Drew Decor was in the mix to re paint and renovate the Ballroom at the Royal Victoria Hotel in Sheffield. After a couple of meetings with the owner and managers we was pleased to be informed that we had won the tender to take on the project.
And what a room to work in and what a building with so much history to work on, The Drew Decor team was looking forward to working its magic on this project.
Built in 1862 it was given its ‘Royal’ prefix after a visit of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1905.
Spookily, we decorated a Victorian house just up the road in Crosspool, Sheffield with King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra faces engraved above the front door. I did a blog on it at the time with the photos of the stone faces which you can see here.
If you do read that particular blog, make note of Queen Alexandras face, it looks as if she is rolling her eyes! BUT why!! There was a story about that but I have signed the Official Secrets Act so enough on that and back to he hotel.
The Ballroom was well in need of a revamp. We was given the task to paint the wood paneling, fire surrounds, massive windows and pillars.
But what was on the wood panelling? That's what first went through my mind. There was a heavy wood grain effect on the wood panelling applied by what we would call a rocker.
The woodwork was massively damaged by trolleys of food and drink miss guided into the pillars and decades of partying.
The main concern was how good we could make it due to the extensive damage. We applied a quick test area that we did over a couple of days and the results was pretty good. But doing a small area was one thing, the whole job is another.
This image show the stages of preparation. First we would sand down the heavily grained wood paneling with our dustless sanders by Mirka. We use the dustless sanders on all our jobs. It leaves you with a smoother finish and is a lot quicker and healthier than hand sanding with no atmospheric dust landing on your work or in your lungs. Once the prep had been complete we would prime the woodwork then fill and caulk all areas (bit of a task).
After the filling we would once again sand the surface down before applying three coats of Tikkullia paint with our Graco spray system. We used Tikkullia paint as this is one of the best paints to use through a spray system. Other paints can be used but this particular paint is designed for spay guns.
So this was a quick example for the owner to see what could be achieved and the end colour in six different stages.
D-Day.
To decorate the Ballroom at the Royal Victoria in Sheffield. It was January, dark mornings and dark nights so we opted for some extra light courtesy of the Festool Duo Light System to cast natural daylight onto our working area.
Mirkas turning and burning it was a hive of activity. Here are some of the Drew Decor team grafting on the preparation work. Sheffield's finest.
You can see the scale of it from this image and how high it was. A lot of area to deal with but the Mirka Deros and Mirka Does made light work of it. But as normal there was still some had sanding to do on the mouldings and more trickier areas.
Once the preparation was complete we ordered in the Tikkurila, a fantastic paint that is designed to be spayed and leave a hard durable finish that is needed for high traffic areas. Surely this would stand up to a few years of partying and conferences?
The Graco spray system is our go to spay machine, leaving you with a floor-less finish and a little bit quicker than using a brush on such a large tricky area.
Here we have different stages of the job. As you can see the pillars are prepared ready for the primer, Callum is on the hop up lightly sanding the eggshell finish making it ready for another coat of paint while Nick is filling in the indentations and holes on the primed surface.
Here is a close up of the wood paneling after the preparation, Primer and first coat of eggshell. After the first coat of eggshell has been applied you can see that the surface has been lightly sanded and fine filled ready for the second coat of eggshell. We used Toupret fine surface filler for the second fill. This filler is designed to fill indentations and holes that are less than 1mm deep.
You can see in this image how powerful the Festool Duo Light System is, lighting up the whole area. Ready for its final spray coat of Tikkuria paint. Looks like a scene out of Ghostbusters!
And here you have it, The Royal Victoria Hotels Ballroom it all its glory. Ready for your event! Perfectly finished and renovated to a high standard.
The Drew Decor team really enjoyed renovating this ballroom back to its former glory. A lot of care and attention went into this painting and decorating project to leave the best possible finish we could. Really happy with the finish look and workmanship on he ballroom.
If you are interested in using our painting and decorating services get in contact today. You will find all the relevant information on our website.