New Chapters & Continued Craft: STUDIO NEWSLETTER — 2025

New Chapters & Continued Craft

As we step towards a fresh new year, we’ve been reflecting on the projects, people and inspirations that made the past one so rewarding. From historic homes lovingly restored to exciting new builds taking shape, it’s been a year full of creativity, collaboration and craftsmanship — and we’re so looking forward to what 2026 will bring.

Completed Work

One of our proudest moments has been completing Apsley, a full refurbishment of a Regency family home in the Surrey countryside. Created for a family returning to England after many years in Italy and America, the interiors honour the home’s heritage while tracing the evolution of English Country style — layering pattern, colour and texture with antiques and tactile materials chosen for comfort and authenticity.

We also completed a beautiful kitchen and utility extension and reconfiguration for a family home, creating a calm, stylish space that has really transformed how the clients live and move through their home each day.

We’re looking forward to sharing more from these project as next year unfolds.

Projects in Progress

We’re equally excited about the projects currently unfolding behind the scenes.

At Meadow Cottage, we’re working on a truly special new home: a single-storey oak frame build set within a meadow, designed in collaboration with the wonderful Border Oak specialists. Our clients are creating a bespoke home tailored entirely to their way of life, and it’s a joy to be part of such a thoughtful, beautifully crafted project from the ground up.

In London, work continues at the Beaux Arts Building, the grand former Post Office headquarters. We’re leading the refurbishment of the entrance lobby and communal spaces, breathing new life into these impressive shared areas while respecting the building’s architectural significance.

We’re also immersed in the refurbishment of a large family home designed for a new way of life — fresh, contemporary interiors, generous open-plan spaces for entertaining, and stunning views that shape the layout and mood of the house. It’s a project all about light, flow and living well.

Behind the Scenes

Beyond the studio, we’ve been busy seeking inspiration and staying connected to the wider design world. This year has included attending Focus 25 and Decorex, visiting WOW!house, and spending many happy hours exploring antique markets in search of those unique, characterful pieces we love to weave into our schemes. As proud members of the BIID, continuing professional development and industry collaboration remain at the heart of what we do.

Seasonal Design Note

As we move from Christmas into January, our advice is to let your interiors gently transition rather than change abruptly. After the festive decorations come down, keep warmth and texture in place — layered lighting, cushions, throws and natural materials like wool, linen and wood help spaces feel cosy through the winter months. A simple refresh with new lampshades, artwork or a re-edited shelf can lift a room without the need for a full overhaul.

Looking Forward

If you’re planning a project in 2026 — whether a renovation, new build or a re-imagining of how your home works — we’d love to hear from you. Do get in touch to discuss how we can support you in the year ahead.

Warmest wishes,
Hannah & Kat

A Year of Recognition, Collaboration & Creativity – Our 2024 Newsletter

A Year of Recognition, Growth & Creative Partnerships – Our 2024 Newsletter

Reflection & Foundations

As 2024 draws to a close, we’ve been reflecting on a year defined by professional growth, industry recognition and thoughtful project work. It’s been a year of strengthening foundations — both creatively and professionally — while continuing to do what we love most: designing considered, enduring interiors.

Industry Recognition

One of the standout moments of the year was being named a finalist in the SBID Awards for ‘Best Restaurant UK’. Attending the ceremony was a real highlight, offering the chance to celebrate outstanding interior design and reconnect with former colleagues while making new connections with industry professionals from around the world. We’re incredibly proud to see our work recognised at such a prestigious level.

Press Features

We were also delighted to see our Hammond’s Restaurant and Wine Bar project featured in Premier Hospitality Magazine (Issue 16.5). It’s always an honour to have our work showcased within the industry, and we’re grateful to Lesley, Amy and the entire Premier Hospitality team for their support and for highlighting the project. Sharing this milestone has been a real pleasure.

