Sandra Pope The Lady Decorator

If you have found this website no doubt you are considering paying for the services of Sandra Pope - The Lady Decorator - who predominately works out of the north west of England (Bolton, Blackburn, Accrington, Darwen, etc).

I have created this website to display the quality of work Sandra Pope provides so that potential customers can evaluate the service she provides.

Before I get to the pictures I have taken first allow me to give some background. My mother hired Sandra Pope to do some decorating work in the summer of 2010. At this point my mother had been diagnosed with cancer and had had multiple surgeries which were followed with courses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Needless to say she wasn’t in the best shape.

Sandra offered to do the work at what seemed like a reasonable price, which we accepted. I should also explain that we own two terraced houses that are next to each other. Sandra first performed work on House 1. After this work was complete Sandra (who had recently split from her civil partner) Sandra suggested that she move into House 2 at reduced rent in exchange for decorating the house and doing any odd jobs we required.

The quality of the work done at House 1 was a little sub-standard to be honest but this seemed like a good deal for everyone concerned so again we agreed. We considered Sandra Pope to be a family friend.

Originally Sandra was to move in alone but she quickly had her new girlfriend move in with her. We were fine with this but when she asked if she could have a dog we told her no. However within days a dog had moved in. Fortunately the dog was quickly taken away by it’s original owner from whom it had been taken without permission (this will be a recurring theme).

I realise I’ve written a lot at this point so here’s a picture of The Lady Decorator’s work to break up the story. All these pictures can be clicked on to be made bigger.

Sandra Pope (The Lady Decorator)'s wallpapering job on a bedroom in House 1. This was supposed to be corrected - but never was.

Once Sandra moved into House 2 she became a different person. Previously she been personable but she became a whiner. She complained she couldn’t afford to pay the rent (which was reduced) despite the fact both she and her girlfriend worked full-time AND went on two holidays in the six month period she lived in the house. She also tried to charge us for plumbing work she claimed she had hired a friend to do without telling us before the fact or providing us with a receipt.

However it was not until she had left House 2 that we discovered what an amateurish bodge job Sandra Pope had done on the house, plus she had damaged many fittings that were already there before she’d moved in.

If you want to see what kind of decorator The Lady Decorator Sandra Pope the pictures below will provide you with a good idea. Also bear in mind she was living in this house so you would have thought she’d do the best job she possibly could since we hadn’t asked her to leave - expecting her to finish many of the half-finished jobs she left behind.

Sandra asked us if she could paint the brickwork of the fireplace. We said no. She did it anyway and then refused to undo the paintwork before she moved out and made a sloppy job of fixing damage caused by a wall mounted TV.

Similar to the brickwork above Sandra Pope painted this pine cabinet despite us asking her not to and never undid the work. She also replaced the original brass knobs with cheap chrome replacements.

Skirting board ripped off (again without permission). At least she was kind enough to leave us the skirting board so we could fix it ourselves.

Wallpaper not pasted down properly. There were many areas left like this.

The crack in the ceiling Sandra Pope was supposed to paint over. She never did.

Damage from when she'd moved out. Possibly caused by removing a shelf as she took every shelf with her when she moved.

Window seal rotted away. I don't even know how this happened.

Door handle broken beyond repair.

Cracked bath panel.

Perhaps the worst of the damage. This carpet was fitted a month before Sandra moved in. It is now ruined because of two iron imprints which cannot be repaired. This is the bedroom carpet.

Sandra's idea of filling and sanding down.

The "invisible door" Sandra said she would fit to cover the gas meter.

DO NOT HIRE SANDRA POPE THE LADY DECORATOR.

All in all she totally abused our offer (we paid council tax and the TV license fee for her) and when she said she was moving out we were very relieved. Believe it or not this is actually a very truncated version of the whole mess, there are bits of the story and pictures left out for the sake of brevity.

I would also like to point out Sandra was paid fully for all her work so this wasn't an act of revenge. This is just what she felt was acceptable decorating work.

Sandra didn't have the decency to see us face to face when she left. She just posted the keys through without a forwarding address otherwise we would have sent her an invoice for the damage caused. She also left us with a gas and electric bill to pay. All this knowing that my mother has terminal bone cancer and is on disability.

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If you have been a customer of Sandra’s with your own story feel free to leave a comment or follow the blog so that other people do not make the same mistake.