Cambridge-based interior designer Sara Slade discusses a project at Beacon Rise
Recently opened to the public, Beacon Rise offers luxury apartments in a desirable location. The apartments are well designed and beautifully furnished.
The past couple of years have seen an increase of new luxury housing developments springing up around Cambridge. With so much choice, and many of these developments offering similar impressive specs, it can be hard to make a decision – especially if many of these builds tick a lot of your ‘boxes’.
Thankfully, the more switched-on developers are trying to make it as easy as possible for you by employing an interior designer to style their show flats, giving you a much clearer picture of the property’s full potential.
Local developer Luminus Group contacted award-winning interior design consultancy Sara Slade Interiors to undertake the design of three of its new apartments at Beacon Rise, Newmarket Road, to showcase to potential buyers.
We asked creative director Sara Slade how she and her team got involved in the project.
“A lot of our work takes us up and down the country,” she replied, “so we loved being asked to be involved in a local project – especially as the developers, Luminus Group, are based in Huntingdon and the building contractors, Aspen Builders, are from Ipswich.
“We had just three weeks from measuring the apartments through to completion! This means we had to be ready for public opening, so it was certainly a little crazy in the last week trying to get everything in place – but we absolutely loved the challenge. We’re also really proud of the final results – the show flats look amazing. I hasten to add, the builders were a dream to work with, which isn’t always the case!”
Ms Slade continued: “Our brief was to create fresh and modern-looking apartments to appeal to an audience of design-savvy buyers. We are aware that more people than ever really know their brands and upcoming trends, so we wanted to give them something interesting rather than the standard ‘magnolia’ show home.
“We used a mix of high street and internet brands, alongside some beautiful wallpapers from Swedish firm Sandberg, to give the apartments an effortless style. Some of the apartments have beautiful balconies with amazing sunsets, so it was also important for us to keep this a main feature of each apartment and keep the colours calm.
“It was so much fun to work quickly and we are still amazed what we could achieve in such a short amount of time. This is quite different to our typical bespoke work, where we provide a complete, personalised interior design service tailored to our individual clients’ needs, designing every detail and commissioning one-off designs that suit a particular space.
“The industry is quite different to when I started out 20 years ago. There was a lot of Chintz and Swags and Tails, but more notably it felt like an elite service that only the super rich could use.
“What is great today is that anyone can use an interior designer to help them as we all have such busy lives. There are quite a few of us to choose from, but you need to find someone you really click with. It’s a personal service, it’s your home after all, and communication is the key to our success.
“It was really daunting setting up a business after having worked for other design studios for a large part of my career but, after moving to Cambridge, my clients pushed me to go out on my own and I haven’t looked back since! I have been incredibly lucky to be able to expand the business and now employ a wonderful team who all live locally to our office in Trumpington – in fact we are now looking at larger offices to hopefully incorporate a showroom in Cambridge.”
With Sara’s work taking her all over the country, we asked her what she likes most about living and working in Cambridge. “Since moving here seven years ago, I couldn’t think of anywhere else I would like to live,” she said.
“We have everything we want on our doorstep, with some of the best independent shops and restaurants and I haven’t needed to look far to find some of my favourite craftsmen. Cambridge has a wonderful independent spirit which encourages creativity, and I feel right at home!”
For further information on the Beacon Rise apartments or to make a reservation please contact Carter Jonas Bradshaw’s new homes team on 01223 403330 or email newhomes.east@carterjonas.co.uk.
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