Celebrating TWENTY years
Celebrating TWENTY years
20.6.21
We had big plans for this year, parties, celebration, general shenanigans To
Celebrate twenty years of suna interior design.
TWENTY YEARS, what an acheivement.
but covid has meant we have had to go slightly more low key on the festivities, just for now.
but i wanted to cast back in time and give you a bit of history of the company.
If you have ever had the good fortune to be sat in a new biz meeting with Helen and I, where we talk about the company and how it all started, chances are you’ll have heard the phrase 'Suna-the-person’.
You might have thought that our company name was initials, an acronym, or maybe the result of a drunken evening twenty years ago making up obscure titles for a new interior design studio.
You might have seen Helen or I look behind us when someone says ‘Suna’s here’. They are talking about that fact that ‘Suna Interior Design has arrived in the building’, we even to this day have a hope that our mate Suna might turn up behind us.
You might not have known that Suna is an actual person. But she is.
She is the person who started up Suna Interior Design two decades ago, pretty much to the day, running it initially as a one-man-band, and when things took off she very quickly pulled Helen from her role as in-house designer for a house builder, and then six months later enticed me back from a three year stint in Edinburgh to join ‘the team’.
Oh, those halcyon days, in a basement studio in West Hampstead, under a kitchen showroom, with one window to a tiny yard so for natural light we had to go outside every time we wanted to look at a fabric or check a colour, come rain or shine. It was those early internet days when we used to have to dial up (and take the phones out of action) to get online. Most of our comms were via fax, all of our payments were cheques, we fought over who DIDN’T do the the weekly payment run. When a cheque came in we made an event of a trip to the bank together, all three of us. Any excuse for lunch out. We had meetings in the brasserie down the road, so meetings normally turned into evenings out. Any excuse for dinner out. Our designs were inspired by images ripped from magazines. Our scheme boards were photocopies of images stuck down with a glue stick, Our photocopies were done by having to arrange a visit Staples on Staples Corner.
The day when we got our own massive clunky colour photocopier was a good one.
The day we got our little Kangoo van was an even better one. Emblazoned with our green and blue branding, one of us always sitting in the back.
We had no warehousing, we struck a deal with a shipping company in Neasdon.
You know the kind of place, a place that looks like it would make a great set for a TV murder series, rows upon rows upon rows of shipping containers piled high.
They would take our deliveries in and put them in our containers, which the three of us would then have to go to, to spend knackering days manhandling the boxes and furniture around the dingy, unlit containers.
One of our first big projects was in Manchester. Interior spec and show homes in a triplex penthouse and duplex penthouse in the first building that started Manchester’s rejuvenation, No1 Deansgate. Suna, Helen and I unpacked every box, hung every piece of artwork, built every piece of furniture, carried every bag of compost up and down the two and three storey apartments. We planted. Every. Single, Plant. And in a building with wrap-around winter gardens on all floors, there were a lot of plants. We went out every night and collapsed of exhaustion over a pint. And started every day before heading to site with a Bin Lid Barm. Which is a full English breakfast served up on a barmcake (bap, batch, bridie, bread roll. Bread basically) that was, yes, the size of a bin lid. It’s a building that still holds a special place in our hearts.
No1 Deansgate, Manchester for Crosby Homes, 2002
So, where is Suna-the-person, we hear you ask?
Well, she moved to California for a ‘short stint’, and that was eighteen years ago.
She had two children, started another interior design business, opened an incredible store in downtown Santa Cruz called Stripe, and stayed.
And in 2007, when it became apparent that she would be staying stateside, Helen and I took on Suna Interior Design (now you see why we sometimes find it odd to refer to the company as just ‘Suna’, I couldn’t write ‘took on Suna’, too weird) and the rest, as they say, is history.
From day one we have kind of gone from strength to strength. We have established our name as a one-stop-shop for property developers, from the outset working on interior specification, show homes and marketing suites. Adding CGIs to our repertoire when technology made them a thing. We have grown from a company of three to a company of over twenty employees, whilst all the time keeping in mind the ethos of a boutique, customer service driven studio. Helen and I always say that we are designers first and foremost, our aspirations are tied up with interior design, not necessarily with becoming millionaires, Though that would be nice. We are now in a studio that has masses of windows, and 8000 square feet of space, including our own warehouse. No more trips to container-land for us. We have worked on projects of all scales and sizes, and across the whole of the UK, for a massive variety of property developers, small and large, but the one consistent theme has been quality and innovation. No two show homes are the same, no one project takes priority over another. All our schemes are designed with ‘be the best’ at the forefront of our minds. We have a team of dedicated, loyal, hardworking and talented people, many of whom have been with us for years. And, even with 2020 showing it’s big ugly Covid face, we have continually gone from strength to strength and earned our stripes in an industry that we are super proud to be a part of.
Over the years, Helen and I have had a lot of photos taken, just to chart the aging process. Well, obvs we didn’t do it to chart the aging process but boy, that’s what it’s achieved. And it’s become apparent that, apart from the first year of photos, we have become like Ant and Dec, we know which side we need to stand on!
We’ve won awards aplenty.
We’ve designed and installed masses of amazing projects over the years, everything from show homes and marketing suites, to vast residential amenity spaces and office redesign. Here are a few of our favourites…
Plenty more where these came from, head to our PORTFOLIO to have a browse. And you’ll be pleased to know that Suna-the-person is still a big part of our lives, we hope she is proud that her company, bearing her name, has got to where it has. And isn’t too pissed off that because we kept the name Suna it meant she couldn’t use it for her US company!
Words by Rebecca Hunt
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