Painting bespoke kitchens in Berkshire

We’ve been hand painting bespoke kitchens in Berkshire. A total of eleven in fact! Commissioned by and on behalf of Charles Yorke Kitchens of Nottingham. This project has seen us travelling down the M40 and along the M4 corridor in to Maidenhead, carrying out this work for prestigious housing developers Millgate Homes.

Set in the village of Littlewick Green between Maidenhead and Reading this new luxury housing development is within the grounds of historic Woolley Hall. The  24 acre estate dates back to the thirteenth century and has had a succession of owners including Ralph Newbury, royal printer to Elizabeth 1 and James 1.

hand painting kitchens in Maidenhead
This 24 acre estate was once owned by Royal printer Ralph Newbury

The main part of Woolley Hall was believed to have been built by John Loveday sometime around 1780 and was described as a modern Villa. The house remained unaltered during the ownership of Sir Gilbert East. It was during the ownership of George Dunn and later Walter Cottingham that the house took on its present form.

Many rooms within the hall feature wood panelling, enriched plaster ceilings and bay windows decorated with heraldic glass, added by Cottingham around 1920. The emblems in the glass are believed to have been carefully chosen to tell a story about the house and relate to the biography of Walter Cottingham and the longer history  of the Woolley Estate. (information taken from Millgate Homes, sales literature).

Working with a bit of Paint history!

Walter Cottingham previous owner of Woolley Hall, was a Canadian and self made businessman who began his career in a hardware shop at the age of sixteen.

Over the course of the 1880s he developed a business empire in Montreal, and in 1892, he secured the Canadian agency of the American paint company ‘Sherwin Williams’, incorporating a company not long afterwards to manufacture their products in Canada. He was instrumental in the adoption of their famous motto, ‘Cover the earth’. Cottingham died in 1930 in Maidenhead, England.

…to working with Modern Paint Systems

The Woolley estate landscape is now evenly spaced with five stunningly beautiful homes each set within 2.4 to 3.5 acres of private and secluded landscape. The first painted kitchen was in the show home ‘The Cottingham’ the remaining properties will form part of the main hall.

hand painted kitchen in Berkshire
The show home at Woolley Hall, one of 5 Luxury villas

The Millgate ethos is to use…

the finest materials, the most skilled craftsman, timeless design and incomparable specification”. 

Our first choice of materials for painting kitchens of this calibre is Tikkurila supplied in the UK by Holman Specialist Paints, the paint finish for this project was Helmi Matt. A durable and wipeable paint finish which is waterborne and non yellowing. The designer was so happy with this finish that we now specify it on all the remaining kitchens and master bedroom furniture suites for this development.

bespoke kitchens in Berkshire
The wooden mantle makes a striking feature against the light grey wall units

The preparation process we use is thorough and meticulous, every inch of the kitchen is scanned for small nail holes and every joint is finely caulked with an acrylic sealant.  We abrade every door, panel, moulding and frame to ensure maximum adhesion, then we hoover and tack rag off to remove any fine surface particles, prior to any paint being applied.

Different shades of grey is the order of the day!

Greys are very popular for painted kitchens at the moment and this one received three different shades.

painting kitchen cupboards grey
Greys are very popular for hand painted kitchens

These were mixed to the equivalent colours of Skimming Stone for all the bedroom furniture, Fescue for the main kitchen units and utility wall units and Dark Lead for the island unit and tall boy wine racks and utility base units.

painting a kitchen island unit in dark lead
The Island units are painted in a dark lead colour to compliment the worktops

Topped off with a mixture a white with grey dapples in the quartz work surfaces and a slate coloured work surface above the main run of kitchen units, made this a stunning looking kitchen.

…and now on to the spacious utility room:

painting utility cupboard doors
A very spacious utility room was hand painted to match

The utility room was painted in the same colours as the utility, with a split in colour; the wall units in an equivalent to Fescue and the base units in dark lead. The work surfaces match the main island unit in the kitchen so everything flows through nicely.

Right were off to paint next door now, please have a look again here soon to see how that’s coming on.

If you are looking for hand painted kitchens in Nottingham and Derbyshire or the surrounding areas, or you have an existing wooden kitchen you would like refurbishing? Please contact us to discuss your requirements, we also carry out commissions throughout the UK

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1 Response
  1. Jason

    What a beautiful job you have done. You certainly have proved that you are a true specialist and someone to look up to. I very much enjoyed reading your article. Thank you have shown the bench mark at which standards need to be.
    Kind regards

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