We decorate hallways, staircases and landings in Chapel Brampton and Church Brampton, out on the A5199 about 4 miles from central Northampton. The parish mixes small two-storey stone cottages with 1960s architect-designed houses and large detached homes, so the access, the wall surface and the paint all change from one house to the next.
Two kinds of stairwell, a short walk apart
Entrance halls in the parish come in two very different shapes. The older ironstone houses in the village core are mostly two storeys and often terraced, with front doors opening straight off the street frontage and stairs that rise steeply in a narrow space. Cedar Hythe, the late-1960s estate, went the other way: its architect-designed houses have generous, often double-height entrance halls with large areas of glazing. The bigger detached houses towards Golf Lane in Church Brampton tend to have open, tall stairwells too.
| House type | What the hall is like | What it means for decorating |
|---|---|---|
| Ironstone cottages and estate terraces | Narrow, steep stairs, low landings, solid stone walls | Compact platforms, breathable paints, careful cutting-in around old joinery |
| Cedar Hythe 1960s houses | Open, double-height, glazed, plain lines | Tall access towers, even finish on large flat walls, metal frames to protect |
| Large detached houses | Wide halls, galleried landings, high-spec fittings | Full protection of floors and fittings, longer programme |
Cottage stairs and lime-plastered walls
In a stone cottage the stair wall is often lime plaster on solid ironstone, and it is rarely flat. That matters for two reasons. First, solid walls need to breathe, so a vinyl emulsion that seals the surface can trap moisture and lead to blistering. A breathable mineral or clay-based paint is usually the better choice. Second, the unevenness shows under a sheen finish, so a flat matt hides it far better than eggshell does.
The stairs themselves are tight. A full-size tower will not fit, so we use a stair platform or a hop-up spanning the treads, set up so the household can still get past at the end of each day. Handrails and spindles in these houses are frequently original softwood with years of paint on them, and the job is to get a smooth finish without filling in the detail.
Tall glazed halls at Cedar Hythe
Cedar Hythe is part of the Chapel Brampton Conservation Area, and the appraisal asks for the original metal windows and metal-framed porches to be kept. In the hall that usually means a large, light wall over the stairs alongside glazing in metal frames. Getting the paint up there needs a proper access tower or a tower-and-board set-up, and the walls are big and flat, so laps and roller marks show in the strong daylight. We cut in and roll each wall in one continuous wet edge so it dries evenly.
The light here comes in low through the glass and lights up every defect, so filling and sanding take a large share of the time. We mask and protect the metal frames rather than painting them, unless you have asked for them to be repainted too, which is a separate process with its own primer.
Keeping the house usable during the work
A hall, stairs and landing is usually two to four days, depending on the height of the stairwell and how much woodwork there is. We plan the order so the stairs stay usable: ceilings and high walls first, then woodwork, then the treads and risers if they are being painted, working down so you are never walking on wet paint. Our main hallway, stairs and landing page goes through the sequence in more detail.
Parking is rarely a problem at Cedar Hythe, where the curving roads have wide verges, but the cottages set right on the street mean our van and dust sheets need a little more planning. There is more on the village as a whole on our Bramptons area page, and our guide on how to choose a painter and decorator is worth reading before you get quotes.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
