Empty Lancaster sitting room mid-preparation, walls in pale grey mist coat with masking tape squared around a white light switch and a dust sheet over bare boards

The same sitting room finished, walls in deep bay blue-green with one clean cut line beside the white switch plate

Ashgrove Decorating

The edge beside the switch is the whole trade.

painter and decorator · Lancaster · fifteen years

entered in the book St Mary's Parade, Castle Hill · sitting-room walls and woodwork · Bay at Dusk · five days on site Drag the seam to repaint the wall — or focus the circle and use the arrow keys.

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Fifteen years on the same streets.

Ashgrove started in 2010 with a van, a ladder and a round of work in Bowerham. Fifteen years on, the diary still runs along the same streets: terraces off Bowerham Road, Georgian houses up by the Priory, seafront flats on Marine Road where the salt gets into the sashes faster than anywhere I know.

What that time has taught me is that the job is not the colour. Anyone can be handed a good tin of paint. The job is conduct — turning up on the morning you said you would, protecting what's yours while it's ours to look after, and leaving each room as though no one had ever been in it, except that the walls are done.

Everything on this page is that habit written down. If it reads more like a ledger than an advert, that's because it is one.

Ashgrove Decorating Lancaster, established 2010.

the work

Filed by surface, not sold as services.

Six surfaces, one standard of preparation. A Georgian sash and a magnolia hallway are entered the same way here — approach, preparation, finish — because interior painting in Lancaster deserves the same care whichever end of the ledger it sits at.

Interior walls & woodwork

Walls, ceilings, skirtings, doors and stairparts, from a full colour change to a magnolia hallway between tenancies. Preparation is most of the job — filled, sanded and sealed before the first tin of finish is opened.

walls · ceilings · woodwork · staircases

A lid pressed back onto a heritage green paint tin resting on a folded dust sheet, wet limestone visible through the window

Exterior masonry & joinery

Render, roughcast and limestone-fronted terraces, with the joinery burnt off, primed and built back up in coats that stand up to Lancaster weather. Exterior decorating is scheduled around the forecast, not the diary.

render · masonry · sashes · front doors

Freshly glossed off-white sash window frame against rain-darkened limestone

iii

Wallpaper hanging

Lining, pattern-matching and hanging, from a single feature wall to a full stairwell drop. Every wall is measured, cross-lined where it needs it, and set out from a plumb line so the pattern lands where it should.

lining · pattern-matching · stairwell drops

A smoothing brush drawing down a freshly hung strip of wallpaper with a perfectly matched seam

Spray-finished kitchens & joinery

Kitchen doors, wardrobes and internal joinery taken back, masked and sprayed to a factory-flat finish — spray painting done properly, at a fraction of the cost of replacement. Doors come off their hinges; nothing is sprayed around.

kitchen doors · wardrobes · internal joinery

Kitchen cabinet doors laid flat on trestles, freshly sprayed to an even satin finish

Period property restoration

Sashes, cornices and panelled doors worked with the patience they were built with — period property decorating that keeps what the house came with. Heritage colours matched to what's already on the building, not to a fashion.

sashes · cornices · panelled doors · heritage colour matching

A Georgian panelled door on trestles mid-restoration, hinges removed and bagged, half stripped to timber

Commercial & letting refurbishment

Shops, offices and lettings turned around to a written programme, scheduled around trading hours and tenancy dates. Plaster repair and preparation are carried out by us, so the finish is never hostage to another trade.

shops · offices · lettings · plaster repair

An empty commercial interior with masked shopfront glazing, fresh white walls and a stepladder on dust sheets

the address book

Fifteen years, entered as each job finished.

Street, surface, colour and days on site — filed the same way whether the entry is a Georgian staircase or a hallway between tenancies. Every room photographed at the end of the last day, furniture back where it was.

Finished period sitting room with deep blue-green walls glowing in flat silver light, curtains rehung and floor bare — Queen Street, Lancaster sitting room and alcoves · Bay at Dusk · five days on site

Terraced hallway and stairwell freshly painted in slaked-lime white, light falling from a landing window — Dale Street, Bowerham hallway and stairwell · Slaked Lime · four days on site

Rebuilt bay window sashes freshly glossed in gull white with the flat silver light of Morecambe Bay beyond — Marine Road West, Morecambe bay sashes and front door · Gull White · six days on site

Georgian panelled hall and staircase finished in quiet stone drab, empty in late afternoon light — Castle Hill, Lancaster panelled hall, staircase and landing · Priory Stone · eight days on site

house rules

How we behave in your house.

Decorating is one of the few trades you'll watch being done inside your home, for days at a stretch. These are the rules we keep while we're in yours.

Shoes come off or go under covers at the door — on every job, every day.
Furniture is photographed before it is moved, moved by us, and put back to the inch.
Sheets are down before the first tin is opened, and stay down until the brushes are washed.
Switch plates, hinges and door furniture come off. We don't cut around anything that can be removed.
The radio stays low — and off, if you'd rather.
The house is left broom-clean every single evening, not just the last one.

In their words.

What neighbours keep reporting, drawn from 132 Google reviews — 4.8 out of five. Not the gush; the particulars.

"You can run a thumb along the edge by the light switch and never find where the colour ends. I kept showing people."

K., Bowerham · hallway, stairs and landing · 2024

"They photographed every room before a stick of furniture moved, and by Friday it was all back to the inch — pictures on their own hooks."

M., Scotforth · two bedrooms and a sitting room · 2025

"The figure on the written quote was the figure on the invoice. Six days on salt-eaten frames and it never moved."

J., Marine Road, Morecambe · exterior sashes and front door · 2023

"They swept up and folded the sheets into squares every evening. Mid-job, the kitchen looked tidier than it does when we're using it."

E., Carnforth · kitchen re-spray · 2024

the particulars

Stated flatly, for the second reader.

The facts a letting agent or contracts manager scans for, without the salesmanship.

Insurance: £2m public liability insurance.
Guarantee: A two-year guarantee on all exterior work, in writing.
Quotations: Every quote follows a site visit and arrives itemised, in writing. The figure does not move unless the scope does.
Commercial work: Refurbishment scheduled around trading hours, to a written programme agreed before the first sheet goes down.

arrange a visit

Arrange a site visit.

Every quote follows a visit; nothing is priced over the phone.

Tell us the street, what needs doing and when suits for a look. We'll come round, measure it properly, and put the figure in writing — itemised, and fixed unless the scope changes. It's the slow way to price a job, and the only honest one.

It's also how you get to meet us before you decide whether we're the sort of people you'd let live in your hallway for a week.

Wet limestone terrace after rain with fresh white sash frames and a blackened-green front door, silver light behind the roofline — Lancaster · after rain · the ground we work on

the working area

Lancaster, Morecambe, Carnforth, Garstang and Kirkby Lonsdale — and the villages between.

Monday to Thursday: 07:30 – 17:30
Friday: 07:30 – 16:30
Saturday: 08:00 – 13:00