Salon Backwash Area, Lipstick and Locks

The backwash area at Lipstick and Locks in Sudbury, rebuilt over eight days without the salon losing a day's trading.

That constraint shaped the whole job. A salon cannot open without its backwash basins, so the basins were de-plumbed at the start of each shift and re-plumbed before we left — every day, for eight days, working out of hours so the salon could keep trading. It is slower than stripping the room out and walking away for a fortnight, and it is the only way to do this kind of work in a business that still has customers booked in.

Making good what was behind

A wall of artificial foliage came out first, and the plasterboard, ceiling and skirtings behind it were repaired. Water damage in the ceiling was primed with stain block before decorating — staining bleeds back through emulsion otherwise, usually a fortnight after everyone has gone home.

The tiling

The bay was already tiled, vertically. Roughly 950 antique white tiles replaced them, following the same vertical set-out and run floor to ceiling — it is the right format for a low bay, because the vertical line draws the eye up and makes the ceiling feel higher than it is. Keeping the set-out also meant the new tiling sat quietly against the rest of the salon instead of announcing itself. Brushed copper trims, antique white grout, and a sealer over the top so the grout stays the colour it started.

The niche and the shelf

The niche was already there but unfinished, with a bare lintel across it. It was tiled out with its shelf formed from the tile itself rather than bought in, and an LED strip set behind — which meant altering the electrics to feed it. It now holds the retail products and lights them properly. An oak floating shelf, 2.25m wide and 0.3m deep, went up on concealed brackets so nothing interrupts the line.

The walls are finished in a limewash blush, and the original patterned floor and the basins themselves were kept.