Painter and decorator for Cherry Hinton homes
If you need a painter and decorator in Cherry Hinton, we are Graham Halpenny Decorators: a team of 12 qualified decorators based at Banworth House in Landbeach, roughly 8 miles away on the far side of Cambridge. We don't have an office in Cherry Hinton, but it sits well inside the area we cover, and Graham comes out to look at every job himself before he writes a quote.
Cherry Hinton started as a village and was gradually absorbed into Cambridge, and the houses reflect that. There are some older properties around the original village centre, a great many interwar and post-war semis and terraces, and newer homes added since. Most people know it for Cherry Hinton Hall and its park, where the Cambridge Folk Festival is held each summer.
What a typical semi or terrace needs
Many of the houses we're asked to look at in this part of Cambridge have had several owners and several rounds of DIY. That usually means thick layers of gloss on skirtings and doors, woodchip or textured paper on the walls, and now and then an Artex ceiling.
Preparation is where we spend the time. We strip old paper, fill and sand, and stain-block marks that would otherwise bleed through new paint, using Zinsser primers where they're needed. Sanding is done with Mirka dust-free sanders, which makes a real difference when you're still living in the house.
Artexed ceilings can be skimmed flat by our plasterer Lewis before we paint; our Artex skimming job in Cambridge shows what's involved. Other plaster repairs and skimming are arranged the same way, through the plasterers we work with, so you only deal with one company.
- Old paper stripped and walls washed down
- Cracks raked out, filled and sanded flush
- Stain block over water marks, nicotine or felt-tip
- Old gloss keyed and undercoated before the top coat
Inside and out: what Cherry Hinton customers ask us for
Rooms, halls and stairs
Most enquiries are for interior painting and decorating: a hall, stairs and landing before a sale, a tired living room, or a bedroom a child has outgrown. We use Dulux, Farrow & Ball and Little Greene, or good-quality paint you've chosen yourself. If you can't decide between two shades, we paint tester pots in a few places so you can judge them in the room's own light, morning and evening.
Kitchens
If the units are sound, repainting the kitchen cupboards changes the look for far less than a new kitchen. The doors are cleaned, keyed and primed properly so the new finish grips instead of peeling at the edges.
Outside the house
Front doors, window frames, soffits and fascias take the brunt of the weather. Our exterior painting service starts with a jet wash, with an anti-fungal wash where there's mould or algae, then repairs, then paint. We also paint sheds, gates and fences while we're there.
Our work a few miles away in Cambridge
We haven't published a Cherry Hinton project yet, so we won't claim one. What we can show is a good deal of work across Cambridge. In our Farrow & Ball redecoration, deep ceiling cracks were repaired and filled, and bare pine frames were primed with Zinsser before two coats of Elephant's Breath eggshell. That kind of groundwork applies to plenty of houses in Cherry Hinton.
Our whole-house renovation elsewhere in Cambridgeshire is another fair comparison: nicotine-stained paper stripped, Artex ceilings skimmed, new coving and skirtings, and the walls finished in Little Greene Inox in Intelligent Matt Emulsion, which is washable and touches up well once cured.
Customers' own words are on our reviews page, most of them from around Cambridge.
Booking a visit and planning the work
Ring Graham on 07854 408573, send a WhatsApp message or use the contact form. He'll visit at a time that suits you, look at the rooms and talk through colours and finishes. You'll then get a detailed written quotation, usually by email. We stick to it, and if something unexpected comes up we explain it and agree any extra cost before doing the work.
Timing depends on the size of the job and how busy our diary is. Graham will give you a realistic start date at the visit and tell you roughly how many days the work should take, so you can plan around it. A single bedroom is a very different job from a whole ground floor, and we'd rather be honest about that up front.
We'll need somewhere to park a van. Plenty of Cherry Hinton houses have a driveway; if yours doesn't, mention any restrictions at the visit and we'll plan around them. We tidy up at the end of each day, walk round the finished job with you, and don't expect payment until you're happy with it.
