Decorating a London Flat During Refurbishment: How to Get It Right

Why Flat Refurbishments Require Careful Coordination

Decorating a London flat during a refurbishment project is fundamentally different from decorating a standalone house. You're working within a confined footprint, often with shared walls and communal areas governed by freeholder rules, coordinating with electricians, plumbers, joiners and kitchen fitters who each need their phase completed before the decorator can follow on. Get the sequencing wrong and you'll be repainting plastered walls after the kitchen splashback tiles crack, or touching up skirting boards after the new flooring is laid.

A good decorator working in a London flat refurbishment doesn't just paint — they fit into the project programme, protect other trades' work, and add value by flagging issues before they become expensive.

Understanding the Trade Sequence

In a typical London flat refurbishment, the correct sequence is broadly:

1. Strip-out (removal of existing kitchen, bathroom, carpets, fixtures)
2. First fix electrics and plumbing (chasing into walls, new cabling and pipework)
3. Structural work if any (steel beams, wall removals)
4. Plastering (new plaster over repaired substrates, skimming after first-fix)
5. First decoration phase — mist coat and first coats on ceilings and walls while there is still access for plastering touch-ups and before kitchens and bathrooms go in
6. Second fix (kitchen installation, bathroom suite fitting, electrical sockets and switches, joinery)
7. Second decoration phase — final finish coats on walls, ceilings and all woodwork, cutting in around new units and fixtures, painting new doors and frames

Trying to consolidate all painting into a single phase at the end is the most common mistake on flat refurbishment projects. Access is restricted, dust from late trades contaminates fresh surfaces, and rush inevitably follows.

Dust Protection: A Non-Negotiable

In a London flat, there is nowhere for dust to go. It will travel between rooms, settle into wet paint, and find its way into every corner. Effective dust management:

• Dust sheets on all floors before any preparation work — not just floor protection panels, but proper woven cotton dust sheets on top of Correx board in rooms being worked on
• Seal doorways to uninvolved rooms with dust sheet and tape during sanding operations
• HEPA-filtered vacuum attached to the sander — any floor sanding or wall sanding without extraction in a flat is unacceptable to other residents and ineffective as dust management
• Seal finished surfaces before letting in other trades: if you've achieved your final wall colour and the plumber needs to re-enter for a day, put Correx protection on the walls as well as the floors

Communal Areas: Know Your Obligations

In most London mansion blocks and purpose-built flat buildings, the communal areas — entrance hall, staircase landings, lifts — are the responsibility of the freeholder or managing agent to maintain. However:

• If your flat refurbishment requires bringing materials through the communal entrance and up the stairs, you are obligated to make good any damage to walls, skirting boards or floor coverings caused by your contractors
• Some freeholders require that any work affecting communal areas — even touch-in work — is carried out by their approved contractor or matches a specified paint colour. Check your lease before doing any communal area work.
• Where you have caused damage or where damage was pre-existing, a competent decorator can match existing colours accurately by colour-matching to the existing paint rather than guessing. Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 can be used as a spot primer on repaired areas within communal corridors where the existing paint may be semi-gloss or silk.

Working Efficiently in a Confined Space

A London flat, particularly a one- or two-bedroom apartment, leaves little room for manoeuvre. Experienced flat decorators know:

• Work in a strict order within each room: ceiling first, then walls, then woodwork. Never paint walls before the ceiling — ceiling splashes on fresh wall paint are guaranteed.
• Protect flooring early and leave it protected until the last possible moment. In a flat, even moving between rooms carries dust and debris on foot.
• Spray painting woodwork (skirting, architraves, doors) is often preferable in a flat refurbishment — it's faster, produces a finer finish, and reduces the risk of brush marks and runs in confined spaces with poor airflow. Airless spray with appropriate masking is our preferred approach.
• Open-plan spaces require careful colour zoning — a single large L-shaped kitchen-diner-sitting room in a new-build or converted flat needs a considered palette so that the cooking zone and the living zone read as coherent without being identical.

Planning Around Neighbours

In a mansion block or converted Victorian house, you have neighbours directly above, below and to either side. Be aware:

• Check building rules on working hours — most London residential buildings don't permit noisy work before 8am or after 6pm on weekdays, or at all on Sundays
• Oil-based paints and spray finishes generate fumes that travel through a building. Use low-VOC or water-based products wherever possible, and ensure maximum ventilation during application
• Notify neighbours in advance of anything that will produce significant noise or smell — it's professional practice and avoids complaints to the managing agent

Let Us Manage the Decoration Phase

We work alongside refurbishment contractors and project managers across London and are comfortable slotting into any programme. Contact us or request a free quote — we can advise on trade sequencing, specify the right products for the substrate and provide a detailed, room-by-room cost before the project starts.