Painters and decorators in Tunbridge Wells
A-Z Decorators paints and decorates homes and businesses across Royal Tunbridge Wells and the villages around it, inside and out, with our work reaching on to Tonbridge and Sevenoaks. Our team has more than 30 years in the trade, and every job starts with a free, no-obligation quotation that sets out the materials, labour and time frame in writing.
Most people searching for a decorator in Tunbridge Wells are looking for the whole job rather than one service, and that is how we work. A house can have its rooms repainted, a feature wall papered, its windows and front door redone and its render refreshed, with the work planned so the house stays usable and the rooms you need most are finished first.
Tunbridge Wells has an unusually wide spread of homes, from Regency terraces and stuccoed villas to Victorian and Edwardian family houses and newer estates on the edge of town. Each needs a different approach, and we look at what the walls, woodwork and existing paint are made of before recommending anything.
How we paint and decorate a Tunbridge Wells home
Every job starts with preparation, because that is what decides how long the finish lasts. Floors and furniture are covered, walls and ceilings filled and sanded, woodwork rubbed down and primed, and old flaking paint scraped back. Our guide to preparing walls for painting goes through the same steps.
Inside, we paint walls, ceilings, staircases, doors and skirting in hard-wearing trade paints, working from the ceiling down so drips only land on surfaces that have not been finished yet. Our interior decorating page covers that side in detail, and our post on how to paint a ceiling without marks explains why ceilings take the most care.
Outside, we paint render, stucco, brick, weatherboarding, fascias, windows and doors, and our exterior decorating in Tunbridge Wells page goes into the outside of the house in more depth.
We also hang wallpaper, from lining paper to murals and feature walls, as our wallpapering page sets out, and take on bigger jobs such as an interior refurbishment, new coving and painted fitted furniture.
What can we provide?
We have been providing painting and decorating services throughout the local area for years.
Decorating period homes in Tunbridge Wells
The town's older streets are a big part of its character, and they need a careful hand.
Regency villas and stucco
Some of the town's best-known houses were built in the 1820s and 1830s. Historic England's record of Calverley Park and Calverley Grounds describes them as an early and influential example of the park suburb, villas in parkland designed by the architect Decimus Burton, with work beginning in 1828 and largely complete by 1839. Kent's historic environment record notes that the villas there are listed Grade II* and built of Tunbridge Wells stone.
Stucco and stone like this should not be sealed in with ordinary masonry paint. Historic England's advice on redecorating historic homes is that lime render and stucco may need a breathable coating such as limewash, and that painting brick, stone or concrete walls can create damp problems and is almost impossible to undo without damage. If your home is listed or in a conservation area, check with Tunbridge Wells Borough Council before changing the outside.
Victorian and Edwardian family houses
Many of the town's family homes have tall ceilings, original cornices, picture rails and panelled doors. Original features like these are worth keeping, and where a cornice is cracked, careful filling and repainting is usually all it needs. Old gloss on doors and skirting deserves a second look before sanding, because the British Coatings Federation says some paint supplied up until the 1990s may still contain lead.
Wallpaper in tall period rooms
High ceilings and long walls suit wallpaper, from a patterned paper above a picture rail to a mural on a chimney breast wall. The British Coatings Federation's wallpaper guidance explains that a pattern repeat can be as much as a metre, which adds rolls on a tall wall, and that every roll should carry the same batch number. It also says new plaster should be sized or left to dry for five to six weeks before papering, that any damp must be put right first, and that wallcoverings should never be hung over expanded polystyrene. In an older house with solid walls, we check for damp before anything goes up, and our post on painting over wallpaper helps when you are deciding between paper and paint.
Newer homes and first redecorations
Newer houses need patience rather than restoration. Fresh plaster has to dry out before its first proper redecoration, and fine settlement cracks are filled at that point, which our post on whether decorators can fix cracks and wall imperfections covers. Our guide to choosing paint colours helps when you are moving away from a builder's neutral.
Getting a quotation in Tunbridge Wells
You can see finished rooms and houses in our gallery, and everything else we offer is on our services page. To arrange your free quotation anywhere in Tunbridge Wells, contact us by phone, email or WhatsApp, or read what customers say about A-Z Decorators on Google.
