We paint shopfronts in St David's, NN2, about 1.9 miles north of Northampton town centre. The district's shops are a small parade on Newnham Road and single corner shops on Cranford Road and Rosedale Road, and Dean plans the work so the shop can keep trading.
A small parade and two corner shops
St David’s is a residential district, and its shopping is on a small scale. The main group is five units on Newnham Road: the Co-op, St David’s News, a chippy, Newnham Stores and a bookmaker. Elsewhere there are single corner shops: one on Cranford Road and a newsagent on Rosedale Road. The bigger retail strip, along Harborough Road and around Kingsthorpe Shopping Centre, lies to the west in Kingsthorpe.
That shapes the work. A shopfront here is usually one unit, and the paintable parts are the fascia board, the frame around the window, the entrance door, any stallriser below the glass and perhaps a roller-shutter box. National chain units generally work to their own brand specification. Independent shops set their own, and they are the ones most likely to want a local decorator.
The two corner shops, Sandip Stores on Cranford Road and Fourways on Rosedale Road, are a different shape from the parade units. A corner unit can show a face to two streets, so the side return, its fascia end and any painted brickwork are worth pricing at the same time as the main front, rather than leaving one elevation to weather on its own.
Keeping the door open while the front is painted
A corner shop or a parade unit depends on people walking in. We work in sections so the entrance stays usable: frame and fascia first, the door last and quickly, with wet-paint signs and a clear route through. The noisier preparation is done at the quieter part of the shop’s day, and finishing coats are timed to be touch-dry before its busy hours.
Ladders on the footway are set up to leave pedestrians a safe route. The parade sits among the Newnham Road flat blocks, so much of its trade arrives on foot, and we keep the frontage tidy and passable throughout.
What a repaint covers on a local unit
- Fascia boards: often the most weathered part, with signwriting or a fixed sign panel to work around or take down and refit.
- Window frames and mullions: timber ones are filled, sanded and painted; aluminium ones need the right primer before a colour change.
- Entrance doors: hard-wearing gloss or satin that stands up to hands and trolleys.
- Stallrisers and sills: the lowest parts take kicks, wet and dirt from the pavement, so we use a durable masonry or exterior finish.
- Roller-shutter boxes and metal surrounds: degreased and primed before colour.
Colour choice on a small parade is partly practical. A dark fascia hides traffic grime but shows fading sooner on a sunny elevation, while a pale one looks clean for longer on a shaded front but marks easily at hand height. Many owners go darker on the stallriser and door, where wear is heaviest, and keep the fascia lighter so lettering stands out from across the road.
Because St David’s is not in a conservation area, independent shops here can choose their colours without the heritage appraisal that applies to parts of the Kingsthorpe village core further west.
If your shop is just over the boundary
If your premises are actually on Harborough Road, Welford Road or Alexandra Terrace in Kingsthorpe, the job is different, on a far busier road than Newnham Road. We have a separate page for shopfront painting in Kingsthorpe that deals with that stretch. For the full outline of our preparation and coatings, see the main shopfront painting service. Other work we cover nearby is on the St David’s area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
