Lighting in Leicester Square

Leicester Square is still a tacky, jarring place. It harbours a tourist restaurant named SCOFF & BANTER, after all, and no resident Londoner ever chooses to eat or drink there.

Some aspects of the square have improved in recent years though. The metalwork shown in the photo below is probably a misjudgement, as it’s probably going to date quite quickly — but the long, low, curving stone bench is appealingly solid, and the lighting spec is a definite success, both well designed and well executed.

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Trim colour series, no.1: Oval Room Blue

We’ll now be writing once every week or two on colour: looking at ideas, sources of inspiration and recent notable examples of where we or our clients have used colour successfully.

Our eye was caught by a recent post at The Chromologist, covering 10 living rooms.

This room uses Plummett from Farrow and Ball…

A living room decorated in Plummet by Farrow & Ball

And here is an example of another Farrow & Ball colour, Oval Room Blue

A living room decorated in Oval Room Blue by Farrow & Ball

Oval Room Blue was also used with success by the Trim crew on the exterior redecoration of the Myla and Davis hairdressing salon in Herne Hill, in south London…

The facade of the Myla & Davis hairdressing salon, painted in Oval Room Blue by Trim Decorating

 

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In praise of Mirka: dust-free decorating

Our thanks to Vince at Mirka UK for supplying us with the full Deros system: sander, Abranet abrasives, 5m hose and extraction unit.

The full system isn’t cheap but we’re delighted with its capability, especially in being able to sand larger areas of fine filler with little or no dust created.

We’ll write more in the coming months about our experience…

The Mirka Deros dust-free sanding system

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Linbide

The best hand tools are defined by what is left out: whizzy, expensive-sounding jargon usually indicates superfluous features.

One tool, a bombproof scraper made in New Zealand by Linbide, is superbly functional — it’ll last a lifetime, and I suspect the only reason you’d ever find yourself buying a second one is if you lost the first…

The Linbide scraper, made for painters and decorators

 

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