01243 979790

Worcestershire · Established 1997

Renaissance Beams

The no-mess "back from black" renovation of painted, dark and stained oak beams.

Tell me what my beams need
Finished oak beams in a sitting room

Our Work

Farmhouses, barn conversions, inns and listed cottages across the Cotswolds and the Midlands — beams that were black, painted or water-stained, brought back to life by hand without a grain of dust. Homes are described by town and county only; we never publish a client's name or address.

Find out more

Our
Story

In 1997, in a village near Broadway, Penny Sinclair invented what she called the "back from black" process — a way to take blackened, painted or varnished oak to a natural-looking finish without sandblasting, chemical stripping or redecoration. She began working it through the Cotswolds under the name Renaissance Beams, and for decades the family team carried it further across the UK.

Nick had saved to travel — instead, he put the money into the business his mother had built, and later took the process to France, working it there before bringing it back to England. Years on, he bought his parents out. He still runs it today, just from the other side of the desk — now as Back From Black, with every enquiry that still reaches the old inbox forwarded on with the same two lines.

Read the handover

Recognition

  • 1997

    Penny develops the "back from black" process for a client's blackened 17th-century beams.

  • 2005

    Finalist, Country Living Women in Rural Enterprise.

  • 2006

    Finalist, Cotswold Life Business Awards, Innovation of the Year; listed in the Cotswold Life Top 50.

  • 2009

    Winner, Business Achievement Award, Renovation Specialist of the Year.

Featured in Country Living, Period Living and the Listed Property Owners' Club.

From penny@renaissance-beams.co.uk

The handover

"We have retired from the beam business, but son Nick provides this service and covers the whole of the UK — so we have taken the liberty of passing your enquiry on to him."

Penny · Renaissance Beams

For a whole summer, every enquiry that reached the old Renaissance Beams inbox — from Alvechurch, Stratford-upon-Avon, Bridgnorth, Somerset and further afield — was answered with these same two lines and forwarded on. The same process, the same standards, a new pair of hands.

  1. 1997

    Founded, Worcestershire

    A water-based alternative to the blasting trade, worked in carpeted, furnished rooms.

  2. 2000s

    Renaissance Beams

    Farmhouses, barn conversions, inns and listed cottages across the Midlands and Cotswolds.

  3. 2010s

    The handover

    The process, the formula and every live enquiry pass to the next generation.

  4. Today

    By Back From Black

    The same three-coat, hand-applied method, refined over thousands of rooms.

The Process

Nothing is taken off your beams; something is put on. The old surface stays — the craft is in reading how it will take our treatment, and creating the finish you have in mind.

Read the timber

Painted, tarred, water-stained, smoke-darkened — every beam responds differently. Thirty years of looking tells us how.

Protect the room

Carpets, furniture and finished decoration stay where they are. Nothing is abraded, so there is no dust.

Three coats, by hand

A water-based, multilayered finish, each coat building towards the tone you asked for.

Leave no trace

The only evidence we were there is the beams.

Finished beams in a furnished room

FAQs

"Will it strip the character out?"

No — because nothing is stripped. The old surface, the adze marks, the pegs and the history stay. The finish sits on the beam and reads as a lighter, living oak tone rather than a bare, sanded one.

"We've just decorated."

Good — that is the condition we prefer to work in. Newly carpeted, newly painted rooms are normal for us; there is no abrasion, so there is no dust to settle on them.

"It's a listed building."

Our process removes nothing historic and alters no fabric — it's a surface treatment, not development, and that's usually enough to keep it outside what needs listed consent. As with any listed building, the final say sits with your local authority, not us.

"We waxed them ourselves."

Tell us before anything else. Wax has to come off first — a separate preparation step, with its own time and its own cost. It does not rule the job out. It does change what it is.

"Could we chalk paint them?"

Please speak to us before you do. Chalk paint has become a common DIY answer to a tired beam and it is one of the most difficult finishes to undo — worse than wax, and on some beams it takes the job past the point where it is worth doing at all.

Where we are most often

  • Stow-on-the-Wold
  • Broadway
  • Chipping Campden
  • Moreton-in-Marsh
  • Evesham
  • Pershore
  • Stratford-upon-Avon
  • Cheltenham
  • Tewkesbury
  • Ledbury
  • Bridgnorth
  • Alvechurch
  • Worcester
  • Malvern
  • Burford

And the rest of the UK by arrangement.

Get a Quote

If you would like a quote, send us two or three photographs of each room, with rough room sizes. That is all we need to tell you what your beams need and what it will cost — no site visit, no salesman, no obligation.

Finished oak beams

Tell me what my beams need

Leave your details and a line about the beams. You will get an honest read on whether the work is worth doing, and what it would cost.

We reply by telephone or email, normally within one working day. Your details are used only to answer this enquiry and are never shared.

Telephone01243 979790

Answered by Back From Black, the sister company now running Renaissance Beams' enquiries.

Emailhello@renaissance-beams.co.uk

Photos welcome. Label each with the room name if you can.

Beam Check · two minutesTell me what my beams need

A few details and a postcode. A straight answer on whether your beams are a good candidate.

Call Email Beam Check