McLoughlin Decorating’s subcontract with Edgewater included the internal & external redecorations to an existing hotel, rebranding itself from the RE Hotel to Mama Shelter Hotel, which is the first in the UK. This colourful hotel is nestled near Cambridge Heath station, twenty minutes’ walk from Shoreditch, one of the most prominent areas of the moment.

With a team of skilled painters and decorators, McLoughlin Decorating carried out the refurbishment of 196no guestrooms, along with Karaoke rooms, meeting rooms, kitchens and toilets.

We used a variety of different Johnstone’s Trade paints throughout the hotel, however as the Mama shelter brand originated from France, there was a specific paint brand called Tollens which the client wanted to use for the bathroom ceilings. The colour was an unusual yellow, therefore other brands were not able to colour match. This paint is only manufactured in France and is not distributed anywhere in the UK, meaning our main supplier Brewers had to travel over to France to collect this specific product. Johnstone’s paints were then approved as the new brand.

This refurb also included wallpaper installation on the ground floor, basement and front of house, this included the reception area, bar and library. The client once again wanted to keep the hotel authentic to the original hotels in France and only wanted to use the specified wallpaper which is only manufactured in France. This meant once again contacting the companies in France with our quantities and having it shipped over from France.

The building being 10-20 years old is bricked and powder coated insert panels. The client wanted the external of the whole building black, we therefore sourced Johnstone’s new Smooth Masonry which has made an incredible looking finish to the building. The powdered panels have had a specialist adhesion finish that we sourced from Brewers.

External decorations were ready to take place however our technique of using cradles attached to the roof to get to the side of the building unfortunately did not go to plan, this was due to the roof being made up of metal components that were too weak to hold the cradles making it unsafe to work. Due to these circumstances we had to re-think the access and use a cherry picker, which meant gaining a permit to work and closure of the road.

Works were completed on time and within budget, and to the high quality specification achieved through a pre-defined schedule of internal quality inspections.