Web Design for Painters & Decorators
You’ve got two busy seasons that need two different websites — or one built properly.
The counter-cycle nobody plans for
- £410Single room
- £445Wallpaper hanging
- £915Kitchen refresh
- £2,380Exterior painting
- £3,260Full interior decoration on a three-bed
Now split those by season. Exterior work happens roughly May to September. Interior work happens roughly October to March.
That’s unusual, and it’s an advantage. Unlike a landscaper you aren’t facing a dead half-year — you’re facing two markets that alternate. The problem is that most decorators’ websites treat it as one undifferentiated “painting and decorating” offer, so they end up marketing the wrong thing at the wrong time.
In August you should be selling exterior work while quietly building an interior pipeline for October. In January you should be selling interiors while taking exterior bookings for spring. One site, two campaigns, switched with the weather. Almost nobody does this, and it’s the difference between a full year and a lumpy one.
What the site has to overcome
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“My mate can do it.”
This is your defining objection and no other trade has it in quite the same way. Everybody knows someone who paints. Your website’s job isn’t proving you can hold a brush — it’s showing the difference between a proper job and a cheap one. Cut lines, prep, how many coats, what you do about the bits nobody thinks about until they’re living with them.
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Disruption.
You’re in someone’s home for days. Dust sheets, tidiness, whether you clear up each evening, whether they can use the room, what happens with pets and kids. Say all of it explicitly. It matters more than any photograph on the site.
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Prep is invisible and it’s most of the value.
Show it anyway. Filling, sanding, caulking, priming — the stuff a cheap quote skips and the customer discovers eighteen months later when it’s flaking. Photographs of prep work are deeply unglamorous and they win jobs, because they’re the only thing that explains the price difference.
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Show ranges by room.
A standard bedroom, a hallway with stairs and a landing, a three-bed exterior. Decorating is one of the few trades where customers can genuinely compare like for like, so being upfront wins more than it costs.
The repeat cycle you’re not using
Interior decoration comes round every three to five years. Exterior, more like five to seven.
Almost nobody in this trade ever contacts a past customer. Think about what that is: a list of people who liked your work enough to pay for it, who are now due again, and who would happily take a call. It’s the cheapest work available to you and it needs nothing more than a record of who, what and when.
One letter or email to five years of past customers usually outperforms a quarter’s advertising. It just requires having kept the list.
What we’d actually build
A homepage that changes emphasis with the season — exterior forward in spring, interior forward in autumn — rather than saying the same thing all year.
Separate sections for interior and exterior, because they’re different buyers. Room-by-room price ranges on the interior side. A prep page that shows the unglamorous work in detail, which will feel odd and will win you jobs. A page on what it’s like having you in the house — hours, dust, tidiness, how you protect floors and furniture.
A gallery organised by room type rather than by project, because people search for “hallway” and “kitchen cupboards”, not for a house they’ve never seen. Commercial work gets its own section if you do it, with schedules, insurance and out-of-hours working.
And behind it, a record of every customer and what was done, so the three-to-five-year reminder is possible.
The mistakes we see most on decorators’ sites
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Selling the painting instead of the prep.
The painting is the bit anyone can do. The prep is what you’re actually charging for and it’s usually invisible on the website.
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No mention of tidiness or disruption.
It’s the number one anxiety of anyone letting a decorator into their home, and addressing it directly converts better than any photograph.
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Marketing the same offer all year.
Exterior in January and interior in July is money thrown away. The site should shift with the season.
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Never contacting past customers.
Three to five years passes, they redecorate, and they use whoever came to mind. It should have been you and it costs almost nothing to be.
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Refusing to give any indication of price.
People genuinely cannot tell whether a room is £300 or £900. A range gets you shortlisted; silence gets you skipped.
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Photos taken with a phone in a dark room.
Decorating photographs badly without light. It’s worth doing properly once.
What’s a job actually worth?
Average job £915 · jobs won per month 8 · enquiries 20
Four in ten. Get to six and it’s £21,960 a year.
Every enquiry lands in Gaffer
Every job records the rooms, the date and what was done, so in four years that customer is a reminder rather than a memory. Quotes from templates. Follow-ups run themselves, which matters because decorating customers get three quotes and take a fortnight to decide.
Questions decorators ask
Is a website worth it? I work off recommendations.
Recommendations get checked online — that’s exactly the reason. Nobody rings a decorator without a look first.
Should I show prices?
Room-based ranges, yes. You’re one of the few trades where customers can genuinely compare, and hiding the number just means they assume the worst.
Commercial or domestic?
Different sites, really. Commercial wants schedules, insurance and out-of-hours. Domestic wants tidiness and photos. If you do both, split the pages properly.
How do I compete with someone charging half?
By showing the prep. That’s the entire difference and a cheap quote never mentions it.
Do I need photos of every job?
No — one good example of each room type is plenty. Consistency beats volume here.
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