Aloft Hotel, Liverpool

The old Royal Insurance Building in the centre of Liverpool had stood empty for 20 years and, under the watchful eye of English Heritage as it is a Grade II listed building, was to be redeveloped into a 116 bedroom luxury hotel together with meeting rooms, bar and kitchens.

Using Dulux, Tekura and Vescom products, the Story team were asked to mist coat all ceilings and walls once made good, paint all reveals, cills, walls, woodwork and ceilings as well as applying wallpaper and bringing the full decoration of the project together.

The 110-year-old building was redesigned to make the most of its architecture with the ornate ceilings being finely detailed and redecorated back to their natural glory. Works to the ceilings involved careful preparation to existing ornate features including scraping, sanding, filing and applying primer and stabilising solution before being finished in Grade 2 conservation paint by Zinsser, this was applied by spray, brush and roller.

The city centre location proved difficult for deliveries and access but precise planning and programming by the Story team, together with the client ensured minimal disruption to the general public. Other logistic problems existed as some of the work involved specialist access equipment as the ceilings were up to 6 metres high in places.

The paint on the existing stairwells was stripped back as it was in a very poor condition and was then stabilised and brought up to a finish in line with the desired specification.

Works to the bedrooms and corridors included woodwork being finished with Dulux water-based satinwood, this involved the team painting the existing windows prior to the installation of the secondary glazing. This proved a big challenge on the job and left no room for error.

The bedroom ceilings were finished with 3 coats of Dulux diamond matt and all walls finished with a mixture of Tektura and Vescom wallcoverings. The wallcoverings proved to be a challenge as all bedrooms were different size and had different ceiling heights which meant we needed specialist access equipment in every single bedroom!