We were back at South Reading Community Centre for some more painting in their quest to give the center a face lift! This week we were focusing on some of the rooms used by different groups off the corridor we'd painted a little while ago.

After moving furniture, armed with polyfiller, masking tape, sanding blocks and sugar soap, we got stuck in with prepping all the rooms to get them ready to paint. Julie joined for her first task, and although she'd never decorated before, we had a polyfilling pro on the team!

Working around the first room with our rollers and brushes, we managed to get it looking much nicer, then we decided to divide and conquer on two rooms at once! Chris, Shirley and Julie got stuck in on the big room, while Jenni helped Harry from the facilities team with the small room. However, with a group due to use the big room later that afternoon, the race was on to get as much done as possible, so with a dash to the finish line, we got as much done as we could, with some edging and one wall still left to do...

... but we'll be back again to finish off the last bits and get to the other rooms soon!

We were back at South Reading community Centre on Saturday, continuing to get some of the building painted and looking lovely and welcoming. We were able to admire the upgrade made to our white painting of the corridor last time, with the cartoons now covering the walls and bringing some more colour to the space!

Our task for this weekend was to give to entrance area a lick of paint, and it definitely needed it! With grubby walls, scrapes and some cobwebs, we had plenty to get stuck in with! Shirley got stuck in with some pro-polyfilling, Jeni (for her first GoodGym task!), Chris and Jenni got to work with masking taping around all the doors, windows and the posterboards on the walls, and Emily got to work with the magic sponge trying to get off the worst of the marks.

With all the preparation done, we were ready to get stuck in with painting! We worked from one side of the space to the other, taking it in turns with rollers and brushes, and making sure the high bits were done in between, to get everything looking much brighter, cleaner and welcoming.

As we were finishing up, the owner of the community cafe next door popped in to check our handy work... and a request for us to paint some walls for them in future, so we'll be back again at the community centre soon!

After our first task of the morning to get us prepared for painting, and refuelled with tea and biscuits, we got to work on the painting. A transformation from off-white to white is hard to detect in photos, but it certainly looked a lot brighter in real-life!

To maximise our speed for the task, Chris used the extendable roller to get to the top of the walls, and I started along the bottom... hopefully there were no spots missed, but we'll be back again in January to do any last bits if needed!

What a fulfilling mission! Sprucing up an office to ensure it was a welcoming and professional environment for families needing educational and legal support was a worthwhile cause for a Saturday morning.

We sanded the walls, taped window sills and edges and proceeded to paint the entire office, with the help of Harry and Alex from the facilities team. The community centre will now do a deep clean and refurnish the room, continuing to provide a modern and warm environment for families and professionals going forward.

Going from white walls to very light grey make not look like a big change, but it certainly felt much fresher afterwards!