When you are next thinking of colours to paint your lounge etc, avoid the crowds by going online either to Farrow and Ball’s colour palette, or to the Dulux Colour Palette page.

Dulux will mail individual colour chips to your house free of charge, Farrow and Ball will send you their colour card and catalogue free of charge.

Here is the ultimate source for free colour cards from various paint companies.

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When you have narrowed down the colours you like, before you go ahead and buy the paint, you are best advised to see what the paint actually looks like in different parts of the room at different times of the day.

If you are choosing Farrow and Ball or Dulux paints, and you are in the vicinity of SK10, one easy option is to email me the paint colour reference numbers, and I will prepare three 2’6″‘ x 2′ samples for you – and bring them to your home.

There is a basic charge of £3.25 per colour (3 samples per colour), payable COD.

When you have decided on the colours, you can go to the Dulux Centre in Macclesfield and buy your paint at my cost price (quote reference ANDY CRICHTON at the counter), or purchase Farow and Ball paint from either the showroom in Wilmslow or Knutsford or from HomeBase in Macclesfield.

Paint prices seem to be rising daily, but I have recently negotiated a good deal with the Dulux Centre in Macclesfield Up until Christmas, you can buy Dulux trade paints at my cost price – which is about 20% off the retail sticker price!

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Quote ANDY CRICHTON at the counter and you will be entitled to the following cash deals: (Prices include VAT)

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There is no restriction on how much paint you can buy. There are no catches, it is not a sneaky way of getting your contact details, just a promotion to raise awareness of my business – and keep you away from B&Q hell!

Ingrid has a natural eye for colour. Online colour advice is the way ahead, just £45 for a colourpalette for your next decorating project, or she can come to your home, and talk to you to find out the colours, wallpapers, fabrics that YOU like. She will then suggest the best colours and patterns to fit in with your current furniture, carpet and curtains, send you all the info you need to refer to so that shopping for accessories etc can be fun not fraught.

To be clear, there is no obligation to use my decorating services, but I do offer free quotes if you were interested in having an expert do the painting work for you.

Over the past year, I have hand-painted several fitted kitchens and many pieces of free-standing furniture for customers. Painting tired but sound furniture in traditional colours is a cost-effective alternative to scrapping and replacing!

After looking on eBay at the questionable quality of DIY hand-painted shabby chic style furniture, I have decided to open an online store known as Cheshire Painted Furniture Co. and try raise the bar a little bit. It is now up and running, just, and eventually…

1- You will be able to choose from a stock of reasonably priced hand-painted wooden furniture that has been restored and properly painted in traditional fashion by a master craftsman – me!

2 – You can choose a piece of unpainted wooden furniture from the store, or bring me a piece of furniture, and I will paint it to your colour specification.

As always, if you need advice on what colours will best suit your current décor, contact Ingrid for expert colour advice.

Businesses react in different ways to the current economic climate, cutting staff, cutting prices, altering their level of service… Personally, I am looking to build up a decorating business that offers the very best service, and no recession will make me drop my standards. Quite the opposite, I aim to make sure my service improves wherever possible, so that I am in full flow when the economy improves.

In recognition of the hard times though, I will keep my labour rates unchanged until June 2010. That means my labour rates will stay at 15.00 / hour for general decorating, and 20.00 / hour for specialist painting work – and if I want to earn more money, I will have to work more hours, not cut corners!

Although I cannot control the price of materials, which seem to rise a bit too often, I have managed to negotiate better rates with Dulux, and am passing those savings on to clients until Christmas. (See above for the Dulux promotion). Every bit helps.

Sanding down old paintwork seems to be a dying art for some decorators in these parts. Being an old school craftsman, this is a bit worrying, as sanding is the most important part of a painting job, ensuring a durable and smooth finish. Cutting out this stage of the work part explains how some decorators make their money on “competitive” prices!

Apart from rubbing down “too much”, another sad affliction of mine is always being on the look out for the next big thing in sandpaper! And I have found it…

The company that manufactures Abranet abrasives were not kidding when they said that every tradesman they have given samples to has become an instant convert. The high tech sanding net produces a perfectly smooth finish on the roughest or the most delicate surfaces, and quickly.

The cleverest part (and more pertinent to customers) is the lack of dust it creates! When sanding walls and flat surfaces, I connect my sanding block to a vacuum and it takes out about 90% of the dust out the air. Even without a vacuum, the dust forms into big lumps that fall straight to the ground rather than linger in the air. It makes such a difference to you and me, and the days of dust clouds, thick layers of dust everywhere, and dust masks are long gone.