We apply decorative and traditional finishes in Little Houghton, the conservation village about 3.1 miles east of Northampton town centre. Limewash, claypaints and distemper-style coats suit its 17th and 18th-century ironstone and limestone cottages; the newer houses on its edge-of-village closes suit feature walls and picked-out detail.
Limewash where the wall can take it
In a Little Houghton cottage, a decorative finish is often a traditional one. Limewash is the obvious example. It goes on in several thin coats, each one brushed into a porous surface, and dries to a soft, slightly uneven matt that shifts in tone with the light. Because it stays open to moisture, it suits lime plaster and exposed stone inside the 17th-century ironstone and limestone cottages, and outbuildings that were limewashed in the past.
Limewash only works on a surface that can absorb it. It will not bond to modern emulsion, so a wall that has been painted with vinyl over the years has to be taken back first, and that is a bigger job than many people expect. We test a small area before quoting. Outside, the same reasoning applies the other way: the banded stone fronts in the conservation area are meant to stay bare, so we would limewash only something that was limewashed before.
Claypaint and distemper-style coats
Not every room suits limewash. Claypaints give a similar breathable, velvety finish with a wider range of colours and are easier to touch up. For ceilings in older cottages, a soft distemper-style finish has a long history: flat, chalky and washable off when it needs renewing, which suits plaster between old beams. Each of these behaves differently from modern emulsion while you apply it, drying faster in places and showing brush direction, so the work is slower and the brushwork is part of the look.
They also age differently. A limewashed or distempered wall in an old Little Houghton cottage is refreshed with another thin coat rather than stripped, so the finish builds up gently over the years and keeps the wall able to dry. That suits rooms against the solid outside walls, where some moisture movement is normal, far better than a hard modern coating that eventually lets go in sheets.
- Limewash: exposed stone, lime plaster, previously limewashed walls
- Claypaint: lime-plastered rooms where you want more colour choice
- Distemper-style: ceilings and upper walls in cottage rooms
Georgian rooms and picked-out detail
The village’s grandest interior is Little Houghton House, a late Georgian house of around 1825, listed Grade II*. Rooms of that standing are specialist conservation decorating, and Dean will tell you plainly if a job goes beyond what a general decorator should take on. The larger houses on Station Road and Bedford Road, though, have more formal halls, and where period detail survives it is worth drawing out. Picking out a cornice, a dado rail or panelled shutters in a second shade, or a slightly different sheen, gives a room structure without any wallpaper at all.
In a listed building, adding a new finish or stripping an old one can need listed building consent, so check with West Northamptonshire Council before we start on anything beyond like-for-like.
Thatch, beams and the newer houses
A few cottages on Lodge Road and Meadow Lane are still thatched. Before any decorative scheme starts in one of those houses, old coatings on beams and window boards are taken off by hand or with chemical stripper, because heat and flame have no place under a thatched roof. That slower preparation is built into the quote.
On Nursery Close, Lodge Close and Home Acre, decorative work looks more like it does in any modern home: a two-tone wall split at dado height, a deep feature wall behind a bed, or new panelling painted so the joints disappear. Our main decorative finishes page shows the full range of effects we do. For other work in the village, see our Little Houghton page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
