Dean paints the interiors of homes across Upton, on Northampton's west side about 2.1 miles of Northampton town centre. Most Upton houses and flats date from 2005 onwards, so the usual job is a first full repaint over contract magnolia and builder-finish woodwork, with towers brought in for the taller rooms.
Ten to twenty years on from the builder’s magnolia
Upton Park and Upton Meadows were planned under the 2005 Upton Design Code, and building carried on through the 2010s. Part of West Street is still under construction. That means most interiors here have had one coat of contract emulsion and very little since. The walls have not built up decades of layered paint. Instead they show the things a young house does: hairline settlement cracks at ceiling joints and around door linings, nail pops in plasterboard, and thin, chalky trade emulsion that marks the moment you wipe it.
So an Upton repaint usually starts with stabilising rather than stripping. We rake out and fill the cracks that have opened as the frame dried out, spot-prime any patches and repairs, and put a proper durable emulsion over the contract finish so the walls can be cleaned afterwards. Skirtings and doors still in their factory or builder’s coat get keyed and undercoated, which is covered on the interior painting service page in more detail.
Sun spaces, cathedral ceilings and big glass
The design-code villas, especially the 30 homes of Site C on West Street, have two-storey sun spaces, tall glazed gables, mezzanines and roof windows. They are bright, tall rooms, and they change how the painting has to be done:
- Access: a ladder will not reach a double-height wall safely, so we bring an internal tower and set it up on boards to protect the floor.
- Flashing: low-angle light through large panes shows every lap and roller mark. We keep a wet edge across the whole wall in one go, which on a tall wall means planning the order of work before we start.
- Sheen: a flat or very low-sheen emulsion hides more on those walls than a silk does.
Three-storey townhouses bring a different problem: long stairwells over several floors, some lit from roof-ridge lights. Those are usually priced separately as hallway and landing work because of the staging involved.
Flats around the parking courts
OpenStreetMap shows about 73 apartment buildings in Upton, many grouped around the named parking courts such as Ashby, Salcey, Brixworth, Stow, Wicksteed and Abingdon Courts. Inside, these are compact rooms, often open-plan kitchen and living spaces where one wall colour carries all the way through. Because the space is small and you are likely living in it while we work, we usually decorate a flat in stages, keeping a bedroom and bathroom usable each night. Upton is mixed tenure by design, so some of these homes belong to housing providers or private landlords and are repainted between tenants rather than lived around.
Parking and getting kit to the door
Clickers Mews, Rounding Mews and Samwell Lane are typical of Upton’s narrow living streets, where road and pavement are one shared surface. Flats share their parking bays with residents. Before we start we ask where the van can sit without blocking a neighbour, and on mews streets we carry dust sheets, tower sections and paint in from wherever there is space. On Site C, side and rear stores and garden routes lead round to the back, which helps when a tower has to come in through the garden doors.
Planning a repaint
Dean comes out, looks at the rooms in the light you actually live with, and gives a written quote that lists the prep, the products and the order of work. For a rough idea of how the cost of a job is worked out, see the painter and decorator cost guide. For other work we cover in the neighbourhood, from fences backing onto the swales to communal stairwells, go to the Upton area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
