Dean paints interiors across Boothville, the NN3 district about 3 miles north-east of Northampton town centre. Most jobs here are bungalows with rooms off a central hall, loft conversions with sloping ceilings, and extended 1930s semis where old and new plaster meet.
Bungalow rooms off a central hall
A large share of Boothville’s housing is bungalows, semi-detached and detached, grouped in cul-de-sacs like Bibury Crescent and along roads like Woodside Avenue. Inside, the layout tends to follow a pattern: a central hall with a short run of doors, a lounge with a bay window to the front, a kitchen-diner, and bedrooms off the same corridor. Where a bungalow has been extended, the dining room is often pressed into service as a third bedroom.
That layout decides how we work through it. Because every room opens off one hall, the hall is usually painted last, once the rooms either side are finished and the furniture has gone back. A dining room that is also a bedroom needs walls that cope with both uses, so we tend to suggest a washable matt rather than a chalky flat emulsion that marks the first time a bed or desk is pushed against it. The bay in the lounge gets its own attention: the plaster around a bay reveal and the board beneath it pick up condensation and hairline cracks more than a flat wall, so they are filled and sealed before any colour goes on.
Three floors of an extended 1930s semi
Along the Kettering Road edge, the double bay-fronted semis date from the 1930s, and some have been substantially extended over three floors. These are a different kind of job. The original rooms have older plaster carrying decades of paint, while the extension and any loft storey are newer skim. Where the two meet, often on a landing or at the head of the stairs, there is usually a fine crack line or a change in texture.
We deal with those junctions rather than painting over them. That can mean raking out and filling with a flexible filler, cross-lining a section of wall, or, if the newer plaster has never been sealed, giving it a mist coat first. Our guide to painting new plaster with a mist coat explains why bare skim cannot take full-strength emulsion. On three floors we also finish the top storey before moving down, so dust and drips never land on rooms that are already done.
Loft rooms and dormers under bungalow roofs
Some Boothville bungalows have had the roof space turned into one or two loft rooms, reached by a fixed stair or a pull-down loft ladder. Painting them brings its own problems:
- Sloping ceilings meet upright walls at shallow angles, so the cut-in line is done by hand and is rarely straight to start with.
- Dormer cheeks and window reveals are tight spaces where a full-size roller does not fit.
- A loft ladder limits what can go up, so materials travel in small loads and the hatch opening is protected.
- Roof-space rooms run warm in summer and cold in winter, which changes drying times, so we allow longer between coats.
Painting the slopes and walls one colour makes a room under the roof feel less boxed in. If you want them different, we agree exactly where the change sits before starting, because a wandering line is very visible on a slope.
Sunny back rooms, and fitting round the household
Boothville is high ground by Northampton standards (the county record puts Booth Rise at around 104 m), and estate agent listings for the area keep describing sunny, private rear gardens. Some houses, such as a detached home listed at Yewtree Court, have a conservatory off the kitchen. Rooms that take full afternoon sun show every roller mark and patch repair under raking light, so we lay off walls in one direction and apply enough coats for an even sheen. Strong sun through glass also fades cheaper emulsions, which is worth knowing before you settle on a colour.
Most properties have a driveway or garage, so we can usually park at the house and unload without blocking the road. If you live near Boothville Primary School on Booth Lane North, we time deliveries away from the school run. We cover Boothville from our Northampton base, around 3 miles north-east of the town centre. How we prepare and paint a room is set out on our main interior painting page, and other work in the district is listed on the Boothville area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
