Project of the Month – May 2020

The Churchill Room is situated on the lower Centre Curtain Corridor in the House of Commons.

The building was originally designed in 1898 by John McKean Brydon and completed by Sir Henry Tanner. Winston Churchill had a suite of offices on site during World War II and made his VE Day speech from the balcony of what’s now called the Churchill Room. 

The site was listed as Grade II in 1970.

The redecoration of the walls and ceiling to the iconic Winston Churchill room commenced at the beginning of April, with fast turnaround specified to be finished within the Easter bank holiday weekend.

Steve The Painter and his team were contracted to carry out the work. As a 7-day turnaround was critical, Steve decided upon a Graco airless spray application. As the building was in use during the day, the team worked nightshifts on weekdays to complete the project in the timeframe.

Dulux vinyl matt in ivory 3 was specified to match the paint used by the maintenance team for the rest of the building.

Prior to commencing the work Steve and his team set about the massive job of masking up the room. This was a mammoth task in itself. This is where the first and only problem occurred, the scaffold tower that had been delivered was only half the size required. After a few phone calls, a new scaffold was ordered to be delivered on Monday. 

By day two Steve and Ryan were able to start spraying the lower cornice and walls whilst Carys continued masking the other side of the room.

The third day was the bank holiday Monday. The scaffolding wasn’t delivered until 3pm and was needed in order to continue with the work. Steve worked through the night with Carys but Ryan had other jobs booked in for Tuesday morning, so wasn’t able to help. Upon arrival the scaffold had been delivered to the wrong side of the site. Steve and Carys moved it and erected it and got the ceiling sprayed that night by working well into early morning, bringing the paint work to 99% completed and finished any little touch ups on the fourth day. They then set about the task of taking down the masking and cleaning the room ready for use.

Steve The Painter

When Steve began decorating, he worked for a builder who had 3 employees all named Steve and he was referred to as “Steve the Painter”  This is where his company name originated from.

Steve works full-time with his wife Carys and offers all aspects of painting and decorating, specialising in airless and HVLP spraying, covering the whole of Essex.

Together, Steve and Carys have undertaken other significant projects, such as the stage areas to “We R Festival“, refurbishment of the historic themes barge ‘Fertile’ and work on HMS Light Ship Colne and other work in HMRC Westminster.

If you’d like to see more of Steve’s work check out his Facebook page Steve The Painter