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Where Artistry Begins
Real metal leaf laid by hand on walls, ceilings, mouldings, mirrors and lettering. Zavoré is based in Birmingham, and our gilders work in Exeter homes and businesses.
Light does something special when it meets real metal leaf, and gilding in Exeter has plenty of rooms, frames and shop fronts to work with. Zavoré lays gold, silver and copper leaf by hand on walls, ceilings, cornice, mirrors, furniture and signs, and restores worn gilding too. We are based in Birmingham, where our Academy is. Send photos of the surface you have in mind and tell us the look you want.
The city has a long run of well proportioned rooms. Georgian drawing rooms in Southernhay and Colleton Crescent, tall Victorian parlours and the rooms above old merchants' premises near the Quay all have mouldings that were made to be noticed, and a little gold picks them out beautifully.
One cornice, the rose over a light fitting or the panel mouldings in a dining room can be gilded while the rest of the scheme stays as it is. Gold does not tarnish, so the warmth it brings stays for generations, and in a north facing Devon room on a grey day it is a real help.
Many Exeter homes also hold a mirror or frame that has lost patches of its gilding over the decades. Careful cleaning, consolidating and regilding where leaf is missing can bring it back, matched to the original as closely as possible.
Walls, alcoves, domes and ceilings can be gilded as a whole, and a gilded background gives a hand painted mural or chinoiserie a special glow. Hand lettered gold on a fascia board or shop window suits a city with so many independent businesses, as it does an office door or a house name.
Real gold leaf is beaten thinner than paper and laid over a size. Silver reads cooler and brighter, though bare silver darkens, so it is sealed unless you want an aged look. Copper glows pink and warm. Dutch metal, the imitation leaf, is cheaper to buy and always sealed, and we name the metal on every quote. Our gilding page covers the options.
Water gilding is built on gesso and bole and can be burnished until it looks like solid metal, so it belongs on fine frames and furniture. Oil gilding is tougher and suits walls, mouldings and signs. Plenty of jobs need both.
Tell us about the piece with photos and sizes. A sample of the leaf and sheen comes next, so you can judge the metal in the room itself before work begins.
Good gilding is won in the preparation, so we survey the surface first and say if it needs work. Then the leaf goes on by hand, and is burnished, toned, distressed or sealed to suit where the piece will live. Our gilding installation page explains the stages.
Because Exeter is some way from Birmingham, a bigger scheme is arranged in blocks of days, with the gilders staying until it is done. We fix dates after sample and price are approved. If the building is listed, the owner should check with the council about consent before work to mouldings or walls.
What we install we also teach, and gilding has a course of its own. The gilding course runs at our centres in Birmingham, London and Manchester. For more ideas, see our wider decorative work page.
Gold leaf lifts almost any other finish. A carved wall catches it on the raised edges, see bas relief in Exeter and sculptural plaster in Exeter, and a gilded ground can carry murals in Exeter. Gold also sits well beside the glass of mosaics in Exeter and the deep shine of lacquered walls in Exeter. It shows off period cornice and coving in Exeter perfectly, while artificial rock in Exeter and travertino in Exeter give a stone backdrop. For the full range read our decorative finishes specialist in Exeter page, and for polished lime walls Venetian plastering in Exeter.
Yes, it is real gold beaten into very thin sheets. Imitation leaf is a different alloy, and our quote will always say which is being used.
Usually, yes. Dull, flaking or patchy gilding is cleaned and steadied, then regilded where leaf has gone, with the match kept close to the original.
Yes, and it is one of the simplest ways to make a period room feel richer. Gold or silver goes on the raised detail only.
Yes. Boards and glass can both be lettered in gold leaf.
Telephone 07592 929191 (Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm) or write to sales@zavore.co.uk with photos, rough measurements and the postcode. If you are pairing gold with plaster, the sample board is the place to begin.
Order a sample board tinted to your colour, or send photos and rough measurements of the walls in Exeter and we will come back to you with the right finish and a clear quote.
For a quote, email photos and measurements of your walls to sales@zavore.co.uk or call 07592 929191, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm.
See every area we cover.
Our main services: Venetian plaster installation, limewash installation, every decorative installation, Venetian plastering courses, the limewash course and our decorative finishes.
We also supply the trade by post, wherever you are. The shop ships tracked across the UK, and the Academy teaches the finishes in Birmingham, London and Manchester.
Providing luxury finishes for the most prestigious addresses in the world
Venetian plaster, limewash, microcement, tadelakt, metallics, sculptural plaster and gold leaf, supplied and installed by our own team, with Venetian plaster taught at our Birmingham studio.
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