A new start February 02, 2015 13:47 4 Comments

It will be 10 years ago this year that I first started Hunkydory Home.  With the help of The Prince's Trust and a local business centre, I borrowed a small amount of money and set up a website selling a collection of lampshades and cushions that I had made myself.   In 2005 'House Doctor' type home improvement shows were everywhere, encouraging people to neutralise their homes to make them easy to sell (they seemed to forget homes were not always an investment, they were meant to be lived in too) and I found a market for my funky, bright designs in a world of cream!

Hunkydory Home 2005

Hunkydory Home grew and grew, and a few years later I branched out selling a whole range of home accessories from clocks and mugs to rugs and footstools all with the 'hunkydory' bright, fun style.  For the last few years I've found my focus shifted from being creative, developing my own products and finding new designs to being thrown back into a office job managing stock levels, reorders and accounts.  I thought that growing the business was what I wanted to do and embarked on business plans and strategies. Then, over the past year I realised that this was not why I set up Hunkydory, I never intended to run a shop; I always wanted to have fun creating lovely products for the home and if this gave me an income then that would be a bonus.  I missed the excitement of finding new fabric designs and turning them into lovely products. Of course I still sold my own lampshades and cushions on a small scale but I felt my focus had shifted, talk was all about 'growing' a home store, increasing staff and meetings were more with people in suits than spent with beautiful fabric and other creative folk.

Fast forward a decade and people are far more confident about using colour and pattern in their homes and not afraid of stamping their personality on their interiors, there is a greater demand than ever for quirky and unique home design. 

My new start for 2015 is actually a return to my start in 2005, I want to create and sell my own lighting and cushions again.  I don't want to be selling what now many other stores are selling and I'm fed up of trying to keep one step ahead of the high street stores' buying departments. I want to spend my hours creating not administrating; Hunkydory Home in 2015 is all about made-to-order, unique and affordable products for your home, the very reason I started in the first place.

I'm excited about the year ahead and about sharing with you all the fantastic products we're going to make for you.