Posts by Joe Mason

To paint kitchen cupboards properly, take the doors off, clean every trace of grease from them, key the surface with a light sand, and prime with an adhesion primer before applying two or more thin coats of a hard-wearing cabinet or trim paint. The order is not optional. Kitchen cupboards are the hardest-working painted surface…

The reliable way to choose paint colours is to test them properly in the actual room before you commit, because a colour on a small card or a phone screen tells you very little about how it will look on your wall. Buy sample pots of your shortlist, paint large patches, and look at them…

If you are looking for painters in Ashford, the most useful thing to know is that Ashford is not one kind of decorating job but several, so the painter worth hiring is the one who asks what sort of property you have before quoting. A brand-new home on one of the town’s large new estates,…

The best way to paint doors is to prepare the surface properly, remove the door furniture, and apply two or more thin coats of a durable trim paint rather than one thick one, always laying off in the direction of the grain. On a panel door the order matters as much as the technique. Paint…

If you are looking for painting and decorating services in Gravesend, Kent, the most important thing is choosing a decorator who understands how varied the town’s housing is, because Gravesend covers almost the entire range of British property in a small area. A Georgian house in the old town, a Victorian terrace near the centre,…

To paint around light switches neatly, you have two options. You can mask the faceplate with low-tack tape and cut in carefully with a small angled brush, or you can isolate the power at the consumer unit, ease the faceplate forward a few millimetres, and paint behind its edge. Whichever you choose, never paint over…

To stop paint streaks on walls, keep a wet edge as you work, load the roller properly so you are never spreading paint too thin, and apply at least two full coats rather than stretching one. Most streaking is not a paint fault. It is caused by the roller drying out partway across the wall,…

If you are looking for painting and decorating in Hythe, the most important thing is finding a decorator who understands coastal and period property, because Hythe has a great deal of both. A repaint that would last a decade on a sheltered inland house behaves very differently a few streets back from an exposed seafront,…

So, What Paint Do Professionals Use UK Professional decorators in the UK almost always use trade paint rather than the retail versions sold in DIY stores. The names that turn up most often on site are Dulux Trade, Johnstone’s Trade, Crown Trade, Leyland Trade and Armstead, with Zinsser for primers and problem surfaces, Tikkurila or…

So, What Should You Look For In Decorators In Kent When you are choosing decorators in Kent, three things decide whether the work still looks right in five years. How much preparation the quotation actually covers, whether the decorator has worked on your type of property before, and whether you have been given a fixed…