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John Stanley Plastering, with over 25 years in Poole, Dorset, is your go-to for precision and quality in plastering and rendering services. Our bespoke solutions transform every space into a masterpiece of aesthetic and functional elegance.

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    Reasons To Choose Decorative Coving

    Home — Blog — Reasons To Choose Decorative Coving

    What is Cornice & Coving?

    Some may be unfamiliar with the idea of a cornice or corning within a home or property building regarding how best it would affect the functionality or visuals of a room, whether it be living rooms, hallways, bathrooms or a reception hall.

    Coving or skirting boards is the name of the plain mould that many plasterers and home designers use to decorate, install and bridge the joints of a wall and ceiling; they also include architraves used to outline the doors of a property. It is often a way to create uniformity concerning the room’s dimensions.

    A cornice is a similar product, yet it tends to be more decorative, providing patterns carved explicitly into the mouldings with varying drops and projections that add character to what would be a standard border.

    The Difference

    The main difference between the two is the dimensions/foot sizes and the level of detail. Coving is simpler and tends to be made into a more traditional quarter-circle shape. A cornice is typically designed in a more ornate fashion and, due to its immense detailing, is less level or uniform in its dimensions.

    Cornices can be used to decorate the room; one of the most significant and widespread examples includes the installation of ceiling roses, particularly ones above light fittings, which add an elegant element to any home.

    Tips for choosing and using coving

    Choosing a fitting coving that suits your home and complements its overall aesthetic and dimensions can be challenging. There are so many factors to consider that you may miss or forget, which could lead to complications during the fitting and installation process. Here are a few of our top tips for choosing the best coving for you and your home or property:

    Styles Of Coving

    Over the years, coving styles have changed to strategically suit and support the evolution of modern home designs. If you wish to add coves to your rooms, consider the household you live in and its structural design elements. If you live in more traditional cottages, old houses, period homes or new-build contemporary homes or flats, you’ll want to pick a coving that aligns nicely.

    If you’re struggling for design inspiration or new ideas, you can do plenty of research online or perhaps nip to your neighbour’s houses if they are of a similar build.

    Hide Imperfections

    Rooms without coving can frequently appear bare, and the added effect of a new sleek cove can be genuinely transformative. It’s also a fantastic way to disguise hairline cracks, holes and other imperfections to create tidy line barriers between your wallpaper or wall colour and the ceiling colour.

    Period Coving

    Period coving is created using plaster, and many coving specialists across the country design, make and fit gorgeous coves that perfectly fit homes of a more Victorian, Edwardian or Georgian layout. We do not recommend DIY in this circumstance; period coving is far more detailed and requires highly skilled professionals to ensure it perfectly fits with high-quality adhesive.

    Cornices are incredibly heavy, requiring careful, precise cuts and screwing into each of the different walls. DIYers who enjoy hands-on work or painting around a property or home should stick to lightweight, plainer coving, or Gyproc coving designs, as these are much more straightforward.

    Plain coving can be found in plaster or polystyrene materials, yet polystyrene tends to be more easily damaged. So while it may be easier to apply polystyrene coving, we suggest you play safe with plaster for a longer lifespan.

    Right Size For The Room

    Getting coving that is the right size for your home or specific rooms is highly significant when shopping around for the ideal design.

    For those with bigger rooms and relatively high ceilings, we encourage you to opt for coving with more elaborate design patterns and larger corners as this can help shrink the room and make it feel cosier – if that is what you wish to achieve.

    However, if your house has a more modern design and, therefore, lower ceilings, we suggest going for a more narrow cove and less detailed design so that you can have a neat line border without reducing the visual size of your room.

    Standout Or Blend In

    There are so many forms of plaster coving décor to choose from; for example, large dramatic cornices used predominantly for traditional foyers and main reception rooms existing to impress a range of visitors.

    However, coving styles can also be more subdued to provide a simple and sleek border to a small ceiling and create a cohesive appearance.

    Figure out whether or not you’re attempting to make a dramatic statement that is highly decorated and elegant to suit many period properties. Perhaps you feel your coving is more integral to the room’s structure and does not draw too much attention.

