DH Painter & Decorator paints interiors throughout Kingsthorpe, the NN2 former village about 1.8 miles north of Northampton town centre. Dean adjusts the preparation to the age of the house, from rubble-stone cottage walls round The Green to fresh plaster in the brownfield developments, and quotes free.
Seven building eras inside one NN2 parish
Kingsthorpe grew in layers, and you can read them on a short walk north from The Green. It starts with sandstone cottages from the 1600s and 1700s on The Green, Green End, Well Yard and Vicarage Lane. Victorian brick terraces follow on High Street, Manor Road and Vicarage Lane. Then come the early 20th-century roads off Welford Road, the row of 1930s hipped-roof bungalows on The Green and Knights Lane, the 1960s to 1980s estates, and finally the brownfield housing at Bective Close, Lime Tree Gardens, Scholars Court and on the former university campus. Kingsthorpe Hall, a Georgian house of about 1775, is now flats.
Which of those you live in decides how the job is prepared. Our interior painting service page sets out the standard method; here is how it shifts from one Kingsthorpe street to the next.
| House type | Where in Kingsthorpe | What the preparation usually involves |
|---|---|---|
| Stone cottages, 17th-18th century | The Green, Green End, Well Yard, Vicarage Lane | Uneven walls, deep reveals round small casements, testing old paint before sanding |
| Victorian brick terraces | High Street, Manor Road, Vicarage Lane | Taller rooms, sash windows, long cutting-in lines |
| 1930s bungalows | The Green into Knights Lane | Bay windows with several casements to cut in |
| 1960s-1980s estates | Spring Park, Obelisk, Chalcombe Avenue, Hinton Road, Tollgate Close | Correcting earlier DIY coats, patch repairs, tired woodwork |
| 21st-century homes | Bective Close, Lime Tree Gardens, Scholars Court, former campus | Mist coat on bare plaster, filling first-year hairline cracks |
Rubble-stone rooms around The Green and Well Yard
The cottages built of coursed rubble sandstone have small openings under timber lintels, so their rooms are often dim and their walls are rarely flat. Dean does not try to make a 300-year-old wall look like plasterboard. He fills and sands until the surface is sound and even in colour, and lets the gentle line of the wall stay. Deep reveals round the casements are cut in by brush, which takes longer than rolling an open wall, and the quote reflects that honestly.
Two checks happen before any sanding. Paint applied before the 1960s may contain lead, so old coats on skirtings, window boards and ledged and braced doors are tested and then prepared wet, with dust kept under control. And because springs rise in the old village where Northampton Sand meets the clay below, including the Kings Well beside The Green, some lower walls stay damp. Where we find staining or salts we tell you before painting, since emulsion on a wet wall will not last and a breathable paint may suit the wall better than a vinyl one.
Several cottages here are listed, among them Kingswell Cottage, Well Yard House and Thornton Cottage on Vicarage Lane. A like-for-like repaint is rarely an issue, but if you plan to strip original features or change historic finishes, speak to West Northamptonshire Council first.
Bay windows on Knights Lane, straighter walls on Spring Park
The uniform 1930s bungalows have heavy hipped roofs and bay windows fitted with several casements. Inside, that bay is the slow part of the front room: frame after frame to cut in, plus a long window board. On the post-war estates (Chalcombe Avenue and Hinton Road from the 1960s, Spring Park, Obelisk and Holly Lodge Drive from the late 1960s and 1970s, Brampton Park and Cedrus Court from the 1980s) the walls are straighter. The work there is mostly about putting decades of earlier coats right: patchy filler, sheen differences where one wall was touched up, and oil gloss that has yellowed on doors and skirtings. These houses can usually be done room by room so you keep living in them.
Fresh walls on the old campus and brownfield sites
The University of Northampton left its Kingsthorpe campus in 2018 and the site was cleared for housing, joining developments such as Bective Close, Lime Tree Gardens and Scholars Court. Replacing the builder’s flat white with colour is the usual first job there. Bare plaster in those homes, and in extensions to older houses, needs a diluted first coat so the paint bonds; our mist coat guide explains why.
Getting in and out matters too. Vicarage Lane is narrow, not a through route and lined with houses at the back of the pavement, and the old village has gained more yellow lines over the years. For jobs on those streets we agree where the van will go before the start date. More about the area is on our Kingsthorpe page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
