Web? - this way please...

At last,we are now getting to the point where our new website is ready to make its debut. We have now signed off the new colours and style formats which only leaves the nuts and bolts to be put back together again and a final road test before it can become live. It will certainly not be long now before you can dive headlong into our new look store and feast your eyes on lots of new images that will tell the story of the lovely products that we sell.

You will get a great cross section of what Calico Brook is all about both in its interior and gift ranges. So no matter what you are looking for whether it be for your home or for giving something to you and yours we will be able to give you a great selection of choices to whet your appetite. Even, for those hard to find things, if you give us an email  with a description or what information you have, we will try and source something from the ever growing list of contacts and suppliers that we have amassed  over our years in business.

To whet your appetite here is some screen shots of the new look website - remember, it is not live quite yet but it soon will be. More info and grand reveal will be on the blog so keep tuned.

Chair today gone tomorrow

Mini Chaise

It would seem that a lot of you dedicated followers of Calico Brook are enjoying what we are up to at this point in time. We are doing our chair thing at the moment and our wee stage in the window is certainly managing to wow the passers by as well as the ones that simply could not resist the style, quality and price of all that have graced the spotlight so far.
To start with,what do you think of this little mini chaise masterpiece? Retailing at only a mere £440 this is the lap of luxury for creating the look and style that you have always been dreaming about. Clearly, many of you have already been having that dream judging by the way that you have come in and said that you simply have to have it.
One of our customers has already had hers customised by changing both the fabric and the colour of its legs - so there is lots of possibilities. We already have had this on display but we have a fabric sample if you are passing the shop and would like to see and feel it. Pop in anytime, we will be glad to see you.

If you think the mini chaise was nice what about our one off silver high backed chair. It simply envelopes you and makes you feel comfy but also proud to have such a lovely sculptural addition to your room - throne room or otherwise.

As you might expect with such a lovely must have item, it has already been sold - I think it only lasted 3 days. If you were really interested in obtaining a similar chair we would be happy to discuss it further with you but you would have to be quite patient as it could be up to six months before we might be able to get such a delectable item again.


Anyway, at least you will be able to come into our shop and try out our latest chair, which is a lovely bedroom or occasional chair. The animal pattern is a zebra stripe which is very on trend at this moment in time but is also one of these designs that is ageless in as much that it is so natural so is always 'in the moment'. For such a great price of only £325, you could have this as quick as you like as we have a few available ex stock, just in case you wanted to try and use the excuse that if it is not available then it was not meant to be. It sure was meant to be, so you are very welcome to Calico Brook where you will be surrounded by lovely things to help dress the rest of your home because if we do not have it available from our shelves or our stock rooms then we can always call upon our trusty suppliers plus with our retinue of catalogues to hand we will be able to show you so many beautiful things - you will be amazed.

See you soon.....

Zebra Striped Chair

A Fish called Condo

One of the points of writing a blog is to try and keep you up to date with what is happening in and around all things Calico Brook. Another aspect of the blog is to try and time things so that all of you get a chance to get info and stories before anyone else - unfortunately this is going to be a case where you will get a story and not any news.

On Saturday we got our new goldfish from the helpful folks  at  http://www.discoveryaquatics.co.uk/ over in Manhattan Works. This was ideal because we had just secured the ultimate in designer fish tanks - they are so designer that you have to call them Condos - as in condominiums. The fish can then be be stacked in their condos and become a proper feature in your home. What is more, the fish can all see each other and that must be a good thing also.

But getting back to our story, everyone who came into the shop were intrigued by the whole thing so by the end of the day day we had only one little condo left for sale unless you need to buy a condo with a sitting tenant - only joking.

All I can do for you at the moment is give you a picture to see our four fish at home in their condos with the knowledge that if you want one you will really have to be quick if you want the one that is left. I can assure you that we will be getting more in before christmas but it might be a good idea to reserve one if you fancy one for one of your nearest and dearest.

Enjoy.

Sign of the times

Well, thankfully after poor weather and other delays, our new signage has been fully completed here at calico brook, 77 Gray Street, Broughty Ferry. Hope you like the pictures that we have published because we are now absolutely  thrilled to see all the hard work from design conception right through to completion now finally being  realized.

The colour tones of our shop are also reflected in our new stationery which you will be getting in the form of receipt wallets and when our new designed web site goes live very soon now it will also have the same branding and style also.

When you have been down to the shop please let us know what you think of the look or alternatively just do it through the blog  and give us you take on our new look.

Thanks from all at Calico Brook

Calico Brook - Business and Corporate Styling

When we are not busy remodelling our own shop we can be found out and about doing everything from the simple product placement up to a full corporate makeover. We will have details and pictures coming up shortly on our website which will be with you very very soon.

As a business you would want to convey a certain message to your clients through the things that surround you. Just as people tend to make assumptions about the way you dress or the company you keep they will usually also make judgements about your business premises and the way it looks and feels. In general it will be tend to be quite neutral which of course is not a bad thing but would it not be better if you were to get comments on how things have changed or where did you get that particular item be it some art for your walls or a nice bit of sculpture etc. Do you not agree, that you should always be striving for improvement at the best possible price? Generating positive feedback is perhaps one of the most cost effective ways of enhancing your business through word of mouth directly from your customers.

If you had a little spare money what would you do? List the things that you would like to change then simply email us and we will make up our list after our initial free consultation and we can then see where the most important areas of overlap are. Additionally try scoring the following out of 10 for your premises :
Window display area
Entrance / Foyer / Reception
Meeting areas
Walls or stairs
Everything else

Look through the eyes of a customer and be honest in your appraisal, even if you don't get as far as contacting us at Calico Brook, you may have taken the first step in looking critically at your own business. This is not like on television where after some dramatic makeover everything is all rosey it is more about trying to be coherent in what you do, what you say and what you project. If there is a mixed message out there or any one part of your message dominates the others, your customers will react in a like manner. Surely nobody wants either a confused customer or even worse no customer at all.

If you would just like us to come along and make your place all nice and bonnie then skip all of the above and drop us a line.

Thanks for reading.
Rod

New Suppliers

Apart from us doing all the remodelling work in our lovely little boutique store for which we are now in the home straight- thank the lord... we are also in the middle of bringing in our new autumn range of products as well as organising and scheduling our Christmas goodies for you to enjoy. I know a lot of you like to keep up to date with us via the blog - as our website has not been fully upgraded / updated as yet. I will make a separate blog about the ongoing progress of our website later this month to keep you all posted as to how it is progressing. For the time being all I can say it is 15 programming man hours away from completion - that probably equates to 2 - 3 of our earth weeks - ha ha.

In the meantime we have been busy sourcing new suppliers and new products and we are glad to tell you that over the following weeks and months not only will you will see these fantastic new pieces in our shop window and in store but you will be able to peruse new furniture, lighting and accessories catalogues to help you find that capricious and fickle piece that may have eluded you until now but with the help of Sandra this will all be no longer the case.

Also,we are also going to be able to offer you a great bespoke service in the very near future, of which we can say not a great deal at the moment, but we will do a grand reveal with this item once our web site is back up and running because we are so excited about it - we were wondering if all of you are even half as enthused as we are it might even crash our web site - that would be very strange eh. Stand by for more details and information as soon we can.

Rod