Before and after: how painting and decorating turned a run-down London house into a peaceful sanctuary

At the first viewing of their future family home in London, Monica and Leo were quite shocked.

The previous owner’s questionable colour choices were only the tip of the iceberg. The woodwork was badly damaged in many places with large cracks and chips, while old-fashioned plastic sockets mounted on the skirting board needed to be removed and large missing pieces filled. Working to a tight budget, they needed a professional London painting and decorating service to turn this nightmarish scene into a dream home.

We knew that this London project needed more than a fresh lick of paint. On our first site visit, the overall style of the house could have been best described as ‘abandoned circus tent.’ The client wanted nothing less than a perfectly relaxing sanctuary. Needless to say, our team was excited by the challenge and eager to give this young couple a fresh start. We  helped them to revive the property through painting and decorating, wiping the slate clean so that they could fill it with furniture and art suited to their style.

I like bright and light interiors so I knew I wanted all the colours to be whites, off-whites and very light beiges, but choosing just the right shade s was still a case of trial and error. Painting and decorating isn’t easy, especially in gloomy London where you really need that extra touch of warmth in your home. The painters and decorators did a great job at helping me choose the perfect shade. I never knew there were so many shades of white, and that they can look so different depending on the location of the room!

We choose Farrow and Ball’s ‘All White’ for the hallway on the walls, woodwork and ceiling. We went for ‘Slipper Satin’ on the living room walls, which is a bit warmer, but we kept the woodwork and the ceiling ‘All White’ to tie the rooms together. This was the Good Painter’s idea and it worked really well! Upstairs we have a mixture of ‘Shaded White’ in the north-facing bedrooms and ‘Strong White’ in the south-facing bedrooms. The painters and decorators were very helpful when it came to sampling – they painted large samples of colour for us in each room so we could go back at different times of the day to see how they looked.

Painting and decorating can sound daunting, especially in London, but you don’t need to give up a lot of your time and energy to live in a lovely space. Follow your own style and heart when it comes to redecorating your home. You shouldn’t let anyone tell you what your space should look like. We are very happy with the result; if we look around our home now, it seems like it’s always been this way. All the colours, surfaces and decorations look just like they should, so we can concentrate on what’s important: enjoying it!