EXQUISITE decorations on a newly-restored Turkish baths have led to a major award for a York firm.

York decorator WH Bonney has been very highly commended in the decorative category of the Painting And Decorating Association's National Premier Trophy Awards of 2005.

The Huntington Road-based family firm was one of team of specialists employed by Harrogate Borough Council to carry out the £1 million restoration of the town's Victorian Turkish baths.

Managing director Mike Bonney said he was very pleased with the finished work to the historic baths.

"It all came together really well," he said. "It was a little bit different from what we usually do."

The baths, which opened in 1896, are one of just three Victorian Turkish baths operating in England.

The decorators worked with chartered architect Peter Gaze Pace, based near York, to come up with a scheme for the huge redecoration project.

They began the painstaking process of etching the new designs on to the walls of the baths by delicately scraping existing layers of old paint to find out what lay beneath.

They found several layers of decoration, and drew up a richly coloured new design based as closely as possible on the original.

The decorators then created a new paper stencil for each template, before painting the designs on to the walls.

Coun Pat Jones, the borough council's culture chief, congratulated the York decorator on this award.

She said: "This was painstaking work and it was wonderful to see the peeling away of years of re-decoration to reveal the original intention of a highly decorative facility.

"Mike Bonney and his team were tireless. You can't just pop down to a DIY store and find stencils.

"They had to hand-design and cut each one before they even got near to opening a paint tin. The results are just fabulous and are drawing compliments from visitors, both local and from around the world."

The firm, which has in the past carried off the top prize in the association's awards for its work at Wynyard Hall in County Durham, will collect the award at the Painters' Hall, in London, on June 9.

Updated: 12:13 Thursday, May 26, 2005