Property signs are often requested by property renovation companies, especially in London, as so many have portico pillars & grand entrances.
This property in Paddington was in need of both pillars being re-signwritten & the transom front window too, which hadn’t been re-painted in a long time & wasn’t done very professionally to begin with.
The original numbers had been painted in some strange paint which had hrdened but become flakey so perhaps hadn’t been painted in many a year. The numbers had to be removed with a blade & chipped at & scraped off to start again with a clean window.
The paint came off without too much problem, but is often better to get a specialist to do it, so the glass doesn’t become scratched or crack etc. As can be seen it was several layers thick & had changed colour over time too.
The drawing for the new property signs was produced prior to being on site. The top, bottom & centre lines were drawn, then the vertical & horizontal centre lines were drawn on the window in chalk pencil. The centre lines of both the drawing & the window were then lined up & that ensures the signwriting is in the centre of the window. The Design is then traced from the drawing onto the window.
The signwriting is then produced using oil based paint & a specialist signwriters brush.
Usually the signwriting is produced on the inside of the glass. its not essential it can just give a better finish. On this occasion, as the previous property signs were on the outside then it was requested that the new signs be on the outside too. For this reason the signwriting was given a 2nd coat to make more opaque. Once dry the numbers are painted over with a clear varnish for protection.
The other property signs that needed painting were the street numbers on the portico pillars. These are painted depending how others in the street look, or how they were previously generally. This is so London is in keeping & keeps its style & tradition of having impressive buildings & are well presented. However standards have slipped due to property renovation contractos trying to get the work done as cheaply as possible. That leads to them getting someone unskilled or uncaring to paint the signs. That leads to awful looking signs like the ones on the other buildings within this property’s street.
These are just 2 examples of how bad the other property signs were! So in this instance the property signs weren’t painted to match the surrounding ones, but to set the trend in re-establishing well painted ones. The only thing kept to the same as the others was that the numbers were turned outwards from the building entrance, as all the others were. The ‘font’ was changed to a more in keeping & traditional style with more finess for a property of its standing & location.
The pillars finished on either side of the entrance. The numbers matching the other in the fanlight window. This makes the whole entrance to the building far more presentable.
Traditional & Contemporary Hand Painted Sign Writing in London
Sign Writer Traditional Signs of London
info@traditionalsignsoflondon.uk