Page 60 - Country Homes & Interiors (August 2019)
P. 60
What we love about our work...
❝ we appreciate that the business gives
us the opportunity to make our living
as artists and the freedom of
working for ourselves ❞
shopping at York racecourse car boot sale down to Cornwall to be closer to family,
and spent £800 on vintage fabric – Katy’s and grow their parasol business there.
aesthetic is layering and combining different The name Sunbeam Jackie was chosen as
styles of fabric – but we weren’t used to it was a nickname of a friend of theirs. ‘It
spending such a large amount of money.’ wasn’t descriptive of anything – we didn’t
The couple had two months to get the want to describe what we did in a name in
10 parasols completed. ‘We ended up case we decided to do something different
assembling the parasol frames the night – it was our first lesson in branding,’ says
before Glastonbury!’ says Katy. Charlie. Charlie’s father wrote the name
Mark Homewood, the buyer for Designers out and that became the logo design.
Guild, and Josie da Bank, the creative Production of the parasols continued
director of Bestival, then spotted the in Northumberland. ‘We were renting the
parasols, too. ‘When Designers Guild parasols out at festivals, weddings and
ordered our parasols to sell in their shop seasonal events, while we figured out what to
that was a great seal of approval,’ says Katy. do,’ says Charlie. The couple needed to think
Having married and had their son, Sylvester, about growing the business and choosing
in 2011, Katy and Charlie decided to move their market. ‘We decided to use specialised
no-expense-spared ash poles with stainless
steel made by local craftsmen in Cornwall
Katy loves to layer and that would define our market. So we
different patterns
and designs redesigned the parasols and got European
funding to build a website,’ says Charlie.
Katy and Charlie bought a farm in West
Cornwall and set up a workshop in the grain
store there. They went to see Liberty buyer
Bruce Lepere and he ordered 12 on the spot.
Judy Hutson, owner of The Pig Hotels, then
ordered some parasols and it was the start
of another working relationship. Sunbeam
Jackie now also supplies to lots of hotels,
including Soho House, and interior designers
around the world. ‘We’ve always known
where the product needs to be seen – these
are our bullseyes,’ says Charlie. ‘We’ve slowly
built those connections. We knew the quality
was there in terms of the manufacture.
‘Parasols in a commercial environment get
a lot of use and we’ve now designed textile
prints on outdoor fabric based on the vintage
aesthetic,’ says Charlie. ‘There are 35 nuts
and bolds and 84 rivets in every parasol
so they look quite engineered.’
‘We love what we do,’ says Katy. ’We’re
working for ourselves in beautiful surroundings.’
Sunbeam Jackie, 07590 019835,
sunbeamjackie.com
60 CouNTrY HoMES & INTErIorS
