DH Painter & Decorator paints front doors, internal doors, skirtings, architraves and porch joinery in Kingsley, the late-Victorian district on the east side of the Racecourse roughly a mile and a half north-east of the town centre. Dean has over 30 years in the trade and works on everything from a single Junction Road front door to every door and skirting in a Kingsley Road villa.
Front doors that sit under the 1990 Article 4 Direction
The Kingsley Road Area Article 4 Direction covers the fronts, and any side seen from the street, of a defined run of house numbers on East Park Parade, Kingsley Road and St Georges Avenue. It takes away permitted development rights for altering doors, windows and porches. For a homeowner on those addresses, that has a practical meaning: the front door is something you look after rather than swap. Repainting the existing door, its fixed light above and the porch joinery in a matching scheme is the straightforward course. If you are thinking of a different style of door, a new porch or reworked porch detail, ask West Northamptonshire Council first, since the version in force was changed when it was approved.
Several of these houses have pointed Gothic porch doors, lancet windows and stained glass. Those need careful masking and hand-cutting along leaded or glazed edges, and the narrow arched panels cannot be rolled. Datestones and diamond-shaped plaques on the door surrounds and fronts stay as they are: we mask around them and never paint over them.
Weather off the open Racecourse
The Racecourse villas look straight out across 117 acres of open parkland with no buildings in front to break the wind or the sun. South- and west-facing front doors and porch timbers on those streets lose their gloss and start to check sooner than the same door would in a sheltered side street. Mature street trees and the Racecourse avenues add sap, leaf litter and damp shade, so thresholds and the bottom rails of doors tend to grey and go green first. Before any coats go on we wash those areas, cut back soft timber, and fill or splice where the wood has failed. A front door painted in a cool, dry spell and given time to harden before it is shut against draught strips will hold its finish longer.
Inside the 1873-91 houses
Datestones on Kingsley Road, East Park Parade and nearby streets mostly fall between 1873 and 1891, and the joinery inside matches that era: deep moulded skirtings, broad architraves and panelled doors that have been glossed many times over. Panel mouldings lose their crispness, and old oil coats crack across the grain. Where the build-up is sound we key it and use an undercoat that grips old oil paint. Where it is breaking up we take it back to a stable surface. Paint layers this old may contain lead, so preparation is done wet and with dust control, never by dry sanding or burning off.
Ceiling heights in these houses mean tall door linings and architraves that carry on well above head height, so a full room of woodwork takes longer here than in a later house of a similar floor area. A durable gloss suits front doors and porch joinery. Many owners prefer eggshell or satin for internal doors and skirtings in high-ceilinged rooms, because it shows fewer marks on long runs.
Junction Road and the smaller terraces
Behind Kettering Road, two-bedroom terraces such as Junction Road are a different job. Many have uPVC double glazing, so there are no sashes to paint, and the woodwork comes down to the front door, internal doors, skirtings and the staircase. With the front sitting/dining room opening through and a rear kitchen behind, the joinery in a whole house can often be done in one visit. Parking on these streets is on-street only, and rear access was not confirmed in the listings we checked, so we plan for everything to come through the front door and protect the hall floor first.
| Kingsley house type | Typical woodwork | Finish we usually suggest |
|---|---|---|
| Article 4 villa fronts | Panelled or Gothic front door, fixed light, porch timbers | Gloss, colour matched to the existing door |
| Villa interiors | Deep skirtings, tall architraves, four-panel doors | Eggshell or satin over a sound undercoat |
| Junction Road terraces | Internal doors, skirtings, stair spindles | Hard-wearing satin that wipes clean |
More on our preparation and paint systems is on the door and skirting painting page. For the wider picture of decorating in the district, see our Kingsley area page, and for budgeting read the painter and decorator cost guide.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
