Wigmore Street Designer Weekend – A Q&A With Cari Bateman

Whether you’re looking for a boutique bedroom design to rival even the most luxurious of hotels, a hassle-free staircase to modernise your home or stylish storage to help organise family clutter. Our Wigmore Street showroom is the perfect place to experience our designs and delve into the minds of our expert designers.

Why not join us on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th June for our Summer Designer Weekend event. Enjoy a glass of prosecco whilst you chat to our specialist design experts, exploring some of our newest bespoke furniture and staircase solutions in our stylish spaces. These events are a fantastic opportunity to speak to a designer; gain an insight into their planning process, discover trends you might want to incorporate into your home decor or just chat about any creative projects you have ongoing. The showroom demonstrates the quality and versatility of our products and shows how even a small space can be given so much relevance.

Meet Cari Bateman, one of our talented designers based in our Wigmore Street showroom. Joining Neville Johnson four years ago Cari has almost 10 years’ experience in the design industry.

“I’m an artist in my (spare) time so it’s perfect that I get to be creative in my job too. I work in and around London and I’m lucky enough to work with some of the most stunning properties, from large townhouses in Kensington to the lovely Victorian terraces in South West London.”

As we have our Designer Weekend event coming up we thought we’d share an inspiring Q&A with Cari surrounding her favourite trends, processes and current designs.

What trend is becoming more and more popular this season?

There are a lot of beautiful classic wallpapers that are allowing a more playful element to style rather than the super minimalist themes that people have been leaning towards in the last couple of years.

Are there any particular finishes or colours clients are leaning towards this spring/summer?

Rich dark blue is really strong at the moment (such as our paint colour Lithadora) and it works really well when mixed with softer, pastel shades such as blush and soft yellows.

Do you have a personal favourite trend at the moment?

Blacks (such as NJ Nightshade) are a great colour to integrate into everything, whether it’s being as bold as the main colour on a wall or just here and there for a little drama. Mixing a rich black with some statement lighting and a feature piece such as a copper bowl is a simple yet powerful way to give energy and intensity to any space.

What’s one of your favourite projects you have worked on?

I’m currently working on a beautiful pied-a-terre in old town Clapham which is an old metal factory that has been renovated with an industrial metal theme. The studio flat is a challenging but beautiful space and we are creating a storage solution that sits with the copper and black tones of the apartment block style, using mirrored backs and lighting but with lots of practical storage below.

The Wigmore Street showroom gives a solid foundation to everything I will discuss with a client in a design meeting. It sort of elaborates on my points with the finished product. A client can wander in and see the luxury of soft close mechanisms, finishing touches in situ and the quality of the workmanship. Also, I am always 100% confident that my client will experience not just the product quality but the overall service that they will experience when choosing to work with Neville Johnson.

Our Wigmore Street Showroom Designer Weekend will take place Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th June. With our summer sale now on and expert designers on hand there’s never been a better time to visit. You can find us at: 3 Wigmore St, Marylebone, London, W1U 1PB. To contact our Wigmore Street showroom please call 020 7499 5145.