Hale and Hale Barns are a few minutes from the showroom, and between them they hold some of the most varied housing in this part of Cheshire: 1930s detached houses, substantial post-war properties, and a steady amount of new build and full replacement.

Newer and rebuilt houses tend to arrive as generous but blank spaces, and the interesting work is usually in giving them structure: zoning an open-plan ground floor with rugs and lighting rather than walls, and designing fitted joinery for kitchens, dressing rooms and media walls so the storage takes the shape of the room. Older Hale houses more often need the opposite: period detail kept, and a contemporary scheme built to sit comfortably alongside it.

Where a Hale project is a new build or a full replacement, it is worth involving us before the joinery is ordered rather than after. Wardrobes, media walls and dressing rooms are far cheaper to get right at the drawing stage than to adjust once they have been made.

The showroom is at York House, Vicarage Lane, Bowdon WA14 3BA, open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm. More about the showroom.

Giving a blank house structure

Newer and rebuilt houses in Hale and Hale Barns often arrive as generous but featureless volumes. The interesting work is putting structure back: zoning a long open-plan ground floor so it reads as several places rather than one, and giving flat walls some depth with joinery, texture or artwork.

Lighting does most of that work. A large open room needs several independent circuits rather than one, or it is lit as a single space all evening regardless of what is happening in it.

Older Hale houses

The 1930s and post-war houses want the opposite approach. The proportions are already good, so the aim is to keep the period detail and build a contemporary scheme that sits comfortably with it rather than fighting it or pastiching it.

In practice that usually means restraint in the architecture and confidence in the fabric, lighting and artwork. See the design service.

Recent work from the studio

A few rooms from recent projects. They were not all photographed in Hale, but they are the standard of finish the work is held to, and every piece in them was chosen in the Bowdon showroom.

Dressing room with mirrored wardrobe doors along both walls
The master bedroom seen along the room, with a group of mirrors on the far wall
Dressing room with fitted hanging and drawers
Bedroom with a panelled headboard wall and a long window seat
Bedroom with backlit stone panels either side of the bed
Bed with a laser-cut bedspread and hand-blown glass chandeliers
Guest room with panelled walls and a lit dressing unit
Bedroom with artwork panels above an upholstered headboard
Bedroom with a sculptural wall piece above the bed
Bedroom with a lit panelled headboard wall
Bedroom with a fireplace and a chandelier
Bedroom with a velvet headboard and a bench at the foot of the bed

Rooms we design

Every one of these is designed, supplied and installed for Hale houses from the showroom in Bowdon.

Questions we get asked

Which rooms do people in Hale usually start with?

Living rooms and open-plan kitchen areas, most often, followed by principal bedrooms.

Can you design around building work?

Yes, and it is better to be involved before the work finishes than after, while positions can still be changed.

Do you do fitted joinery?

It is designed here and built and installed by our partner workshops. See fitted furniture.

Recent projects across Cheshire

None of these is in Hale, but they are the kind of work the studio takes on and the standard every job is held to.

Interior designer in Cheshire · Interior design services · The showroom · Bowdon · Altrincham

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