June 14, 2018
We’ve had a makeover. In our 6th year of business, much like a teenager outgrows baggy jeans and mood swings, we were beginning to outgrow the walls of our first home. The decision to find ourselves bigger and better premises was made – and on the 11th May our new HQ was opened by local MP Damian Collins in a quintessentially British ceremony.
But let’s rewind a little bit, back to when we first made the purchase and were faced with the challenge of transforming a large, empty warehouse into a spectacular work environment for our dedicated team. Being all about customisation, we couldn’t wait to let our inner interior designers loose on the blank canvas of the building and make it unmistakeably Noted in Style; we wanted to create a space distinctive enough that anyone visiting would get an idea who we are and what we stand for straight away.
Acquiring almost three times the space we previously had, we split it in half placing our sales, design and marketing teams in the completely refurbished upstairs offices, and our production team downstairs in a specifically designed workshop that allows for more storage and the space to develop new product ideas. As well as these staples, a meeting room, packing area and storage have been installed to cater to the precise needs of each part of the business.
The new upstairs office for our Sales, Design and Marketing teams in full swing – complete with meeting room, bookshelves a-plenty &mood-elevating Folkestone harbour mural.
Our new spacious production workshop allows for more experimentation and storage as we grow.
An overriding hand-crafted look runs throughout the building, with handmade wooden furniture and decor, to really hammer home this core element of the business. Reclaimed pallet planks cladding the purpose-built meeting room, form a façade for the office of our director and even pop up in the kitchen and wet room covering nearly all available surfaces. The wooden office desks were constructed specifically for us to match the aesthetic, with their scaffold pole legs finishing the hand-made look. The custom-made wooden storage shelves lining the walls of the office surround the team with a colourful display of our products and our specially installed photography area is a compact unit made from wood with complementary leather handles. A quick once-over of our upstairs office reveals our partiality to quality handmade materials, that’s for sure!
The all-important wooden-clad meeting room – where all of our brilliant ideas are born!
Although our craft is the heartbeat of the business, we embody many other qualities and we saw this move as an opportunity to make them tangible. A fully kitted-out kitchen and dining area provides a peaceful spot for staff members to relax and eat at lunch. A kitchen immediately makes any space feel like home, and considering we are one big family here at Noted in style, it seemed important to get that right; especially as we’re an office of health-conscious, aspirant chefs! A wet room was installed so that employees who walk, cycle or run to work can shower before the day starts, putting staff comfort high on the priority list.
The fully fitted open plan kitchen provides the perfect place to socialise and relax during lunch breaks.
The signage, matched to our Noted in Style’s dominant British Victoria Plum, plasters our logo and slogans on the walls, whilst other colours from our British palette manifest in furniture, doors and decorations. The leather handles to our cupboards were handmade and debossed by our in-house production team, a detail that showcases our abilities as well as physically putting the Noted in style stamp on the building. Proud to be based on the (sometimes) sunny south coast, we pay homage to our hometown Folkestone with a show-stopping wall mural of the town’s harbour in full sun – a mood-lifting sight for when we’re drowning in emails! Our design team even have their very own ‘Creative Quarter’ fondly referencing Folkestone’s, and celebrating our positioning in a creative town.
Our uplifting wall mural of Folkestone Harbour.
Handmade leather cupboard door handles were debossed by our in-house production team with our brand new logo.
Of course, we’d love to say that we all got involved in the physical labour, hammering in nails and whipping out the spirit level. Alas, we decided to do the sensible thing and got the professionals in – people who knew what they’re doing and what exactly it is that you do with a spirit level. The desktops were, however, hand-finished by our very own directors, who rolled their sleeves up and splashed our brand colours on them with a good old-fashioned paintbrush – giving the building an authentic stamp of Noted in Style approval. Everyone was asked to pitch in with ideas for the new office and, as it is in all that we do, creativity was encouraged and so answers varied from the wildly impractical to the actually quite useful – a purpose-built photography area for the creative team stands out particularly and definitely makes up for the lack of a (less office-friendly) fireman’s pole between floors.
Director Laura gets hands-on with the decorating!
So we did it – we created a world where we can really thrive, somewhere that represents us and somewhere that enables us. A place we are proud of and happy in. What more can you want? More importantly, now that we’re all settled in, it’s time to put down the celebratory Pimm’s and get on with some work…!
