Looking To The Future

AFTER MOVING BACK to her to her home town of Norwich in 2004, interior designer Rebecca Coulby decided to follow her passion and establish her own interiors business with a difference.

"After 10 years of being out of the workplace, concentrating on raising my two children, I was extremely nervous about taking such a big step, but the desire to offer a different kind of interiors service to the general public was my driving force - it just felt like the right thing to do.," she confides. 

Rebecca has a First Class BA Honours Degree in the History of Design and Decorative Arts from the University of Brighton, where she met her husband Thomas, who runs Coulby Interiors with her and who has a Fine Art degree. The couple has roots in Norfolk, as Rebecca grew up in Reepham, and they have a daughter, Ella, nine, and a son, Alex who's eleven. Their company's emphasis is on tailor-made, personal service and a complete project management approach. 

Rebecca says, "Having grown up watching my late father, an architect and interior designer, run his own business, I had long ago discovered a real demand in the market for a company that was able to offer one complete service. A service encompassing professional design through o the supply of all materials, with a team of skilled and dedicated craftsmen and tradesmen on hand to complete all the necessary build and installation work."

"You can't be an expert overnight," she says, adding: "I firmly believe that in general people are not receiving a good enough design service, particularly when it comes to bathroom or kitchen design. The end result is often a poorly functioning room and dissatisfied customers who have wasted a good deal of money. I believe it is essential to view a design holistically, taking into consideration the building as a whole and its style, its rooms and the individuals living within that space. Every design opportunity should be explored in order to create the best possible design."

Over the years Coulby Interiors has gone from strength to strength and has build up a team of dedicated and skilled craftsmen. Headed up by Rebecca as project manager, this talented team covers all the necessary trades required to complete all of Rebecca's designs, from kitchens to bathrooms, bedrooms or even complete renovations. "Having all the trades available and on site means that we are able to complete our projects to the highest standards and in the shortest amount of time. This is an aspect of our service that that many clients value the most, especially those who have tried to project mange themselves in the past and discovered how time consuming, stressful and often costly it can be," says Rebecca."These days the service we provide is all the more important - people are often wanting to re-design their whole living space and yet simply don't have the time to take on board such a large project, or even know where to start."

The most popular request is for the knocking down of one or more walls to create one large kitchen diner. The kitchen has become the absolute centre of the home again and many people will sacrifice their dining room to have a large, open-plan kitchen area. Today's kitchen is multi-functional and can be a cooking, cleaning, eating, living and social space all in one. Of course, this requires careful design and planning."Testament to the level of service Rebecca and her team provide is the number of recommendations and amount of repeat business they receive. The company has a wealth of happy clients who have provided testimonials, such as Mr and Mrs Clarke who stated, "We were so impressed. I have no hesitation to recommend Rebecca's services to anyone and we have already discussed future projects."

Five years after its establishment, the future certainly looks bright for Coulby Interiors, with a recently renovated base in Loddon and a fabulous contemporary website. Rebecca and her team are looking forward to the years ahead and Rebecca is looking forward to her monthly column in Places and Faces offering advice and tips for readers' own design projects.