Ardent Decorating, the history

Where it all began

David Smith started as an apprentice painter and decorator after half a day as an apprentice joiner, it seems it only took half a day to realise it was painting that was for him! He served his time with Strathclyde Decorators and afterwards moved to London in 1997. He worked for a few years before going further down until he reached Folkestone where he was a subcontractor for 3 years.

The high life!

Things were going well for david, working hard and playing harder. A summer visit however put a stop to this when he started a relationship with me, Emma. We done the long distance thing for a while with the plan that I would join david when I had finished university.

In the end it was decided that David would move home. So in 2007 David moved back to Scotland and in the May we were married! By September 2008 with the country in recession, Ardent decorating was born, three months before our first son, Ben Smith.

It was January and david wasn’t very busy, meaning he got to be at home building a relationship with his first born. David went from a sole trader to a limited company in 2015. Growing from what he called a ‘one man band’ to having his own apprentice and then subcontracting teams of men.

By this point our 2nd boy Finn Smith was born in 2011. At this time David was so busy he wasn’t sure he’d be able to take the full day off for Finns birth. We look back and laugh at this now.

All Change.

How things had changed! I was a nurse at this point and remember a consultant asking me what I was doing with ‘a painter’. A colleague stepped in and said ‘business owner actually’ as that is exactly what David is.

Ardent decorating has a wealth of returning customers, both private and commercial who David has built trusting relationships with. Some of whom were my medical colleagues who appreciated being able to trust someone in their home when they were at work.

In 2019 after some life changes in our home David asked if I would join him in growing the business again. Meaning I would take on marketing, admin responsibilities, payroll, recruitment and business enhancement.

David has ambition and confidence in his ability. He has given me an opportunity I never dreamed I’d have, working from home, building our own family business whilst caring for our children.

In the last few months we have recruited more painters, made ourselves visible on social media and most importantly won our first two site based painting contracts which will see us into spring.

David never blows his own trumpet, so I’m doing it for him. 2019 was a year of big life changes and bigger decisions, but we are stepping into 2020 with a plan well underway hoping our customers are happy to stay on this journey with us.