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The material
Painting and Decorating techniques have varied over the centuries. In the past, homes and farm buildings were coated with limewash externally often using locally available plants to produce the colour. Buildings were painted internally with distemper or limewash over lime plaster. Lead paints were mostly used on joinery and metalwork but were are also used on exterior walls during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The homes of the more wealthy were subject to elaborate decoration both inside and outside, with ceilings gilded with gold leaf, internal columns painted to create the appearance of marble, and doors and doorframes grained to replicate wood. From the 18th Century onwards, elaborate hand-made wallpapers were produced and once mass produced, all the fashionable homes of the time had at least one room that was wallpapered.
The skill
Painters and Decorators need to carry out a thorough preparation of the surface and then carefully apply the finish, whether it’s a traditional paint, varnish or wallpaper. You will need to be inspired by decoration of early periods and be able to rise to the challenge of replicating them. If you wish to specialise in the more ornate decorative work of gilding, graining and marbling, you will also need a creative flare and an eye for detail.
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