CAL Painters & Decorators

I expect you have noticed the plethora of articles and blogs about the best/worst things of the decade that have been appearing since the turn of the year.

Not wishing to buck the trend, here are 10 of the worst decorating trends, according to Ideal Homes anyway!

1. ‘Live, Love, Laugh’. Fun for a while, perhaps, but the phrase has definitely outstayed its welcome.
2. Glass block bathroom windows. Glass blocks in bathrooms, either as windows or shower curtains, are now more eyesore than eye-catching.
3. Bean bag chairs. Oh so trendy for a time in the 2010s. Then people tried getting out of them…
4. Rustic hearts. You know what I mean, those twigs that accompanied the shabby chic phase. Guaranteed to snag your clothes.
5. Furniture stencils. Another part of the shabby chic trend, stencilled drawers or cupboard doors now simply say ‘dated’.
6. Mason jars. Not the worst offender, perhaps, but totally ubiquitous as they double up as candle holders, flower jars and even terrariums. 
7. Chevrons. Shout out to the chevron – featured on everything from flooring to cushions. And you wondered why you got those headaches on the 2010s? 
8. Chalkboards. Either as featured boards or even an entire wall, this seemed such a good idea to encourage free drawing and list making. Now looks, well, untidy.
9. Acrylic furniture. Everything from nests of tables to dining room chairs was acrylic and appeared contemporary and chic. Now seems cheap, even though it wasn’t!
10. Vintage frames with nothing in them. Why?

Apologies to anyone who has any of these features in their homes. After all, what do I know?

Checkatrade recently conducted nationwide research to see what UK homeowners are thinking about the current housing market, what with the election and Brexit looming.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority (68%) of homeowners are expecting to be staying put for the next year at least. Some 51% are considering carrying out renovations to their property.

This led Checkatrade to ask property experts to suggest which home renovations would be most likely to help sell a home. The message was loud and clear.

Renovate the kitchen and bathroom.

Buyers will often look to negotiate the price of a property down if the bathroom or kitchen needs replacing. Not only that, but their estimates of how much the work would cost are usually far too high.

This being the case, it makes absolute sense for the homeowner to grasp the nettle and have the work done before putting the property on the market. Having said that, the experts added that any such renovations should be to a reasonably high specification.

If you are in the Gloucestershire area and are considering kitchen or bathroom renovations, then I can provide the expert painting and decorating to provide a professional finish. Give me a call today on 01452 540067 to find out how I can help you.

Unlike many technical trades, hanging wallpaper is something that many people think they can do themselves. In most cases, they succeed but I can always tell if a professional was involved or not.

There are notoriously tricky areas of a room, such as chimney breasts and shelves, that need to be tackled properly. That’s before you consider how to approach a hall, stairs and landing. Even a light switch or power point can provide problems for the inexperienced decorator!

As with most decorating tasks, getting the preparation right is a major factor. With wallpapering you will also need to do some thorough research to ensure you have the right paste for your wallcovering.

Paste the paper or paste the wall? Well, it all depends…

But why submit yourself to the stress and strains of DIY paper hanging when you can get a professional in the do an expert job in half the time?

f you are looking for a decorating professional in Gloucestershire, give me a call today on 01452 540067. 

If you read my blogs regularly you will know that I am a stickler for good preparation and workmanship.  This is most certainly the case with one of our most valuable tools – the humble paintbrush.

Brushes should be cleaned immediately after you have stopped painting.  If possible wipe as much excess paint from the brush onto rags or newspaper.

Some decorators leave their brushes in a bucket of cold water.  By far the better method for brushes which have been using water-based paints is to pop them under a tap running slightly warm.  Ideally add a little Fairy Liquid or similar.

If you have been using oil based paints, put on a pair of household rubber gloves and pour some white spirit into a paint kettle or bowl. Dip the brush in and work the white spirit into the bristles well. Then repeat in clean white spirit until the liquid remains fairly clear.

I am always interested in the many different shades of colours and constantly on the lookout for new tones.

Recently I came across a fascinating blog from Ingid Sundberg.  Ingrid is a children’s book illustrator.  She found simple words like blue or red didn’t encapsulate the shades she was visualising so she began collecting words associated with different tones of colour.

From this she has developed a fantastic infographic chart to identify the multitude of colours of the rainbow, grouped into major colours such as yellow or green.

There are some pretty surprising things to find.  For instance, I always thought ‘mustard’ and ‘Dijon mustard’ tasted pretty similar.  However, they have a subtly different appearance according to Ingrid’s chart.

Also she defines ‘lemonade’ as a shade of pink rather than the perhaps more obvious yellow.  And wait until you see the different shades of black she has identified!

Follow this link to view Ingrid’s complete thesaurus of colour:

http://ingridsundberg.com/2014/02/04/the-color-thesaurus/

This is a public blog so I assume we can use the link?  Also if you could lift one or two of the charts it would look really good.