We decorate hallways, staircases and landings in Great Doddington, the Nene Valley village 8.3 miles east of Northampton. Stairwells here range from tight, winding flights in 17th-century attic cottages to open, double-height spaces in the barn conversions, and Dean plans the access equipment and paint choice around which one you have.
A village with very different stairwells
Ask what a hallway looks like in Great Doddington and the answer depends on which end of the village you are in. The listed cottages and farmhouses in the conservation area include two-storey houses with attics and a handful of single-storey-with-attic buildings, where the stair is often a steep, narrow flight squeezed beside a chimney breast. The converted barns at Top Farm, Glebe Farm and Grove Farm went the other way, with open stairwells rising through the full height of the old building. Along the 20th-century ribbon development, the houses have ordinary straight flights, and the bungalow scheme at 44-54 High Street has no stairs at all, only a hall and passage.
Each of those needs a different setup, which is why we look at the stairwell before quoting. Our main hallway, stairs and landing decorating page explains the general sequence of work; below is what changes in this village.
Attic cottages: low ceilings and lime-plastered turns
In the oldest houses, the walls up the stair are usually lime plaster over stone, uneven and slightly soft, and the ceiling over the turn can be low enough to touch. That has three consequences for decorating:
- Paint has to breathe. A vinyl emulsion over lime traps moisture in the wall, so we use breathable mineral, clay or limewash-type finishes where the plaster is original.
- Access is improvised. A full stair platform rarely fits, so we work from adjustable stair ladders and boards cut to the flight, tied off so nothing shifts on the winders.
- Lines are judged by eye. With walls that lean and ceilings that dip, cutting in to a dead-straight line would look wrong, so we follow the shape of the wall.
Handrails and spindles in these houses are often simple, heavily painted softwood. We rub them down by hand, fill old dents and finish in an eggshell that will take a hand on it every day without going sticky.
Barn conversions: height, beams and stone
The barns at Top Farm, Glebe Farm and Grove Farm were converted to housing in the late 20th century, and inside they tend to keep exposed beams and areas of bare stone or red brick. Painting a double-height stairwell there means a tower or a stair-mounted platform to reach the top of the wall, and a lot of careful cutting-in where new plaster meets old timber and walling. The stone and brick themselves stay unpainted. Where the void is very tall, we confirm the access kit at the survey so it can be booked before the start date.
Halls that take the mud
Great Doddington is ringed by farmland, with working farms, horses at the Top Farm Lane livery yard, and footpaths running behind the High Street through the churchyard. Front halls here often see boots, dogs and bikes come straight in from the fields. For that kind of use we suggest a scrubbable matt or a durable eggshell on the lower walls, and a harder finish on skirtings and the bottom few stair risers, where the scuffing happens.
In the 20th-century houses and at St Nicholas Court, stairwells are plasterboard or gypsum over block, so standard modern emulsions apply and a straightforward hall, stairs and landing needs no specialist access. On the bungalows, the hall and passage can be done in a shorter visit with no high-level access.
Many cottages on the High Street open almost directly onto the footway, so we lay protection from the front door inward and keep the doorway clear for you while we work. You can see the other services we cover in the village on our Great Doddington page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
