By David Giles HAVING the painters and decorators in can be a real nightmare, but an all-female team is offering to take the stress out of renovating.

Inside Out is a complete decorating service that covers an area including north and west Wiltshire.

Set up three years ago, it is run by Fi O'Donoghue and Jane Norbury and is going from strength to strength.

Mrs O'Donoghue, from Ford near Chippenham, said: "The business is going really well. It is getting better and better and we have got about 10 women working for us now.

"The ethos behind setting it up was for women who had careers before having children and didn't want to go back to that job.

"What we do, allows them to work within the school hours.

"My business partner started it, by putting an ad in the paper, saying she could turn her hand to anything. She got lots of responses to do painting and it just went from there.

"Once people get over the fact we do it just as well, if not better, than men, everybody thinks it's a good idea.

"A lot of our clients are elderly and quite like the security of the fact that we are all women.

"Rather than having a great big strange man in their house, they feel more secure having women there."

Inside Out tackles all decorating problems including painting, fitting carpets and making curtains.

Mrs Norbury said: "Fi and I joined forces three years ago. We have been able to supply carpets, flooring, upholstery, curtains. When people think of interior decorators they think it will be really expensive and get a bit intimidated.

"We will go round to someone's house, have a look and suggest colour schemes. That is part of the service.

"Sometimes people just want to know if their ideas are ok. Most people don't have time to go researching colour schemes."

Mrs Norbury said there was one other small all-female painters and decorators in Bath, but she didn't know of any others in the area.

Inside Out was accredited by the Painting and Decorating Association last summer.

Mrs Norbury said: "You hear about rogue people going around to houses claiming to be something they are not.

"It is nice to have the accreditation to show we are who we say we are."