Visited, and did business with, a young couple in North London.

Really nice modern flat close to bustling Upper Street in Islington. Living in a small town in Surrey I can see the attraction of city living, vibrant streets, great places to eat and drink, a nice mix of supermarkets and small ethnic grocers and easy access to the west end.

However, having paid over half a million quid for a flat with attractive, secure gardens and underground parking and less than half the floor area of my 1930s semi (worth a lot less money) what are people supposed to do for storage? I have loft space and a garage that never sees a car, fitted wardrobes in three bedrooms, built-in alcove units in the dining room and a fully fitted home office with six file drawers, other drawers, cupboards and extensive bookcases. Every inch of these spaces is crammed with possessions, admittedly acquired over 60 plus years but we are not particularly acquisitive and at least half this kit is ‘essential’ to our lifestyle.

Fortunately, I was able to substantially increase, and rationalize, their storage space (I guess this is an important Options raison d’etre) and my clients have another 40 odd years to overtake my collection of objets and living space. But why do we need it all and where on earth do flat dwellers put it?

Well, we finally took delivery of our new fitted furniture delivery van, decorated with a selection of fitted bedrooms, sliding door wardrobes, wall units and home offices it really looks the business. Its like seeing the Options showroom driving around.

It just had to be the dullest, greyest un-June like day when it arrived so the photos aren’t brilliant. I will try to take some more pictures but as it’s working flat out from 8 a.m. to night fall delivering the finest bespoke fitted furniture to lots of happy customers throughout London and the south east I might have difficulty catching up with it.

One thing’s for sure, Paul the driver has nowhere to hide; he is very high profile from now on.

I saw a Google ad from Hammonds this morning; is said ‘No false discounts, just fair pricing’.

Last night I visited a client who had had quotes from Sharps and Hammonds.

The Hammonds salesman went in first, designed the room, priced it up, deducted the current ’special offer’ discount and then delivered the coup de grace: “Here is a letter from our managing director (all neatly typed up on a Hammond’s letterhead) saying “As we have reached out annual sales target, all further business in the current trading year can be discounted by an extra 10%”. How nice thought the client “We have Sharps coming tomorrow and will get back to you after we have compared the prices”.

The next night, the Sharps salesman created an identical design; “That will cost you an arm and a leg” said Mr Sharps, “but as we have are having half price sale that ends tomorrow (yawn) its only an arm if you sign up tonight”. The client hesitated. “Better still”, said Mr Sharps producing a letter from the managing director, all neatly typed up on a Sharp’s letterhead and saying “As we have reached out annual sales target, all further business in the current trading year can be discounted by an extra 10%”.

You can’t beat the old ones but what does this say about our competitors respect for the client?

Has anybody had a similar experience?

Most Options’ customers have a budget to work to and settle for one of the excellent wood effects or a paint lacquer finish.

However, now and again we get to take some roughly sawn planks of hardwood and craft them into objects of great beauty.

These pieces of Pippy Oak were passing through the factory last week and attracted a lot of positive comment and not a little pride in our own craftsmanship. This is high quality bespoke fitted furniture at its best.

Pippy oak is very special because it emphasise the beauty of the real wood through what would once have been considered imperfections.

It occurs to me that as the amount of business we do through interior designers keeps growing and as we are currently revamping our showroom, we have a great opportunity to establish a working relationship with an interior designer starting out in Surrey or SW London and in need of showroom space.

There should be no conflict of interest and we can offer showroom facilities and an established client list of thousands.  Our clients are in main affluent home owners and perfect prospective clients for an interior designer.

We could benefit from offering a more in depth service and the ‘interior designer’s touch’ would flatter the showroom.  Sounds win – win to me.

Any takers?