2026 so far

How is it the start of May already! Nearly halfway through the year and I’ve yet to do a blog post, poor form on my part but as you’ll find out below I’ve been busy on quite a few projects.

The Johnstone Arms was a 19th century pub, with the oldest part of the building being constructed in the 18th century. After closing its doors over 80 years ago, it’s since become residential.

The initial phase of this project was to plaster most of the first floor with hot-mixed lime plaster, walls and ceilings, with the ceilings expertly lathed by the client himself. Dry-slaked, hot-mixed mortar was applied as two coats of render to the walls and finished with my hot-mixed lime top coat.

I was here over the winter and loved the free rein in forming these curved edges on chimney breasts and window reveals.

Cow manure was mixed with quicklime and applied as a base coat to the chimney breast walls to act as a natural stain block and prevent the staining from soot bleeding through onto the face of the plaster. It works!

Another, smaller, project I’ve been working on involved a, rough finished, lime render feature wall in this living room. It’s not being painted so the colour of the mix had to be right. The other walls were two coats of, hot-mixed, hemp lime insulating render and my fine finishing coat again.

I’ve recently completed the plastering of this outbuilding.

The building itself is of clay block construction, walled with lime. The clay block was first limewashed, to act as a primer, preventing excessive suction. Two coats of lime render and a third top coat finish were then applied.

I also got to go back to a job that was completed last year and see the finished article.

I love how this one has turned out and I’m a big fan of the rustic limewashed finish.

I’ll endeavour to be more prolific on the blog writing front. I’ve got some great projects lined up for the summer, a couple of which are on the Yorkshire coast, so I’m looking forward to bringing you updates full of sunshine and sand. Enjoy your bank holiday weekend.