Hello, you’re probably reading this website page because you live in East Sheen, Barnes or Richmond (or somewhere very near by) and you are hoping to find a very nice professional person to decorate a room or two, or your whole house!
Well my name is Crispin and I’m sure I can help. I live in East Sheen and I do internal decoration (& sometimes externally dependent on the extent of work) locally.
My work includes preparation, filling, sanding, painting with brush and roller and spray painting with HVLP and occasionally airless spraying equipment.
My skill comes from running an office refurbishment business for many years, and more often than not our work includes painting and decorating offices. I normally manage a team of decorators to do this work, but on numerous occasions over the years I’ve got stuck in myself with a sander, paint brush and roller and spent many hours being the perfectionist – getting it looking perfect, even though it’s an office and no one would probably ever notice. I’ve done posh Mayfair & City offices with Farrow & Ball, Little Green, Zoffany and the Paint & Paper Library, as well a vast amount of the professionals’ favourites Dulux Trade and Johnstone’s plus various types of Eco paint.
It all started a number of years ago when I decided that I needed to gain an in depth understanding of what I was specifying to my customers. I wanted to be sure that my recommendations were absolutely correct and that my decorators were doing the job properly and not taking short cuts (or taking me for a ride!!). So I attended a number of professional courses at the Dulux Academy in both traditional brush and roller decorating and also low and high volume spray painting (by the way I now own both types of equipment). And I’m very glad I did too, because this was just at the time when there was a rapid transition from oil based paints to water based. The application technique is quite different and as I very quickly discovered, most of my professional contractors were still following the traditional oil paint technique for the new water based products and I had to re-educate many of them (and send some over to Dulux) so that we got it right. I started getting involved more and more and found that decorating was a pass time I thoroughly enjoyed and, being a perfectionist, got a huge amount of satisfaction from. And I was pretty good at it too!
In 2021 I extensively renovated and extended our fairly large house in East Sheen and decorated the whole interior to a very high standard with Farrow & Ball Modern and Estate paints, and externally with a specialist breathable paint Seciltek Silicate which we sourced from Mike Wye who are sustainable building materials suppliers, and we had this mixed to resemble the Farrow and Ball colour ‘Setting Plaster’ – a light and very pleasant pink. The house has always been pink (as long as anyone we’ve spoken to can remember), and is locally referred to as the ‘Pink House’ so we wanted retain this even though toning it down a little!
I also spray painted in Farrow & Ball Modern Eggshell to a very fine & resilient finish all kitchen cupboard doors and frontages, bespoke cupboards elsewhere in the house and some of the new bespoke internal doors made by my carpenter.
I charge by the job, not by the hour or day. You get a much better deal that way as I’ll get the job done as quickly as possible without cutting corners and be out of your way sooner so that you can enjoy your new look rooms in peace! Furthermore, you’ll know what its going to cost you before you commit, rather than being on edge wondering when its ever going to end and how much more money you’re going to have to fork out! In addition to my labour cost, I will charge you for paints and materials used. I’ll give you a pretty good idea as to what this will be from the outset. You will choose the paints and I will purchase them from our local decorators merchants (London Decorator’s Merchants and Rowleys/Brewers – both on the Upper Richmond Road and with whom we have discounted trade accounts) and I will charge you just the trade cost price I pay. The same applies to any other materials purchased such as masking tape, fillers, sanding papers, roller sleeves etc. There will be an inventory and receipts for all of these.
Every job is different so I’d need to visit you, have a look and have a chat to determine exactly what’s required and how much it’s going to cost (I won’t charge you for that part!).
I’m afraid I’m a typical bloke when it comes to this – I’m not good at choosing colour schemes so you would need to make those decisions yourself or get the help of an interior designer! But, I will advise you on the best types & brands of paint for your particular requirement so that we can be sure its going to give the best possible finish. But as mentioned above, I’d normally want to purchase the paint and materials myself – just so I know it is in date, the right type and the right amount.
I only live around the corner, so if you have something that needs doing then please give me a call on my mobile 07770 745 236 or send an e-mail crispin@octopusinteriors.com and I’ll be very happy to pop over, take a look and let you know what I can do and how much it will cost if you decide to go ahead.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Crispin