- When we bought our new house, it needed a bit of work including a total re-decoration. Our builder recommended Fiona to us, I have to say I had never met a female decorator before so I was intrigued. Once Fiona started to re-painted our entire house both my husband and I felt it was a pleasure to have her work for us. I found her to be a thoroughly pleasant, professional and very hardworking person. We discussed colours and shades and I really felt involved even though she was doing all the hard work! Her attention to detail was brilliant and 5 years on our house still looks great!
Kish Pinto - When I first found out about Fiona's service, I thought, 'What a brilliant idea. I'd like to find out more.' Now that she has worked for me, I can say that I am very impressed by the quality of Fiona's work and her speed. In six days she removed three layers of wallpaper in three rooms and painted those three rooms*, applying multiple coats of paint. Since she had some extra time, she also volunteered to paint a large living room wall for me, something I had been intending to do but could never find the time for. What a pleasure it was for me to have lovely bedrooms and a much brighter living room within a week.
As a former Property Manager, I've hired many painters over the years, so I recognize quality painting, and I have a good idea about what can be done in a certain time frame. I have also removed wallpaper and painted my self, and so I understand the challenges involved. I know a good deal when I see one; and Fiona provides an excellent quality service at a good price.
Knowing that Fiona was house-sitting for us, enabled us leave our cats behind with a clear conscious. Fiona doted on them and spoiled them even more than we do. Since I have small children, it was perfect for us that Fiona painted in our absence. When we showed the boys their newly painted rooms, they had exactly the open-jawed, wide-eyed joyful amazement that I imagined. As I had mentioned to Fiona, at their age, they didn't know any better than ratty and torn ugly wallpaper; but I wanted them to know the difference.
Personally, Fiona is intelligent, personable, and a lovely person all the way around. I have already recommended her to my friends, and I know that over the years I will ask her to work for us more.
* In this instance just the walls were prepared and painted.
Lael Bajet - We have employed Fiona Hayes on a number of occasions both in our UK properties and in our two French houses.
Fiona has always worked efficiently, quickly and carefully. She is helpful, cheerful and amazingly versatile and has tackled a wide range of projects for us with excellent results. These have included interior refurbishment of a 2 bedroom flat, which we let out and exterior replacement of guttering and painting of windows, doors and sun loggia in our Arts and Crafts house.
We also flew Fiona out to France to entirely redecorate our 2000ft loft style house with 15ft high-beamed ceilings.
We have never seen someone handle scaffolding of that size so aptly single handily!
We would recommend her without reservation.
Dr & Mrs.Fritz Schellander - It was such a relief to know that our home was occupied and looked after while we were away in January this year, and especially not to have to worry about frozen pipes. Not only that, but it was blissful to arrive home to freshly decorated rooms having avoided all the disruptions of decorating - for Fiona not only decorated, she did all the hard work of moving furniture and fittings necessary for the job.
Fiona works extremely hard and to a very high standard. Having left her with a wish list - hall, stairs and landing; kitchen, shower room and utility; next door bedsit with kitchen, stairs and shower plus a general touching up of numerous wheelchair scuffs of the paintwork, I was quite thrilled on my return to discover the entire job done.
Fiona's charges are very reasonable. I find her completely trustworthy and would have no hesitation in using her again or in recommending her to others as a first class painter and decorator/house sitter.
Ann Morris - Fiona took on the outside painting of our large Edwardian house this summer (2009), having been recommended by a friend for whom she had worked recently.
The house had not been painted for at least 10 years and some of the woodwork was quite discoloured and some really rotten!
Fiona took all this in her stride, and patiently worked away repairing, replacing and filling all the bits that needed it - in several cases going back several times to get the quality result she wanted. Then it seemed several coats of undercoat, interspersed with more filling, before the final gloss was applied.
After all that, I was impressed that she asked me to make a detailed inspection and to tell her about any imperfections with which I was not happy. All my comments were accepted without question and another day was spent sorting everything out.
A most impressive job, done on budget and within the time we requested. I'd be happy for any prospective client to contact me and come and see what a good job Fiona did.
John Thompson - My husband met Fiona when she joined BNI (Business Networking International). As a member of a networking group you can only confidently refer people to other members if you are certain that they will do a good job. Therefore the best way to find out is to test out their services yourself.
After speaking to a couple of very satisfied past clients we asked Fiona to completely redecorate our kitchen including the many cupboards and drawers (a mammoth task). Fiona completed this while we were away on holiday, took in our post and watered our hanging baskets which all worked perfectly.
We returned to find that Fiona had done an excellent and very thorough job at a competitive price and we strongly recommend her.
Julie Bassi (Aug 2009) - Fiona has just completed the painting of our house.She has cleared our gutters and stained the fascias,soffits and all exterior windows.She has also painted the shed,a garden bench,our downstairs shower-room and the garage door.All this work has been done to a remarkably high standard and to an agreed and most reasonable price.
Of particular note is that the work was all done while we were away on holiday.So Fiona was also acting as a house-sitter in a sense and we can add honest and reliable to her list of qualities.
We have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Fiona as your ideal decorator.We will be recommending her to family and friends and naturally we will use her services again in the future.
E.Jones July 2010
Mr & Mrs E G Jones of Bexley,Kent - In February 2010 whilst we were abroad on holiday we engaged Fiona Hayes to paint our landing,stairs,hall,kitchen and utility room.Also included were certain windows in metal cottage panes,a notoriously fiddly job.Fiona also lived in and looked after our house during our time away.
On our return we were delighted to find all the work completed to ahigh standard.Fiona called on us to ensure that we were satisfied with the work and offered to enhance any part which did not fully meet our expectations,which proved unnecessary.Being an older building our house is by no means easy to decoratehaving various nooks and crannies and obstructions to a smooth flow of work.
Fionas charges are very reasonable,she is efficient,entirely trustworthy and her work is professional and of high quality.She also takes care to protect furniture and furnishings whilst work is ongoing.We have no hesitation in recommending her services.
Peter and Gillian Grose ,March 2010
Peter and Gillian Grose - Fiona Hayes has painted the outside of my house and I have found her hardworking ,consciencious and tidy.
Her work is good and she is always pleasant.
I will employ her again.
M.Morgan,Crowborough
Mrs Mary Morgan - What attracted me about employing Fiona whilst we were on holiday was the fact that our most lived-in room of the house would be decorated whilst we were away and that our most valued possession our dog Jenny would be well looked after at the same time.
All objectives were achieved brilliantly at a very reasonable cost taking into account the fact that we had no kennel fees to pay. We are now looking at what rooms need to be painted next year!
Mr N Williams,Tunbridge Wells, April 2010
Neil Williams - We are thrilled with the result of Fionas tiling.
She did everything with such care and made sure everything was perfect from the prep work to get our walls in shape to the final polish of the tiles at the finish.
As it was the kitchen that was tiled she happily worked around family life and even kept the dogs entertained.
The room was tidied each evening and when she left the place was spotless.
Iwould recommend Fionas tiling to anyone,you won't be disappointed.
Michael Yeowell,Tunbridge Wells.
Michael Yeowell
