We’re excited to announce that we’ve reached our 10-year anniversary. To mark this special milestone we wanted to share some of our journey with you and the plans for our exciting future too…
The original vision
In April 2012, we established our design practice to help clients from London to South Wales achieve their dream homes.
Right from the outset, our mission has been to deliver great residential design and offer a handheld approach to helping clients achieve beautiful and bespoke lifestyle spaces.
To this day, we can honestly say that we’ve never strayed from our mission – we’ve watched our clients flourish in their new homes, and we’re delighted to still be going strong 10 years later!
Giving homeowners confidence
Through our journey of helping numerous clients over the years, we became increasingly aware of just how daunting it was for people to embark on a building project for the first time.
The enormity of the task ahead can be enough to stop people in their tracks, so we decided to develop an approach that made it as easy as possible for clients to achieve their home aspirations.
Time for high-quality design and finish
Making the home-design process simpler and easier to use wasn’t our only motivation.
Time after time, we found ourselves being asked to help in the aftermath of poorly designed projects that hadn’t delivered on the brief or budget.
While we’re always happy to help, we don’t like to see the unnecessary stress and frustration that this causes clients and their families.
It was clear to us that something in the marketplace had to change. So we decided to also set the bar when it came to providing quality and systematic yet beautifully considered design.
Putting clients at the centre of their home design
One of the issues we frequently came across with unsuccessful renovations was the design failing because the client hadn’t been put first – instead, the aesthetic had been given priority.
To counter this problem and empower our clients, we developed the unique approach of delivering a live design session at the very start of the process.
This gives our clients the control they want and simplifies the design process, allowing them to be integrally involved in the design of their home from day one.
We found this collaborative way of working also had the benefit of speeding up the design process which allowed us to be more competitive on fees – a win-win situation for everyone.
Helping you achieve your lifestyle aspirations
For a home design to be truly successful it needs to deliver on the clients’ specific lifestyle requirements.
During our consultation and live design session we really get to know our clients – doing a deep dive to uncover what their everyday lives involve, how they like to spend time and what they want to achieve from their new home.
Most of our clients want to create spaces that are better suited for spending time together and want a design that will give their homes a better flow and improved connection to the outdoors.
We advise clients on the best design solutions to meet their needs, and very often those of their furry friends too!
Ensuring all approvals are in place from the start
It’s essential that the planning approval process is thorough and efficient. Far too often we’ve seen projects halt on site because of gaps appearing – this doesn’t just waste time, it also creates unnecessary extra expense.
Before construction work starts on your project, we make sure that planning permission, party wall approval, drainage requirements, and building control are all in place and confirmed.
This systematic approach saves time and money, so when your project starts you know there won’t be any unexpected surprises or delays along the way.
Making the planning process simple and successful
The planning approvals process can be a daunting one, so our aim is to make the planning application process smooth and easy to understand. We’ll help you at every step and you can also pick up tips by reading our guide to planning approval success.
We can manage the whole process for you and all our designs take planning considerations into account. Our planning expertise is used to create innovative solutions that maximise your space around any planning policy constraints.
Often, we can use our experience of similar planning applications in an area and we’ve had more than 650 successful applications with local authorities, from Liverpool to London, Wales to Norwich.
Looking after your project progress and budget
Part of providing our clients with a handheld approach is offering feedback on build costs and programming and advising you on any red flags as and when we see them.
Our project supervision services will check on key specific points throughout the build period.
This ensures the project is being delivered to the standard and timing specified in your approved design and plans.
Simplifying the whole home design process
Taking a simple and straightforward approach – by putting the project and information into manageable bite-size chunks for clients – makes the process a lot smoother.
We’ve found that using a process that’s enjoyable and puts you and your lifestyle needs first is the best way to create living spaces that are truly loved and make a real difference to family life.
Our unique approach has seen us delivering more than 400 successful projects and many more happy clients enjoying their new spaces.
Award-winning designs for your home
Always striving for excellence, we often receive recognition from the industry and over the past ten years we’ve gone on to win many awards. Some of the more recent ones are listed below:
- Build Architecture Awards 2020 – Domestic Extensions Specialist UK
- Best Domestic Extension & Refurbishment Project (London): Richmond House Extension & Refurbishment
An exciting future ahead for you and for us
As part of our growing success, we now fully integrate our tried and tested approach across our new interiors team and construction service.
Providing our own in-house interiors expertise allows us to create schemes that work in total harmony, creating homes that not only look great but also function perfectly as part of our clients’ everyday lives.
Being able to use our own in-house construction team and hand-picked outsourced contractors means projects are integrated from start to finish, to realise the best potential of our clients’ homes.
Our new integrated offering allows us to offer you a full-circle solution so that we can deliver a bespoke and quality approach to every layer of your project.
Here’s to another 10 years of growth, to our clients enjoying their new bespoke homes and to us launching our new brand – Bespoke Living AIC!
