Our Plans for 2025.

Last week I told you about the optimism that we’re feeling after a better-than-we-dared-hope-for launch before Christmas, and I started to tell you about our plans for 2025.

Our Manifesto. 

Starting a new venture is incredibly exciting (I think I might be addicted to it). One of the key things at this early stage is to be really open to change* while reminding yourself of the key things that matter to your business. It’s a tricky balance to get right. In my book Do Team I talk a fair bit about change, but it’s a very specific type that’s required at the beginning of a new venture because every change is, in some way, at odds with what you had worked on, without much feedback, before launch.

I won’t delve too deeply into this today but perhaps suffice to say we are listening and adapting to every single thing that our customers and wider supporters say. Thank you for all of your generous and thoughtful messages and emails.

Having said that, we keep on reminding ourselves what we stand for and what we want the company to become, and a useful tool in that process is our Manifesto that sits in the studio.  

I wrote this early on and it was painted/printed for us by our dear friend Gail Bryson. Many of you will know Gail as we have worked with her endlessly across many of our businesses for something like 20 years. I first met her when she worked at the branding agency The Nest, when they did some work for Pedlars. Gail is a designer, screen printer, colourist and smart thinker who has worked with many of Britain’s best homeware brands, from Conran to John Lewis and beyond. 

A new studio.

In other news, we will soon be moving into a new room in the studio in our house, Hawarden Castle. The studio is on the ground floor/in the basement. So, soon we’ll have a wide corridor, a stock and packing room and this new, big room. You may know that we have been restoring this house for about 15 years, slowly and carefully and we are coming to the end of this process.

However, we have taken a slightly different approach here, because we have decided to do very little actual restoration. The paint has the most extraordinary softness, depth and patina and although it is peeling and some of the ancient plaster is crumbling, it is not something that we want to remove unless we have to.

This will make the studio much larger; the room has huge windows, a fireplace, that incredible ancient paint, and a lovely paint-splattered parquet floor. We want to create a space that is inspiring for us and for you, our supporters and community and to make it into a living manifestation of our brand that will become a sort of occasional shop/show room and a place for small parties and exhibitions.

I have a feeling that we’ll make this fantastic. We’ll have an opening party or two and you’ll be invited.

This is what it looks like today.

Thanks for your interest and support, which genuinely makes our hearts sing. We are trying to do something new and original, and your friendship means a lot.

Best and more next week.

Charlie, Caroline and Sarah X

PS. *Incremental change is something that I touch on in my book Do Book, How to get the best from everyone. I am still really proud of this book and although I have temporarily stopped teaching my ideas to give myself a break, I will be starting again later this year.