We decorate hallways, stairs and landings across Bellinge, about 3.5 miles east of Northampton town centre. Most homes on the estate are compact terraces with a narrow hall and stairs rising from the front door, so the work centres on wear-resistant finishes and safe access over a tight stairwell.
A staircase that starts at the doormat
The typical Bellinge home is a 1970s-80s terraced house built by Northampton Development Corporation. At the 2021 Census, 258 homes in the Bellinge-core statistical area were terraced. In that kind of house you open the front door and the stairs are right in front of you or along one wall, with a short hall running through to the kitchen or living room. It is a small space, but it is where everyone comes in with shopping, bikes, wet coats and school bags, so the lower walls and the first few feet of the stairwell take far more knocks than any other room.
That shapes what we suggest. In a Bellinge hall the priority is a wall paint you can wipe without burnishing it, and woodwork that stands up to being kicked. The look comes second, and in a space this small a light colour on the walls helps more than anything else.
Reaching the high wall in a compact stairwell
Terraced stairwells here are narrow, so a standard stepladder will not stand anywhere useful above the half-way point. We use a stair ladder with independently adjustable legs, or a stair platform with staging boards, set up to reach the tall wall over the flight and the landing ceiling. In a narrow terrace the kit has to be set up and moved in stages, so you will still be able to get up and down the stairs at the end of each day. The main hallway and stairs page covers the access equipment in more detail.
Getting that equipment in is part of the plan. Because the estate follows a Radburn layout, many front doors open onto footpaths in the courts rather than onto a drive, so ladders and boards are carried from shared parking. We keep the path outside clear while they are going in and out.
Matching the finish to each surface
| Surface | What happens to it in a Bellinge hall | What we usually use |
|---|---|---|
| Lower hall walls | Bag and shoulder marks, scrapes from pushchairs and bikes | A scrubbable matt or a soft eggshell |
| Stairwell wall | Hand marks where people steady themselves on the turn | Same durable emulsion, carried up in one colour |
| Spindles and handrail | Constant handling, sometimes chipped by furniture moves | Water-based satin, sanded smooth between coats |
| Stair stringers and skirtings | Kicked by feet and hoovers | Satin over a sound undercoat |
| Ceiling and landing | Rarely touched, sometimes stained from an old leak | Stain block on any marks, then a flat ceiling white |
Forty-odd years of tenants and owners means a Bellinge hall can have wallpaper painted over, filler left proud or a dado rail half removed. Of all the rooms in a house that old, the hall is usually where wear from those decades shows first. We allow time for filling and sanding before any colour goes on.
Rented halls and shared houses
The 2021 Census puts about a quarter of households in the core estate area in social housing, mostly council, and about a fifth in private lets. If you let a Bellinge house, the hall and stairs are usually the first thing a viewer sees. A single neutral colour on all hall walls makes touch-ups between tenancies simple. A shared house is a different case: its hall and landing are passed through by every tenant several times a day, so they get the toughest finishes in the building. See our Bellinge area page for the other work we cover on the estate.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
