DH Painter & Decorator paints walls, ceilings and woodwork inside homes in Greens Norton, the NN12 village 8.5 miles south-west of Northampton. Dean matches the paint to the wall, using breathable finishes on the solid stone of the older cottages and standard systems in modern rooms.
What sits behind the plaster in a Greens Norton cottage
The older houses of Greens Norton were built of coursed limestone and ironstone rubble between the 1650s and the early 1800s. The listed row at 2 to 8 Blakesley Hill (dated 1694), the cottages along High Street and Bengal Lane, and manor houses such as Bengal Manor (1695) and Falcon Manor (1665) all have solid stone walls with no cavity. Indoors, that matters more than people expect. A solid wall has to let moisture out through its inner face, and a modern vinyl emulsion over lime plaster can hold it in. The usual signs are paint blistering low down on outside walls, or a powdery bloom behind a wardrobe.
So the first thing Dean does on an interior job in the village is find out what the walls are finished in. Lime plaster, old gypsum patches and later skims can all turn up in one room. Where lime is present we suggest a breathable emulsion, or a clay or mineral paint, and we put that in the written quote rather than raising it after the first coat has gone on.
Beams, attics and low ceilings
Many of the village’s cottages are two-storey ranges with attic rooms above. Ceilings are low, rooms are small and the attic bedrooms have sloping ceilings that meet the walls at odd angles. An interior beam in No. 4 Blakesley Hill is dated 1654, a reminder that the timber in these houses can be as old as the stone around it.
- Exposed beams are masked and sheeted before ceiling work starts. We don’t paint bare oak unless you ask for it and have checked it is acceptable on a listed house.
- Cutting in against hand-cut timber is slow, because there is no straight edge to follow. We allow time for it in the quote.
- In attic rooms, one colour carried across wall and slope hides the uneven junction where they meet.
- Small two- and three-light casements let in limited daylight. A flat matt finish hides undulating plaster far better than eggshell or silk in that light.
Listed status and indoor redecoration
Greens Norton has no conservation area on West Northamptonshire Council’s appraisals list, but the parish has 27 listed buildings: St Bartholomew’s church at Grade I and the rest at Grade II. Listing covers interiors as well as the outside. Repainting walls in a like-for-like finish is generally treated differently from stripping historic finishes, removing panelling or altering original features. If you own one of the listed cottages, check with the council before anything beyond straightforward redecoration. We can describe exactly what the work involves so that conversation is easy to have.
Newer houses and the extensions on old ones
Not every interior here is three hundred years old. Several listed cottages have 20th-century red brick additions (Overbeck House on Bengal Lane is one recorded example), and the village has modern housing too. Those rooms have plasterboard or gypsum skim and take ordinary emulsion systems. Where a cottage has an old stone core and a newer extension, we price the two parts separately, because the materials and the preparation differ. Fresh plaster in an extension needs a mist coat first, and our guide to painting new plaster explains why.
Reaching the job from Northampton
Greens Norton is 8.5 miles south-west of Northampton town centre and just over a mile north-west of Towcester. We cover the main village and the parish hamlets of Caswell and Duncote. In attached rows such as 2 to 8 Blakesley Hill, a mid-row cottage may have little or no rear access, so dust sheets, steps and paint all come through the front door, and we keep one room clear as a working base for the length of the job. For more on the village’s houses, see our Greens Norton area page. The main interior painting service page covers how we prepare and finish walls, ceilings and woodwork.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
