Taymouth Castle in Perthshire was built in the early 19th century by Campbells with no expense spared in the form of carvings, murals and decorative plasterwork, which were all incorporated into the building’s luxurious design.
As part of an ongoing £100 million redevelopment of the castle, leading Scottish decorating firm Mackay Decorators demonstrated first-class decorating craftsmanship to give the castle’s interior a stunning new look. The work carried out was deemed to be of such a high standard that it was nominated in the Special Interest category at the prestigious Johnstone’s Painter of the Year Awards.
The castle has stood proudly for over 200 years and the decorators had to ensure they provided a finish that remained faithful to the building's heritage, as well as one that could bring it roaring into the 21st century. Eight decorators and two apprentices put their skills to the ultimate test over a nine-month period for the first phase of a project which has seen the castle turned into a 5-star hotel and spa complex with 160 new build luxury homes built around a new golf course.
The highly skilled decorating team ensured all areas of the castle, including the state drawing room, library, whiskey room and Baron's Hall, were all given a finish befitting of a multi-million pound development. After years of neglect the castle’s various rooms were in need of attention and the decorators worked carefully to balance the need for restoration and preservation.
Almost 50% of the castle’s original paintwork had to be reproduced and skilfully blended in with the existing decoration after years of wear and tear. A number of techniques were employed in order to overcome the many challenges that the decorators faced and to create a seamless blend of old and new within the castle. The highly skilled decorators from Mackay Decorators painstakingly recreated the castle’s original guiding and gold leaf, updated the buildings marbling and employed free hand brushwork to create a finish worthy of royalty.
The decorators were indebted to a variety of products from the Johnstone's range, including Stormshield Pliolite Masonry, Flexible Undercoat & Gloss system and Acrylic Durable Matt. The team took full advantage of Johnstone's colour matching technology to ensure the new colours matched the existing colours that have been in place for over 100 years.
John Nevin from Mackay Decorators is a long time user of Johnstone’s products and knew they would be the perfect partner for this eye-catching project. He said: “For such an intricate and complex job it was vital that we used a product that we knew we could trust. Another plus to choosing Johnstone’s was its broad product range – they’ve got a paint for almost any job which meant we saved time not having to go back and forth searching for different products for different aspects of the project.”