A customer in Chiswick rang last month wanting the whole ground floor done in a weekend — hallway, lounge, kitchen — because a previous decorator’s work had already started peeling at the skirting after eighteen months. It’s a familiar story on the vans this year. Trade voices at the recent Painting & Decorating Show flagged the same shift industry-wide: homeowners are cutting back on how often they redecorate, but they’re not cutting corners once they commit to a room.
Jack Reading at Emperor Paint put it plainly this year: money’s tight, but people still care about their homes, they’re just weighing the decision more carefully and want the work to last. That chimes with what we see on jobs around Ealing and Kew — clients asking for a proper mist coat on new plaster rather than skipping straight to two topcoats, because a rushed first coat is the single biggest reason walls flash and blotch a year down the line.
On a typical Victorian terrace off Chiswick High Road that means starting with a proper sugar soap wash-down, filling with Toupret ready-mixed rather than a bargain filler that shrinks back after a week, and a coat of Zinsser stain block over any nicotine or damp staining before paint goes anywhere near it. Two coats of Dulux Trade Vinyl Matt at roughly 13m² a litre gives a flat finish that’s easy to touch in later, while the hallway and stairs get bumped up to an eggshell or a Crown Trade Clean Extreme for wipeability.
Older properties around Barnes and Richmond still throw up plenty of uneven walls, and lining paper before the topcoat is still the honest fix rather than three coats of filler and a prayer. Between coats we’re building in proper drying time — four hours touch dry, overnight before recoating in the colder months — because rushing it is exactly what leads to the peeling and flashing customers are now trying to avoid.
If your own paintwork is looking tired but you’d rather do it once and do it properly, Rennie Decorating Services covers West London from Chiswick to Richmond. Details and past jobs are on the website at renniedecoratingservices.co.uk.