Painting and coatings brand Crown Paints has chosen St Helens as its first location for a new store concept where the public and tradespeople alike can find inspiration for decorating projects.

The new Crown Decorating Centre, opening at Ravenhead Retail Park in early September, will help customers ace their home decorating projects by simplifying the journey from choosing the right paint, primers and techniques through to achieving incredible results.

The Decorating Centre will be supported by Crown Paint’s extensive in-house colour expertise with guides and resources on how colour can be used in different rooms and lightings to evoke particular emotions. Stock will include a range of interior, exterior and designer paints and wallpaper with decorating supplies and equipment from Crown Paints and a host of other leading brands, available via home delivery and click and collect as well as in-store purchase.  As part of an introductory opening offer customers can receive 30% off their first purchase. T&C’s apply.

Crown Decorating Centres are usually tailored for trade professionals, however, the St Helens concept will be the first Crown store specifically designed to help retail customers throughout their decorating journeys as well as tradespeople. The store will be a hub of inspiration and give customers in St Helens a one-stop shop for everything they need to know about their paint projects – from starting vision to end result.

The launch of this retail-focused Crown Decorating Centre in St Helens follows a year of avid DIY-ing, with existing Crown Decorating Centres seeing a huge surge in enquiries from consumers seeking advice.

As well as continuing to support trade demand for larger projects, the store will also offer the hugely popular Can Back recycling scheme, which since 2013, has helped customers responsibly dispose of any branded, old cans. Across the UK Crown Decorating Centres recycle 200 tonnes of cans annually through Can Back. In addition, its Plastic Back scheme to take all decorative plastic back for free – the first initative of its kind among paint brands – will be available in the St Helens store.

Naiem Wafa, CDC Network Director, said: “Our Crown Decorating Centres have supported the trade community for many years. As DIY has skyrocketed during lockdown we recognised that home DIY-ers were also looking for specialist painting knowledge and expertise – and we love helping them find inspiration to transform their homes. Our colleagues in our Crown Decorating Centre have unparalleled knowledge, which means anyone can go from dreaming up the perfect space, to getting their job done perfectly.

“St Helens is a great choice for us — we’re a business with a 200-year heritage in the UK —and we’re very excited to welcome customers in to help them learn more about colour and DIY expertise from our in-store professionals.”