Britain & Co.

26/05/2026

The paint on these walls came from the garden.
Clay excavated on site, refined and hand-mixed into a bespoke finish. Applied alongside other natural paints and joinery finished with Marseille soap. Every material in the same aesthetic register.
This is a Victorian family home near Hampstead Heath, retrofitted to Passivhaus EnerPHit standard within a Conservation Area. The brief from the inspirational was performance and heritage, not one or the other.
The project is featured in the April 2026 issue of Premier Construction and has been shortlisted for a 2026 RIBA London Award.
If you are specifying finishes for a heritage retrofit, we are always glad to talk.
Full feature at britaindecoration.com

18/05/2026

A privilege to spend London Craft Week at Painters’ Hall this year, demonstrating oil gilding on architectural mouldings alongside our fellow Freemen of the
On the bench: a decorative panel from , egg-and-dart and other profiles from , and gold leaf generously supplied by . Also on display, Chris’s father’s gilding cushion and knife, still in use after 70+ years.
The best part is always the conversations: with visitors curious about historic finishes, with fellow makers swapping techniques across trades, and with the next generation coming through training routes like the Heritage Skills Programme.

04/12/2025

02/12/2025

Here’s something unexpected: limewash dries in a completely different pattern every single time. Even on the same wall.

This unpredictability is part of its ancient charm. Historically, households would repaint their limewashed walls regularly, each layer settling into a soft echo of past colours. Today, most clients choose limewash deliberately for the same quality people once tried to cover up.

In recent projects, we’ve seen designers push limewash in adventurous ways: layered tonal schemes, delicate clouding effects, directional brushmarks and washes. But achieving this relies on deep material knowledge. You can’t “force” limewash. You have to understand how it breathes.

That’s why collaboration is essential. We work closely with architects and designers to align vision with material truth. Sometimes the material gives you exactly what you imagined. Sometimes it offers something better. Our job is to guide the process so the result feels intentional, timeless, and beautifully alive.

There’s something magical about a surface that continues to shift with the daylight.

Would you choose limewash over a modern matt paint?