Click & Collect Church Street, Condover, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY5 7AA
100% Design Interview
WHAT IS 100% DESIGN?
100% Design is the UK’s strongest platform for newly established design talent. Packed with innovative ideas, Emerging Brands follows the tradition of 100% Design's original ethos; launching new talent. Find out more about Condover Furniture, who will be exhibiting for the 25th edition of 100% Design, as they answer all of our questions below.
Talk us through your latest product/s:
My focus to date has been glass-embellished furniture accenting it with unique, individually hand-made Nottinghamshire and Murano glass knobs. The results are fabulous and the products have been well received. I recently partnered with Ingrid Pears, M.B.E., Glass Designer Maker, and have added a new option of embellishing the furniture with glass accents in the form of unique glass ‘pebbles’. Using these beautiful glass pieces, I create unique patterns of colour on the tops and fronts of each piece and the choices are endless; doors, drawers, sides, legs, chair tops, table tops.... Whether the client prefers glass pebbles or glass knobs, or regular knobs, each choice will offer a bespoke piece of furniture that is helping the environment. As well as made to order, I also offer furniture already embellished with the glass pebbles or knobs and ready to purchase. Each glass pebble enhanced piece of furniture will be branded with a CF logo glass
disc.
What goals would you like to achieve for your company in the future?
The vision for Condover Furniture is to change peoples’ attitudes towards upcycling from a second rate activity to a first-rate one and through the products it offers, help the
environment. Condover Furniture upcycles using only top quality products, making furniture not only beautiful but also unique and very desirable all while prolonging its life. My purpose: Britons discard more than 300,000 tonnes of reusable furniture every year and there are many nasty ingredients used and bi-products created in the manufacture of most new furniture. I would like to create sufficient demand nationwide for my unique environmentally upcycled furniture for Condover Furniture to need to employ more people, make a viable business and help all our futures. That would mean that the market is turning and people are making a more conscious decision in their purchases.
Why did you choose to exhibit at 100% Design?
I’d like to give interior designers, buyers and the general public the opportunity to see and feel a range of Condover Furniture’s products and to see for themselves how good the quality of environmentally friendly furniture can be. I would also like to establish a working relationship with them with the view to partnering going forward and together helping the environment. Eco- conscious clients and consumers are and have to be our future.
How do you utilise the internet to increase your customer base?
Condover Furniture launches new furniture pieces on Instagram, interacts on Twitter and has a website and online store www.condoverfurniture.com. The internet offers both Condover Furniture and customers a fabulous opportunity to connect and share.
What made you want to become a designer?
How wonderful is it to be able to use a skill or gift to help future generations and create beautiful things?
Establishing networks is important for an emerging design firm – How did you go about growing yours?
I am an associate of The House of Up, the premier authority, development and support agency for professional upcyclers, elevating upcycling and creating fashion for interiors. Associates chat daily on the House of Up’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages and meet at various events throughout the country. I also connect with other small businesses through the Twitter page for winners of #SBS, Small Business Sunday, and an award that I won in March 2019. WIRE meetings (Women in Rural Enterprise) and the Marches Growth Hub in Shropshire both offer a wealth of support and networking opportunities. By exhibiting at 100% Design, I am hoping that my network will increase even further and my name and the respect for my company and its values will grow among interior designers, buyers and the public and environmentally friendly upcycled furniture will flourish.
Who’s your inspiration?
William Kamkwamba (I recommend the book about him, 'The Boy who Harnessed the Wind'), Gary Vaynerchuk and my father
What 3 words sum up your brand?
Unique, environmentally friendly, cool