Living Room Design
Seating planned around how the room is actually used, with the lighting, fabric and artwork chosen together rather than one at a time.
Sale is the closest of these towns to Manchester and about fifteen minutes from the showroom. Its housing is dominated by Victorian and Edwardian terraces and semis, with larger detached property around Brooklands and Ashton on Mersey.
Terraced and semi-detached houses are the most rewarding rooms to design and the least forgiving, because there is no spare space to absorb a mistake. Storage has to be designed rather than bought, narrow rooms benefit from mirrors placed to move light rather than to decorate, and a rear extension usually needs its lighting planned as several separate schemes so the room works at breakfast and at nine in the evening.
Sale projects are often single rooms done well rather than whole houses, and that suits how we work. There is no minimum, and a rug, a pair of curtains and the right lighting will change a Victorian back room more than a much larger budget spent badly.
The showroom is at York House, Vicarage Lane, Bowdon WA14 3BA, open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm. More about the showroom.
Terraces and semis, where nothing is spare
A Victorian terrace or semi is the least forgiving house to design, because there is no surplus space to absorb a mistake. Storage has to be planned before anything decorative is chosen, and it usually has to be built rather than bought: alcoves either side of a chimney breast, under a stair, into a return.
Light is the other constraint. Rooms that face one way only need reflective surfaces, mirrors placed to bring daylight further in, and window treatments that stack completely clear of the glass. A curtain that covers part of the window in a room like this is a real loss.
Rooms rather than whole houses
More work in Sale is single rooms done well than whole properties, and that suits how the studio works. There is no minimum: a rug, a pair of curtains and the right lighting will change a room more than most people expect, and it is a perfectly reasonable place to stop as well as to start.
Fifteen minutes from the showroom also makes it easy to bring samples back and forth while a scheme settles.
A Sale project
Photographs from a Sale project, room by room. Read the full case study.
Rooms we design
Every one of these is designed, supplied and installed for Sale houses from the showroom in Bowdon.
Kitchen & Open-Plan Living Design
Kitchens that share a room with sofas and a dining table, zoned so that cooking, eating and sitting do not compete.
Bedroom & Dressing Room Design
Storage worked out first, then the bed, the lighting and the fabrics, so the floor stays clear and the room stays calm.
Bathroom & Spa Design
Tiling, sanitaryware and lighting specified together, including wet rooms, steam rooms and jacuzzis where the space allows.
Home Bar & Entertaining Space Design
A bar built into a basement, a snug or the end of a kitchen, with the shelving lit and the perfect seating for entertaining.
Fitted Furniture Design
Wardrobes, media walls, studies and dressing rooms designed here and built by the two workshops we have worked with for years.
Home Cinema & Media Wall Design
A media wall or a full cinema room, planned around the screen, the seating distance and where the daylight falls.
Home Office & Study Design
A study that works for a full day of work and still belongs to the house, with the storage and the lighting designed in.
Entrance Hall & Hallway Design
The room nobody sits in and everybody sees, and the cheapest one in the house to transform: lighting, storage and a floor that survives wet shoes.
Dining Room Design
Sized to the room rather than to the table, lit so people look well, and comfortable enough to sit in for three hours.
Questions we get asked
Can you do one room at a time?
Yes, and often that is the sensible way: finish one, live with it, then decide about the next.
What helps most in a small room?
Storage designed for the space, and lighting at more than one level. Both do more than colour.
Do you design fitted storage for alcoves?
Yes. It is designed here and made by our partner workshops. See fitted furniture.
A project in Sale
An open-plan entertaining room in Sale, holding a bar, a pool table and a television area.
An Open-Plan Entertaining Space in Sale
An open-plan room in Sale holding a bar, a pool table and a television area, and still comfortable to sit in.