New Collaborations & Concept Design

This year has also brought exciting new opportunities closer to home. We were thrilled to be approached by local estate agents to create concept plans for a beautiful country house in Outwood, Surrey. Our proposals explore an open-plan kitchen designed to make the most of breathtaking views across the seven-acre gardens and the North Downs, alongside the potential conversion of an outbuilding into a three-bedroom Stable House.

The wider property — with its existing Stable House, indoor pool and spa facilities, tennis court, walled garden and lake — made this a particularly inspiring project to explore at the concept stage, and one that celebrates the relationship between architecture, landscape and interior design.

Looking Ahead

As we head towards the new year, we’re excited to build on the momentum of 2024 — nurturing new collaborations, developing ideas at every stage of a project, and continuing to design interiors that feel both considered and personal.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us this year, whether through collaboration, recommendation or simply following our journey. We look forward to sharing more with you very soon.

Warmest wishes,
Hannah & Kat

2023 Newsletter

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thank you to all our clients, suppliers and consultants; we really do appreciate each and every one. 

newsletter 2023

We share our highlights of 2023 and give a sneak peek of what we're looking forward to in 2024.

Here's a snapshot of our most recently completed projects:

HAMMOND'S: new photos!

Wine Bar and Restaurant, Oxted

Our Hammond’s wine bar and restaurant project in Oxted opened its first phase, the ground floor Wine Bar, in November 2022. This year, the first floor Fine Dining Restaurant and garden Courtyard have also opened. We are thrilled with the results and to be able to share some beautiful photos with you hot off the press.

Capturing the spirit of art deco, bringing the essence of the glamourous, decadent era to Oxted. The design features iconic geometric details, luxe materials and a quality of timeless charm.

Hammond's Photos

IN PROGRESS…

• Private Residential, Surrey

We have been very busy throughout this year with a wonderful residential project in Surrey. This large project includes a full house refurbishment, sympathetic to the existing property. We are working alongside our clients, the architect, main contractor and team as the build rapidly progresses. We can’t wait to see this project come to fruition in 2024.

PLUS…

A flavour of the projects we’ve worked on this year:

• Single Storey Extensions

We regularly get asked to create a new, larger space for a kitchen/ dining/ living space. This year, we have worked on several of these projects for really lovely clients. It is always fantastic to see the transformation this brings to family life and how the new space really does make the day to day tasks easier and more enjoyable. We work on all aspects of the project, from creating feasibility plans (looking at several options of layout), helping obtain planning permission; kitchen quotes; to finishes and light fittings.

• Individual Room Refurbishments

We love the variety in our projects, both in type of space and the look and feel we are asked to create. This year, for example, we have worked on a garden study refurbishment, creating a warm, traditional library feel to the space. We are also working on several ‘formal’ sitting room projects, where our clients want to create a sociable space for family and friends to gather and relax.

• Consultancy

Alongside the larger projects, we also offer a two hour consultancy because we find sometimes people prefer a little help with one key problem. While we are happy to help with all interior design issues, we are often asked for help with choosing paint colours. We help narrow down the over-whelming choice of colours by looking at the orientation of the room, the amount of light, how the light changes through the day and how our clients want to feel in the room. We bring samples of paint colours to the appointment, and follow up with a detailed schedule of paint colours for walls, ceilings, woodwork and any fiddly areas. We love seeing the relief on client’s faces when we have helped them make a decision…and saved them an awful lot of time and energy!

2024…

• Expanding

2023 was really exciting for us as we took on some extra help in the studio, to ease our growing workload. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with our two talented freelancers and we can’t wait to continue to expand and develop our studio.

• We turn SIX!

Having started in 2018 juggling pre-school children and working two days a week, we have developed year on year. In Jan ‘24 our business will be 6 years old, and true to the cliché, time has really flown by!

HOW CAN WE HELP?

We always love to hear from people, from new enquiries to feedback or updates a few years on.

studio@barclaybriggs.co.uk

thank you

To our clients past and current; the suppliers; consultants; friends and family - thank you for all your support in 2023.

