Gypsum drop ceiling with a warm LED cove over plain white walls

Interiors & joinery

Painting & Decorative Finishes

Paint is the finish everybody judges and the trade everybody rushes. Most of a good wall happens before any colour appears: filling, sanding, stabilising, priming and checking the surface with a lamp held flat against it. We work to a system — substrate, putty, primer, then finish coats — and where a wall is meant to be an event rather than a background, it goes to the decorative crew for Venetian plaster, micro-cement, metallic glaze or a painted mural.

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Scope of works

What we actually do.

Everything below happens inside our business — no subcontracted links in the chain.

Get a quote for painting & decorative finishes

01
Preparation & substrate
The part everyone skips. Old coatings tested for adhesion, chalky and flaking paint stripped back, cracks cut out and filled, damp traced to its source rather than sealed over, and every surface stabilised before a primer is opened.
02
Putty, skim & priming
Two to three coats of putty, sanded flat and checked under raking light, then a primer chosen for what is underneath — alkali-resistant on fresh plaster, bonding primer on glossy or previously enamelled surfaces.
03
Emulsion & enamel systems
Matt, silk and scrubbable emulsions on walls and ceilings, and acrylic or polyurethane enamel on doors, frames and joinery, sprayed or laid off by hand with the substrate sanded between coats.
04
Decorative finishes & murals
Venetian plaster and stucco burnished to a polish, micro-cement on walls and floors, textured and metallic finishes, and hand-painted murals or feature panels drawn to scale before anyone touches the wall.
05
Exterior & coastal coatings
Render repair, alkali-resistant primer and elastomeric or silicone-based topcoats on external walls, specified for UV, wind-driven rain and the salt load that strips ordinary emulsion off a Sahel façade in two seasons.

Specification

The numbers, before you ask.

Painting & Decorative Finishes — technical specification
Preparation	Strip, fill, sand, stabilise and prime before any colour is opened
Putty & skim	Two to three coats, sanded flat and inspected under raking light
Emulsion system	Primer plus two finish coats minimum; three on strong or deep colours
Enamel & joinery	Primed, filled and sanded between coats; sprayed where access allows
Decorative	Venetian plaster, stucco, micro-cement, metallic and textured finishes
Exterior	Alkali-resistant primer with elastomeric or silicone-based topcoat

Botanical mural to a bedroom feature wall

Selection

Finishes we apply

Standard emulsion packageWhole house
Prepared, puttied, primed and finished properly. Unremarkable when it is right, and the single most visible failure in a house when it is not.
Venetian plaster & stuccoFeature walls
Lime-based plaster applied in thin layers and burnished to depth and sheen. It reads as stone rather than as paint, and it cannot be rushed.
Micro-cementWalls & floors
A seamless mineral coating over walls, floors and even wet areas, with no joints. Wants a stable, crack-free substrate and a sealer suited to the room.
Metallic & texturedAccent surfaces
Pearl, bronze and copper glazes, sand and travertine textures, and roller or trowel patterns for a wall that changes with the light through the day.
Murals & feature wallsBedrooms & halls
Botanical, geometric or figurative panels drawn to scale and painted on site, sized to the wall and to the furniture that will sit in front of it.
Exterior coastal coatingNorth Coast
Render repair and a flexible topcoat system for chalets and villas from Marina to New Alamein, facing salt, sun and wind — the exposure that turns a cheap façade paint chalky in a single season.

Gallery

Painting & Decorative Finishes in place.

Every photograph on this page was taken on one of our sites during the work. Nothing here is a stock image or a render.

Where it goes

Whole-house repaint
First decoration on new plaster
Feature walls & murals
Venetian plaster & stucco
Micro-cement walls & floors
Doors & joinery enamel
Exterior render coating
Ceilings & cove interiors

Projects featuring painting & decorative finishes

Where we have used it.

El Moghra, Siwa — 2026

El Moghra

Turnkey build & finish · Desert lodge · Completed

View project

Questions we get asked

Painting & Decorative Finishes — questions we get asked

Why does new paint peel or crack within a year?

Because the wall under it was never ready. Fresh plaster painted before it dried, putty applied over a dusty surface, no primer between putty and emulsion, glossy old enamel painted over without a bonding coat, or damp that was covered rather than traced. Paint is a thin film — it faithfully reports whatever is underneath it, usually in the first winter.

How many coats is actually a proper job?

Primer plus two finish coats as a minimum, and three on deep reds, blues and greys that never cover in two. Two coats straight onto bare putty is not a system, it is a cost saving that shows as patchiness the moment sunlight crosses the wall at an angle. We quote the system, not a number of buckets.

What is micro-cement and where does it actually work?

A thin mineral coating, a few millimetres thick, applied in layers over a prepared substrate and sealed. It gives a seamless surface on walls, floors and even shower areas with no grout lines, which is why people want it. It needs a stable substrate — it will telegraph any crack that moves underneath it — and the sealer must match the use, matt and hard-wearing on a floor, water-resistant in a bathroom.

How long should new plaster dry before painting?

Longer than your programme would like, and the number depends on thickness, weather and ventilation rather than on a rule. We check moisture rather than count days, prime with an alkali-resistant primer because fresh plaster is chemically aggressive, and if the schedule genuinely cannot wait we will tell you which system tolerates it and what the trade-off is.

Why does exterior paint fail so fast in the North Coast?

Salt, ultraviolet and wind-driven rain together, on a façade that also expands and contracts every day. Ordinary interior-grade emulsion pushed outside goes chalky in a season and then lets water into the render. We repair the render first, prime it, and use a flexible silicone-based or elastomeric topcoat that bridges hairline movement — then recommend a plain fresh-water wash each year, which does more than most owners expect.

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