Dad to let me decorate my own room. Today, as my bank account waves farewell to yet another mortgage payment, I spare my Dad a thought as I think what the orange wallpaper and purple paint did to the value of the family home. Regular readers…

The prettiest way to add £40,000 to your property value
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The prettiest way to add £40,000 to your property value

I was pleased to see a story in the Daily Telegraph comparing various home improvements, and estimating the added value each of them puts on your property. Yes, it’s official – decorating is one of the most cost-efficient ways of adding property value. The online tool takes your property value, the amount you might spend…

Apparently we all secretly want to paint our houses lime green and fuscia
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Apparently we all secretly want to paint our houses lime green and fuscia

Choice of colour is – excuse me – something of a grey area. We’ve all been told for years that we have to paint our houses in neutral colours if we ever want to sell them. But some new research seems to suggest that we’ve all been repressing the urge to splash out in the…

How to clean paintwork – a useful email, at last
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How to clean paintwork – a useful email, at last

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…

Our decorating featured in The Resident magazine
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Our decorating featured in The Resident magazine

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…

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It’s officially (nearly) spring. What colours are we picking this year?

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…

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What goes into your housepaint?

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…

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Oh dear! More things we didn’t know about the colours we paint our houses

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…

What you didn’t know about paint colours
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What you didn’t know about paint colours

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…

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And the best colour to paint your room for a sexy time is …

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,…

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Painting and Decorating Shabby Chic

Ok, So the most up and coming thing nowadays seems to be Shabby Chic… Most of you may be wondering what this is, to men it means ‘everything is painted white’ and to woman there is a whole other world to the white, there is Vanilla White, Cotton White, Violet White, Ivory Lace, Chalky White,…