Decorators tips: How to hang your Christmas decorations.
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…
Decorating tips – and some new words
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….
What Adam and Eve got up to on your roof with a ladder
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…
‘My Son used my iPhone as a hammer’
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…
Batman in your bedroom?
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…
The view from your back garden…
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…
PROCRASTINATION (what’s that got to do with decorating?)
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…
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…
To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail
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…
What to watch out for after all this rain
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…
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…
Preparing for Christmas – grab our elves fast!
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…
Restoring old paint finishes and choice of paint for exteriors
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…
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,…
Picasso and your house paint
Did you know that Picasso used regular house paint for many of his most famous paintings?Apparently this has been a source of argument between art historians for years, but it was recently settled by scientists in the US. They used a high-energy X-ray instrument called an x-ray nanoprobe to examine tiny pieces of paint –…
Hope I’m not talking rot…..
It’s summer, so I thought I’d write about wet rot. Poor preparation and painting (and neglect) of timber door and window frames is bad news for your property, but it’s good news for fungi. Poor painting means your wood gets wet, and wet wood gives fungus both a hearty meal and a cosy home. In…
Oikodomophobia – a new word
It was a new word for me as well! It means “The condition which leaves millions of people in fear of dealing with cowboy tradesmen. Six in 10 people claim to suffer from the condition when forced to negotiate with plumbers, builders and roofers for a job on their property —Fear of rogue tradesmen” according to…
Things you didn’t know about painting
What is a good painter? Having worked in the industry for more years than I care to think about, and having nothing better to do, I recently ended up studying a bit about marine painting. It is probably the most critical type of painting because if done badly the hull can rust and the ship…
What BluTak does to your walls
I sat down to write a calm informed article about BluTak, and why it is the Devil’s work when it comes near nicely painted interior walls. And what did I find, dear reader, in a quick Google search: a Council Health & Safety order banning use of BluTak on windows in a Scottish school on…
Care of paintwork and cleaning walls
I’m often asked how to look after indoor paintwork and keep it free of grubby finger-marks and general minor scuffs. My first response (“ask your wife to do it”) used to be appreciated by married men but all it gets me now is an elbow in the ribs from Mrs. Parvin. So here is a…
How to tell if it’s time for repainting
Here in the South we seem to be moving towards Spring, despite the pictures I saw of cars in Yorkshire stranded in the snow. It’s a good time of year to take stock of a home and look at what jobs will need to be done, including decorating jobs of course. External paintwork What should you look for…
Decorator's tips | Exterior decorating | Painting and Decorating London | Property Renovation London
Avoiding home damage from the cold
This kind of weather makes people worry about everything from burst pipes to collapsing roofs. It also makes my workmen fight over who gets to work in the warmest houses. But there are points to watch out for in a cold snap that could save nasty bills later, so I thought I’d pass on what…
A Nice offer for the New Year
After surviving Christmas a lot of people seem to celebrate with a home makeover, or at least a fresh coat of paint. And we’re happy to oblige. Remember, we’ve got through midwinter and it’s all downhill from here to Spring and Summer. Sunrise is one whole minute a day earlier at the moment! And since…
Some Christmas decorating tips from your decorator
I love Christmas. My wife’s name is Holly, after all. But I lose sleep at the thought of all the lovely paintwork my men have done being wrecked by sellotape and blu-tack. So, if you’ll allow me, I have some suggestions on how to hang things without wrecking the lovely job my men did. They…
The Winter Decorating yips
I’m sure when I was a lad I was told that things are supposed to wind down for the Christmas holidays. Just one of those things, like it always rains for Wimbledon. Not any more though. I came up with all sorts of explanations but none of them really make much sense. The fact is,…
Favourite cleaning job : the oven!
What’s your least favourite cleaning task? The toilet has to be up there, but top of the list on a recent survey was cleaning the oven: 40% of people named it as their worst household chore. Cleaning the toilet, if you’re interested, came in second with 18%. With that in mind, here are a few…
London Interior Decorating
Hello again. So it seems that Twilight isn’t only taking over the silver screens… it is also taking over our homes. No, Robert the vampire wolf guy – or whatever he is, isn’t going to be showing up, so keep your knickers on. The Autumn trends are here, and twilight colours are the new thing….
cleaning tips for the winter
Around this time of year people start looking at how to make the most of their home for the winter. The prospect of relatives coming for the Christmas break and more time indoors, perhaps. It’s a busy time for us decorators, though. I thought you might appreciate some unusual cleaning tips, while you’re thinking about…
How to pick the perfect colour
One of the biggest problems that people have when deciding to get their home re-decorated is picking a colour scheme for the rooms in question. They go and get all the different colour charts from Dulux, or Crown, or Farrow and Ball, but can’t always decide what to do, and often seek my advice, as…