Bigger and better: Hear more about our exciting expansion project.
We’ve grown! We’ve been busy here at Farley HQ and have spread our already massive prop collection across another building so we’re now 25% percent bigger than before and have 100,000 square feet of showroom space packed to the gills with furniture, smalls, artwork, lighting and diningware for hire.
You don’t have to go far to see our lovely new building, it’s the next one in the street! and we’ve created a walkway from our existing buildings, so from inside you won’t even notice when you leave one building and arrive in the next.
Now we know that size isn’t everything, but the increased space has given us the ability to spread some of our most tightly packed sections, reorganise others and create entirely new departments. We now have a cafe/bar section with bar stools, stanchion posts, cafe chairs and tables and cocktail bars, a new collection of Campaign furniture, a Music section with our instruments, gramophones and radios, a mirror department, frames, an Art Deco section, a whole room dedicated to Prints and an inviting Bedroom section with everything you need for the perfect boudoir. Though you’ll have to walk a little further on your visits from now on, we’ve re-jigged the layout of the whole company so that departments that relate to each other are near to each other and we still keep ‘like with like’ so French chairs are near the French tables, which are near the French screens….you get the idea. We love having such a depth of stock but we also like quality over quantity so some of our shabbier pieces have either had a make-over or have gone to the great prop house in the sky to make way for something newer and shinier. Our most tightly packed areas had become overcrowded making it tricky to spot the beautiful pieces that we’re right in front of you. Well, no more. Wherever possible we’ve moved things to floor or eye level (no stacking) and have re-organised the smalls in some departments so that surfaces are kept clear making them easier to see and photograph as you go round.
There’s more space around everything making it easier to wend your way through the collection and view individual pieces. We’ve colour coded our oddment china and diningware making it super easy to find what you’re after, perfect for food photographers and stylists who might want an eclectic mix, our tools and utensils are all kept together in handy compartments and we’ve hung all of our lanterns on brand new racks so you can see them in all their glory.
With all the moving around, even our most experienced and regular clients struggled to find their way around on their first visit but do not fear, our sales team are on hand to play tour guide and there are even some helpful new signs dotted around to give you an indication of what’s where. But surely half the fun is in getting lost and spotting things you’ve never seen before?
There are a few other things that we’ve been working on that you might not notice but we know you’ll enjoy the benefits of, namely the addition of new lighting throughout and freshly painted floors in some departments (no mean feat!).
We started work in December 2015 with the installation of our new racks in Spiller (intrigued? – see our other fab blog post for more info) and continued through February when we finally gained access to number 19-21 Brunel Road and were able to really get stuck in. It took us until May to complete everything (and we’re still tweaking things daily) with the boys in our despatch team having to pack up entire departments, load them on to the vans, drive them down the street and then unload everything so that Mr Farley could start dressing the spaces. It took us days to pack, move and re-organise the rustic kitchen smalls alone! All of this whilst still being open for business as usual.
We’re thrilled with the results and think it was well worth all the effort. We hope you like it too.