Premier Retail

Barkers

Barkers
Written by Roma Publications

Barkers

Barkers

The furniture store owned by Barkers in Northallerton has had a Ā£3.5 million expansion and re-brand, revealing its new name ā€˜Barkers Homeā€™ earlier this year.

Barkers Northallerton is a department store brand that comprises of a High Street Department Store, a Distribution Centre, and at the edge of town is the Barkers Home. The home store, purpose built in 1994, houses a large range of high quality upholstery, cabinet furniture, beds, bed linen, flooring, lighting, soft furnishings, pictures and mirrors.

The development to the furnishing store, which sits on Yafforth Road,Ā included work across multiple departments within the store in order to improve the overall customer experience. As one of the largest home stores in the North, Barkers Home increased its retail space by 20,000ft2 to 60,000ft2 over two floors and now includes a section dedicated to contemporary furniture, a new cook shop and gifts section, and a bigger linens department.

The ground floor now houses a collection of contemporary and stylish ranges from big brands including Stressless, Fama and Collins & Hayes upholstery. The customer service desk has been given a face-lift as well as new flooring, lighting and ceilings fitted throughout the store.

The design and fit out of the 30,000ft2 first floor included an extension to the linens department and included the introduction of their new cook shop ā€˜Cook, Wine & Dineā€™, Luggage, Gifts and Outdoor Living. The Lighting, Bedroom and the Pictures and Mirrors departments were also refitted in order to bring new life to the popular store. Work was also done to increase the seating area of the Tree View CafĆ© and to bring it in line with the interior of the rest of the store.

It was Cadence Retail & Leisure Interiors Ltd who acted as the design and build contractors for the fit out element of the project with MD Stuart McCarthy as project managing the works. ā€œThe design brief was tricky as the scheme had to sit with the existing ground floor of the store, but have a more open, loft style feel,ā€ commented Stuart. ā€œIt was important to the client that the new scheme represented the new contemporary merchandise they were going to showcase. It also needed a big wow factor! Numerous departments were to be included, with some being new to the store such as the new cook shop.ā€

Barkers

The interior design of the store uses natural finishes and colours, such as timber and grey wall paint, as a neutral backdrop to help merchandise to stand out. The ceilings were left exposed to make a more industrial look to contrast with the natural finishes, creating a unique interior for customers to enjoy. ā€œThe wow factor was the addition of a 10m ā€˜living wallā€™ which creates a backdrop for the new customer staircase,ā€ added Stuart. Exposed red brick, natural oak, metal fixtures and simple track lighting are used to form the loft style of the design brief.

ā€œWithin the cook shop we created a huge stand-alone metal structure, with a feature open timber beam ceiling above. It gives the feeling of a shop-in-shop experience, and creates a feature between the new and existing parts of the store.ā€

Along with the interior work to the store itself, there was some exterior work done to enhance the customer experience. Landscaping was carried out to improve the site image whilst providing customers with an extended car park. A new prominent internally illuminated sign was installed with a classic black and white look.

The team at Cadence have worked with Barkers over many years and formed a great understanding of what they wanted for this project. ā€œAs a company, Cadence are ā€˜new kids on the blockā€™ but our personal working relationship with Barkers extends to over 20 years. We are extremely proud to be involved and thoroughly enjoyed working with Barkers to deliver such an exciting project.ā€

 

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Roma Publications