Blog
How to restore glass panel doors
Looking closely around the home, you will see that many 15-pane glass panel doors need restoring rather than just painting! This looks OK from a distance through a groggy camera lense, but it is a horror show that some poor homeowner actually paid good money for. When glass is poorly bedded in silicone, when the [...]
MoreTrimaco green masking tape
Trimaco do a massive range of masking tape, masking paper, protective plastic, tape dispensers. This Trimaco green masking tape is about 70% on the high tack scale. And is good for 7 days. For masking along the edge of carpets against the baseboard / skirting, the green Trimaco tape seems equal in stick and usefulness [...]
MoreProfessional tips on how to hand-paint kitchens
(First posted on my Posterous blog) The basic challenge for professional kitchen painters is to achieve a flawless hand-painted finish. You can do this by paying a lot of attention to cleanliness, employing a careful and logical painting technique and drawing on a mindset that pulls you through hours and hours of concentrated effort. It [...]
MoreRefurbish kitchens : alternative approaches
When considering a kitchen refurbishment or kitchen makeover, there is a lot to think about. Even with clearly defined aims, there are several alternative ways to get there. At some stage, we have all been inspired by (or envious of) glossy scenes of designer kitchens. (Here is a drooling set of pictures of hand-painted kitchen [...]
MorePictures of hand-painted kitchen ideas
If you are searching for ideas and pictures of hand-painted kitchens, here is a brilliant resource from Channel 4homes. 66 real world hand-painted kitchen ideas What are you drawn towards? Reference material for your next kitchen refurbishment project The style possibilities are endless for new tiles, worktops, handles, flooring, new units, sinks… let alone paint [...]
MoreRefurbish a kitchen, the options.
The kitchen is the hub of the home for many, and secretly, could always do with more storage, a smarter layout, or be a different colour… But looking at it financially, practically, and environmentally, throwing out a pretty decent kitchen and fitting a brand new custom kitchen is rightly the last thing on many people’s [...]
MoreHow do you paint pine furniture?
When it comes to preparing pine furniture for painting, if you want a professional looking finish, there is no choice: it should be done to the best of your ability. When deciding which primers and finish paint to use on pine furniture, there is choice. Oil based or water based, or a combination of the [...]
MoreClasses in decorative paint finishes in Perth, Scotland
The Carte Blanche workshop in Perth, Scotland, is where working professionals, Cait and Gibson, give classes in decorative paint finishes. Techniques include graining, marbling, and faux wall finishes. Classes are suitable for professional decorators and keen DIY painters, artists. Cait Whitson, who is one of the trusted specialist kitchen painters I have listed on this [...]
MoreWordPress for Android
I Googled, “WordPress for Android” to see if the specialist painters listed on the Traditional Painter website could use their Android phones to upload images to the gallery on their profile pages. All I can see on page 1 of the search results is a bunch of unoriginal rehashed press releases from experts who don’t [...]
MoreHow do I paint a laminate kitchen?
I received this email from a keen DIY homeowner who wants to upgrade their laminate kitchen with a hand-painted finish. It raises some issues and concerns that turn up regularly in my Inbox, so I thought the conversation would be worth posting – with the questioner’s agreement of course. I am about to redecorate my [...]
MoreBlogging puts painters and decorators on map
Blogging is one way that painters and decorators can get themselves and their website on the map, so to speak. Pick a topic you are expert on, and write about it, add photos, keep it real! Google indexes the topic and serves your blog post to the public in the search results. If it is [...]
MoreBest paint brushes – Wooster Alpha update plus …
I have talked about the best paint brush on the market before. Wooster Alpha, Picasso, Picasso, Wooster Alpha…They still stand. And just to add a bit of colour to the mix, there is a master painter in Marlborough who reckons he has found the best brush ever for high end painting kitchen cabinets with water-borne [...]
MorePaint a wooden boat
In 2007, I had the pleasure of reviving this 45 year-old Angelman wooden ketch. The boat’s mahogany hull, and spruce masts and bowsprit were stripped back to bare wood and restored to their former glory with high specification marine paint and traditional materials. This is how I did it. No pressure, but it has to [...]
MoreColour advice: best from paint colour consultant?
I often receive this sort of email asking for colour advice: I am moving into a new house and with 2 young boys am going to use the Ultimatt for its keep clean quality. I was hoping within this range you could recommend a warm neutral for the lounge and hall and a warm blue [...]
MoreRefresh website – it’s that time
I have been refreshing this website recently to accomodate “progress”, but I have realised that you have to be careful, if you are a bit on the creative side. It is easy to get carried away and forget the point of changes. Don’t want to end up with a site looking like this cluster: I [...]
