Part of our mission is to celebrate creativity while building inspiring coliving homes. Our Hives are the result of a plethora of collaborations with an eclectic mix of inquisitive artists, dreamers and crafts people in art, architecture, design or technology that share our ethos. We wish to give credit to Hayley and Steve from F&D (Father & Daughter), providing decorating services in our homes with precision and style.
1. Hi Hayley, Hi Steve! How did Father & Daughter start? Tell us your story.
Father & Daughter Painting and Decorating Services started when we both realised we wanted a change in our careers and had a very similar passion for art and design. Before starting our business, Steve (my dad) was an agricultural farmer for 43 years with some experience in properties. I (Hayley) had been in retail for 12 years, working as a Visual Merchandiser. I had an eye for product placement and loved remodelling and creating new designed spaces. Our work ethos and main passion is to transform a space from what someone could see as uninteresting into something very special. We also love the idea of being our own bosses, knowing that we can push ourselves as far as we want, with no one putting any limitations on us.
2. What do you like the most about working with your dad or daughter?
The best thing about working with my Dad is that he creates a great atmosphere with his positive attitude towards our work and we both enjoy bouncing ideas off one another. We also have our own job roles within painting and decorating which allow our work to flow very nicely.
I (Steve) love how self-motivated Hayley is, really pushes us as a team to keep going to the best of our abilities. Her ideas and concepts always seem to merge into mine creating harmonised decorative space or a design/art piece.
3. What are your favourite types of decorations/ painting? What do you like to do the most?
We love to keep up with different styles and techniques, trying new things in our spare time. Painting and drawing up new ideas help us to progress further in our skills.
One style that we are currently enjoying is geometric patterned feature walls. We have done many pieces that show different forms of this concept idea. We love how modern and on trend the geometric pattern is and have experimented in many ways for clients and self-art projects.
4. What impact you expect your work to have on the lives of our Hive residents?
We hope that the Hive residents enjoy the high quality of decorations we created in each Hive and help give them a positive outlook toward their living space. The colours and shapes on all feature walls are on trend and can add a modern feel to their lifestyle.
5. How was for you the experience of working with B-Hive Living, bringing to life new coliving spaces?
It was very fulfilling seeing the projects from beginning to end. B-Hive vision for coliving was focussed on the wellbeing of their residents, we couldn’t be happier to be part of the projects and help the B-Hive Living team bring them to life. It really got us motivated watching the process and contribution of all the talented individuals putting their particular skills into each stage and transforming B-Hive Living vision into reality.
6. What inspires and drives you to do what you do these days?
Our inspiration for decorating services comes from all kinds of sources. Something as simple as Pinterest and Instagram, or interior design magazines and art galleries. These different inspirations allow us to follow other creative minds, see new and upcoming decorating techniques, spark ideas in our minds and let us understand what is on trend at that time. Meeting new people and exploring different cultures plays a big part to colour choices, styles and techniques of the painting and decorating that we produce too.
7. Being a local what do you like the most about Bicester and Oxfordshire? What are your top tips for people moving in the area?
The location is great for getting around and seeing the great city of London (only 45 min away by train!) or Oxford which is also a very short bus or train journey away (15 min). Oxfordshire has some amazing galleries and museums that you can visit. You can also find different types of entertainment such as cinema, crazy golf, escape rooms, theatre showings etc. There are many restaurants and shops too. Our favourite part is the surroundings with all the stunning architecture throughout Oxford, really picturesque! If you are in Bicester make sure you pop for a drink at The Angel, this pub dates from 1674 and offers over 60 different gins and local craft ales!
