Interior Consultants & Conservators
This category covers advisers and conservators working on historic interiors as a whole rather than on a single trade: researching and reinstating decorative schemes, analysing paint and wallpaper, advising on textiles, upholstery and furnishings, and coordinating the specialist trades an interior needs. Their work usually starts with evidence, because most historic interiors carry many campaigns of decoration and the question of which one to present is a conservation decision. They are also frequently the people who protect contents and finishes while building work is going on around them.
What this category covers
- Research and reinstatement of historic decorative schemes
- Paint, wallpaper and finishes analysis and interpretation
- Textile, upholstery and furnishing advice and conservation
- Coordination of specialist decorative trades
- Protection of interiors and contents during building works
Clough Harris Limited
Clough Harris Limited is a decorative arts company specialising in gilding, marbling, ...
James Clague Architects Ltd
James Clague Architects is a RIBA Chartered Practice with offices in Canterbury, ...
Working on a historic interior
Investigate before you decide. Paint scrapes, wallpaper fragments behind later fittings, shadows on plaster and surviving fixings will usually tell you what the room looked like at different dates. That evidence, rather than taste, is what supports a scheme at consent stage.
Choose the date deliberately. An interior of several periods can legitimately be presented as it is, returned to a particular phase, or conserved as found. Whichever is chosen, the reasoning should be recorded, because it determines what gets removed.
Remember that interiors are listed. Panelling, plasterwork, chimneypieces, staircases, shutters and fitted joinery are part of the listed building, and altering or removing them requires consent even though nothing is visible from outside.
Protect what is there during works. Most damage to historic interiors happens during unrelated building work: dust, impact, humidity swings and loss of small fittings. Protection, recording and a named person responsible for it should be in the contract, not assumed.
Questions to ask
How can I find out the original colours of a room?
Through paint analysis. A conservator takes small samples and examines the layers under magnification, sometimes with pigment analysis, to establish the sequence of schemes. Fragments surviving behind later fittings and shutters often provide the clearest evidence.
Does redecorating a listed building need consent?
Ordinary redecoration in the same materials generally does not, but work affecting historic decorative surfaces, removing panelling or plaster, or covering significant finishes can. Where an interior carries historic decoration, ask before starting.
What is the risk to interiors during building work?
Dust, vibration, impact damage, humidity change and the loss of small fittings, most of it avoidable. Recording the interior, protecting or removing vulnerable elements and making one person responsible for protection are the usual controls.
All 4 businesses listed under Interior Consultants & Conservators
- Aldis & May Ltd Suffolk
- Clough Harris Limited Kent
- James Clague Architects Ltd Kent
- Spencer & Fry Hertfordshire
Directory information is provided to help visitors identify potentially relevant specialists and suppliers. Inclusion does not constitute a recommendation, approval or guarantee by Tuscan Foundry Products. Please check current services, credentials, availability and suitability directly with each business.