MoreMirka CEROS sander for conscientious painters & decorators
The Mirka CEROS sander uses revolutionary Abranet abrasives, and connects to a vacuum, extracting about 95% of the dust from source. This combination of sander, hi-tech abrasive and vacuum extraction ensures cleaner work areas and improved quality of preparation work, especially on ceilings and walls – what’s not to like?! What’s not to like about [...]
MoreMarketing idea for painters and decorators
Website, SEO and keyword stuff can be a bit baffling, but this is a dead simple but powerful marketing idea for all painters and contractors with a blog. Pick a particular article you are proud of, and send the following email to the companies or experts mentioned or linked to in your article… Hi this [...]
MorePressure paint roller
Update I have been looking over a house re-decorating job that involves painting about 1000m2 of ceiling and wall area. I am looking into the benefits of using a power roller to apply the paint to the walls. The fastest ways to apply paint to internal plastered walls and ceilings Depending on the size of [...]
MorePictures of hand-painted kitchens refurbished and new
Over the years I have painted a lot of kitchens. These are some examples to give an idea of the possibilities. Lacquered limed oak painted kitchen …. Neville & Johnson made top quality wooden kitchens before specialising in exclusive fitted furniture. This lacquered limed oak kitchen had been going strong for 15 years, but visually, [...]
MoreSpecialist kitchen painters v good general painters
I just completed a refurbishment of a big 15 year old dark oak Poggenpohl kitchen. The brief was to bring it up to date, and breathe new life into it by hand-painting the solid oak cabinets. I also had to replace the existing wooden handles with something more uplifting; to fill & repaint the walls [...]
MoreVideos for painters and decorators
I’ve learnt a lot from these Youtube painting and decorating videos. I hope you do too. (I am not the author btw, they are “favourites”!) TitleWet Sanding 3 Runtime2:23 Authortraditionalpainter Views10,888 DescriptionUsing the Mirka air DA sander and 2000 then 4000 grit Mirka Abralon sanding pads… TitleHow to paint a room in 7 minutes by [...]
Moresizing walls before papering
I’ve had a few enquiries recently, asking about the best product to size walls prior to hanging lining paper or wallpaper. I think this rush of interest may be related to reports that Dulux Decorator Centres are no longer stocking conventional glue size, due to lack of demand? If you have a lot of filler [...]
MoreOil based v acrylic eggshell
Most paint companies have oil based eggshell and acrylic based eggshell in their range. What are the differences between the two, which brands are best? Does it even matter that you can’t tell from the photo whether this door and frame were painted in acrylic or oil eggshell? There are endless debates about the pros [...]
MoreAdvice to painters on how to improve your website
They say a picture says a thousand words. Here is a 12-month history of the traffic that comes to this site. In a few words, this website was building gradually, attracting about 9000 views a month. In April 2011 I approached Darren Slaughter who is an expert in marketing for construction contractors, and had him [...]
MoreTeach painting versus sell painting
Matthew Evans at Welsh Heritage Decor put me on to a very inciteful post by Copy Collective called Why you should teach not sell! No surprise, I totally agree with that philosophy for promoting a business, whatever the field of endeavour. Why teach when you are supposed to sell? Nowadays people are bombarded with promotions, [...]
MorePainting kitchen cupboards Farrow and Ball
Here are answers to two perennial questions: 1 – Is Farrow and Ball paint suitable for kitchen cupboards? Basically this is a link to a very interesting thread that has a lot of input from folks who don’t know much about paint but demonstrate a lot about the marketing power of paint companies. ie home [...]
MorePoggenpohl kitchen refurbishment – Masking tape
I am currently refurbishing a Poggenpohl oak kitchen. It is 15 years old, very practical and built like the Bismarck, but it needs a facelift. The owners did not want to pay out a large 5-figure sum on a new kitchen which would essentially be a different colour but performed exactly the same job as [...]
MoreDust free sanding with Abranet
Mirka’s Abranet sanding system is almost, but not completely dust free. (When you sand a flat area, it is dust free, but as you near an edge, dust is pushed off the edge, beyond the reach of the suction.) This video shows a) how abrasive Abranet actually is. and b) how effective it is at [...]
MoreKitchen painters and decorators online
Most painters and decorators go through the motions of their job and when 5 o’clock comes, they switch off and that’s it till tomorrow. No interest in what’s going on in different areas of the trade, no clue what is happening in the US world of painting, or on sites in Scandinavia. Not everyone in [...]
MorePaint colour samples – good size
People don’t usually ask for colour advice, if they are good at visualising colour schemes. There are loads of colour cards available, but if it is not your thing, sifting through thousands of possibilities on a chip the size of a stamp can make it impossible to reduce the choice to one or two “perfect” [...]
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