Hannah and Kat x

Our studio is closed for Christmas from Thursday 14th December 2023.
We re-open on Wednesday 4th January 2023

2022 Newsletter

2022 Newsletter

Hello!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thank you to all our clients, suppliers and consultants; we really do appreciate each and every one. 

2022 Newsletter

We share our highlights of 2022 and give a sneak peek of what we're looking forward to in 2023.

Here's a snapshot of our most recently completed projects:

Hammond's

Wine Bar and Restaurant, Oxted

Our Hammond’s wine bar and restaurant project in Oxted opened its first phase in November. We are thrilled with the results and to be able to share some beautiful photos with you. Capturing the spirit of art deco, bringing the essence of the glamourous, decadent era to Oxted. The design features iconic geometric details, luxe materials and a quality of timeless charm.

The Ginistry, Oxted

We also completed the refurbishment of The Ginistry, Oxted, our local gin bar. We were delighted to be approached by Andrew and David Graves, who run the local well-loved gin bar, The Ginistry, in Oxted. They felt their “middle room” could be improved to provide a better quality of space for customers to sit in.

Our interior design concept was inspired by the botanical nature of gin flavours......

Keep reading on our website 

Bathroom Refurbishment, Oxted

We were delighted to be approached by a young family, in Oxted, who requested help to refurbish their existing family bathroom, which included some structural modifications to gain head height on the staircase which ran under part of the first floor bathroom.

We provided concept mood boards, plans and elevations and a purchasing schedule for the finishes, sanitary ware and lighting.

Looking at several different layouts, we discussed with the clients as to which would work best for their family’s needs, and co-ordinated sanitary ware from a local bathroom supplier.

The finished result is fresh, practical, and stylish with a contemporary feel.   

See more photos on our website

HOUSE & GARDEN ‘THE LIST’

We are very excited to continue to be featured in 'The List - House and Garden'. For those who read House and Garden magazine, you will be very familiar with this global guide of fantastic designers, and we are very proud to be featured among them. ⁠

AND MORE…

The variety of projects we take on is one of the things we enjoy about our role and we love our mix of Residential and Commercial work.

We started to list out all the projects we have worked on in 2022, but we weren’t sure you’d be reading on by the end, so here are just a few of the different types we’ve worked on…

·       SINGLE AND DOUBLE HEIGHT EXTENSIONS WITH PLANNING APPLICATIONS

We have had many clients who know they want to increase the size of their home and need our help to explore the best way to do so. We look forward to work on site and seeing the finished results in 2023!

·       INTERNAL RECONFIGURING, TO A NEW LAYOUT

Not all improvements require extensions. We frequently have clients who wish to improve the layout of their existing house, by knocking down internal walls, to create new spaces better suited to their lifestyle.

·       BATHROOM RENOVATIONS

Bathrooms come is varying shapes and sizes and house an array of sanitary ware to suit. As designers we look at the space aesthetically and practically. We resolve those ever-important storage problems and present options of tried and tested layouts, whether it be a family bathroom, en-suit or cloak room 2021 saw them all.

·       INTERIOR DESIGN, ROOM BY ROOM

Some clients request help for a single room, others for multiple rooms. We help clients refresh existing rooms with a new Interior Design scheme. We start by creating a new Furniture layout, essential to work out how the room will function at it’s very best for our client’s needs. We discuss style and how the client wants to feel in the space then collate inspiration images to illustrate this, moving on to source exact items – from sofas, chairs, rugs, lights, side tables, paint colours, wallpaper...and more.

WHAT’S IN STORE FOR 2023?

The New Year is looking exciting for us already; we are almost fully booked with projects for the start of 2023, and we are excited to continue with existing projects and kick off the new.

We have many exciting plans for 2023, which we are busy forming and finalising. We look forward to celebrating our 5th birthday in January, soaking up more design, and continuing to grow our business.

Thank you all for your support.

Hannah & Kat x

 Our studio is closed for Christmas from Friday 16th December 2022.
We re-open on Wednesday 4th January 2023