    Order Enough

    When measuring your room or rooms, ensure that you order enough coving to be sure there are no gaps, leaving your wall with irregular cut-offs or lengths too short. If not, you risk paying for an extra delivery, which will result in repaying skilled tradesmen to fit the most minor amounts of plaster coving.

    Several coving suppliers and manufacturers in the UK have a minimum order size, and some cannot sell one or two lengths of plaster coving, so it’s paramount that you order enough for the room. If you end up with a spare, you can keep it in case your coving needs repairing or give it to your workmen as they may have some use for it.

    Use Whole Lengths

    The fewer joins there are to complete throughout the room, the more pleasing the overall effect will be, so consider the number of full-lengths you require when planning your project. However, it’s helpful to be wary that when shopping on the Internet, each company across the UK sells their plaster cornice in different, elaborate designs, lengths and even pre-cut corners, so the pricing can be blurred.

    For those looking for plaster coving, we advise you to look closely at the costs per metre and ensure each price includes VAT; if not, the website or company may be suspicious.

    Order A Sample

    Opting to buy your plaster coving from the Internet can be a relatively challenging and time-consuming task that may find confusing to get to grips with. It can be hard to compare products from different websites and grapple with the correct sizing, the design suitability or the overall quality of a company’s products.

    We highly recommend that you order yourself a sample of the one or ones you like best for a low price. Many individual samples cost around £1.00-£5.00, so depending on your budget, you can test out a bunch or purchase a slightly pricier sample pack which usually costs around £19.00-20.00. Once you have the sample in your hands, you can show it to your fitter so that they know the material and design they are dealing with.

    Choose Your Coving Fitter Carefully

    You will require the skills and talents of a local plasterer to fit your coving correctly; however, ensure you’re choosing the right professionals as some builders and plasterers are not experienced enough to carry out the job. Fitting paper-faced coving with the recommended adhesive and panel pins that you can successfully find in your everyday DIY stores can be a relatively simple task.

    Yet, fibrous plaster coving is an aspect that requires far more skill and attention to detail. You’ll want to search for a tradesman that specialises explicitly in plaster cove fitting, and they are colloquially referred to as a Fibre Hand. Be sure to ask lots of questions when choosing your coving installer, ensuring they know the job you want them to perform and quote.

    Contractually, they cannot do your fibrous plaster fitting for the same price as other coving such as Knauf or Gyproc. Generally, if you find your fitting quote is less than the overall cost of the coving, your workmen likely do not understand the job you require from them, and it may be best to look elsewhere.

    Which coving style will best suit my interior?

    When providing a coving for your house, you want to ensure you pick something that suits the rest of your home’s interior and complements the room perfectly. Many styles and patterns are available on the UK market to fit all household themes and designs.

    For those with a more traditional period or Victorian-style home with grand high ceilings, we would encourage you to opt for something with an elegant swan neck design with ornate decoration. Choose something multifunctional and allow you to transform your interior to match the exterior’s grandeur. Many of these patterns and designs feature leaves and beaded detailing along the edges to offer a more glamourous and opulent appearance to fill out the corners of ceiling heights over 3 metres.

    Suppose your home is more Georgian or Edwardian; we recommend a style that is more traditional yet has simplistic elements. Opt for something that further suits the big rooms and deep bay windows to enhance the essential aspects of your traditional or modern properties or home and restore its authenticity.

    Alternatively, suppose you own a more modern or new-build property. In that case, there are plenty of beautiful designs to choose from that will add a nice touch to the interior and suit your smaller rooms and ceiling without overcrowding them.

    With a touch of decoration and luxury, the coving can enhance your modern interior and bring it to life in ways you never imagined. Many modern designs are pretty simplistic to offer a sleek wall-to-ceiling finish; however, many companies and coving manufacturers across the UK are now designing coving that has a running LED light across the back or along the centre. These create a downwards or upwards lighting effect that changes the room’s ambience, which is subtle but incredibly unique.

    If you struggle to decide which coving style best suits your home, you can contact your local plasterers and ask them for advice. They can do a visit to your modern or period property, or you may wish to send them photographs of your home interior via email, and there you can further discuss what would look best. Your local plasterers may offer you a free quote for their services to help you put up the coving.

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