Christmas Decorations

By Grace Garwood
0 Comments

So, it’s the most wonderful time of the year again.

If we’re lucky enough to get some time off (and we don’t have power cuts!), we’ll all, no doubt, have a gather round the TV and re watch our favourite festive films! 

Mine will be Home Alone and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.

One of the things I always notice is that the houses the action is based in, in both films, are fabulous and it’s got me thinking about the decoration in what are now over 30 year old movies…

For the time they were no doubt the absolute height of home decor haute couture…

I still remember selling the New England style wallpaper in the late 80’s!

But how have they aged?

Well, for me, at least, they get more cosy and lovely the older they get.

I suppose for a while they just looked out of date and old fashioned but like, for example, an old car which was last years banger, gets to about 30 years old and becomes a sort of classic, the decorating now seems classic, and I begin to wonder if we’ll see a resurgence of this cosy, big pattern, colour rich type of style again soon?

I think, in its way, it’s already here!

I feel like I’d call it maximalist!

We’ve had many years of minimalist design, much on the grey theme but nearly every paper we now sell has an explosion of colour, pattern and design on it…

Not quite the 30 year old Christmas movie theme but the closest thing we’ve seen since…and I love it!

Tropical, Steampunk, Art Deco, Vintage, Murals and big, bold florals are all on display in our Buckhurst Hill showroom, and as the days get shorter and the lights are on, it makes it such a nice place to work… cosy and warm!

So, if your last minute gift to yourself is to be a beautifully decorated room, pop in, the ladies would love to help you get cosy and up to date, and maybe a little bit back in time just in time for Christmas!

Speaking of which…Merry Christmas to you all, we all wish everyone of you the best of times and everything you could wish for for your loved ones too.

We will be closing for our Christmas holidays at 12:00pm on Friday the 23rd December 2022 and we’ll reopen at 7:30am on Tuesday 3rd January 2023.

Be well.

Ho ho ho.

Pat.

Seen a ghost?

By Pat
0 Comments

Once upon a time, the decorating world was dominated by ghostly looking apparitions…decorators covered in white filler dust!

Every home would need a proper vacuum cleaning session once the decorators had finished, the cloud of dust would travel to every room, not just the one being decorated!

Easyfill, Tetrion, Polyfilla, Toupret…it didn’t matter what filler was used, the fallout remained the same.

What about wet & dry? Well, that’s good on a nice door or piece of furniture but on a ceiling? Not a chance. What about zip up door covers? Excellent! But as soon as you step through the door into another room, the dust on you is coming with!

The wonderful (but now quite old fashioned) pole sander seemed like the tool of the year but the ability to cover us all in dust to breathe in was increased massively.

And that’s something we never really talked about at the time.

What were we breathing in?

Not just filler dust but in most cases old paint, maybe mould from the surface, dirt, atmospheric pollution…

Health scare anyone?

So, what to do…?

Enter the dustless sanding revolution!

Once upon a time, many of us had the great idea of hooking our electric sander extractor hose up to faithful old Henry! That reduced the dust cloud enormously and also, as an added bonus it reduced the time taken later on hoovering and dusting down.

But, it wasn’t totally dust proof.

So the stage was set for the big boys to come and play.

Sanders and extractors such as Mirka’s DEROS (direct electric random orbital sander) coupled to the extractors 1230L (domestic approved) or 1230M (Industrial Site Approved) 

Auto filter cleaning (AFC) for the 225mm sander Leros 

(Long Electric Random Orbital Sander) adds the convenience of a pole sander and a filter that cleans itself saving valuable time.

So, not only are your customers delighted with a clean and dust free environment while having the place decorated, you save hours a week in cleaning up time and the most important benefit, that to your health, add up to the ultimate industry no brainier!

The investment you make now will pay you back until you retire…and long after too!

So you’ll be much further away from being that ghost!

That’s Sandy!

Pop in to see our range of options and deals at both our Buckhurst Hill and Harlow shops!

And literally, be well!

Pat.

“Changed Hands?”

By Pat
0 Comments

The other day I had a chat with a customer and a paint manufacturer’s name that I haven’t heard in a long while came up – Signpost Paints.

It got me thinking about the merry go round of paint companies and what became of many of them or who owns who now?

I’ve been in the paint industry since 1987. When I first joined the company the most recognisable (and certainly our biggest supplier) was Crown Paints…largely due to being advertised on Liverpool FC’s shirts! Liverpool were league champions twice in my first 2 years here and then they waited 30 years for another one. Must have felt like waiting for a painted front door to dry!

Crown are still one of the biggest players (pun intended) and we’re still proud to be major stockists of all of their brands but they haven’t been owned by Crown Paints as such for a long while.

From memory I’ve seen them change hands 6 times from Crown to Reed, to Williams Holdings to Akzo Nobel to Endless to Hempel….who have recently bought Farrow and Ball!

During that time, the collective owners have bought, sold, closed and shelved such well known names as Permoglaze, Sandtex, Sadolin, Sikkens, Signpost, Magicote, Macpherson, Berger and more!

And Crown themselves were thrown into the ether in 2006 when their owners, Akzo Nobel bought ICI Dulux and as part of the deal had to release Crown, Sandtex, Sadolin and Macpherson into the market which is where Endless (apparently a Mercedes Benz Franchise) bought them. Blimey!

And so, back to the name that started my chain of thought…Signpost.

Well, out of the ashes of Signpost Paints, one of the chemists started a new company with a friend from another defunct company, Ripolin.

That company is the maker of

MSP and Barn Paint! You’ll find a full stock of all of their paints in both our

Harlow and Buckhurst Hill shops!

I’m not sure how many times this will happen again but if I’m still selling paint in another 34 years (I’ll be 84!)  I can’t imagine things will have stayed the same…

I shall update the diary!

Be well.

Pat.