🪑Meet two Cork sisters from the world of interiors, design and furniture 🖼️ This week in Red Business In Focus Jonathan Healy chats to Eadaoin and Catherine Cotter from Pebble and Sash to tell us all about their business story to date. #RedBusinessinFocus is proudly brought to you by LEO Cork City, LEO Cork North & West and LEO South Cork
Transcript
Welcome back to Red Business and Focus with thanks to Corks local enterprise offices. This week we are going to meet two sisters who are joining us in the world of interiors, design and furniture to tell us more about their business story. To date, I'd like to welcome to the studio Aiden Carter and Catherine Barry of Pebble and Sash. Ladies, you're very welcome. Thank you. We're delighted to be here. Thank you. I'll work out which of you is Pebble and which of you is Sasha in a moment. But Aiden, you're going to tell us first of all in the 30 seconds that is allocated. Watch you guys. OK. Well, very quickly, we are a small little interior design business based here in Cork. We specialize in residential private clients projects mostly. And just in the last year, we have expanded our business now to move into developing our own range of furniture, which is very, we're very proud to say is made here in Cork. OK. So in other words, you are bringing a touch of glamour and class to people's bedrooms and their homes by the sound of it. Now the first thing I will say, Catherine, working with your sister. How's that been? It's actually great. We we we we don't even have to speak very often we we just know exactly what the other person is thinking and doing so we work very well together and very quickly we sink very well. That's version anyway. So 18 what's your version of how you're getting just sister. Well I think it's great it's been lovely and we happen to share all the same friends as well as work together and we happen to live around the corner from each other so it's been a lovely properly. We don't share as a husband. Really. Yeah. That's that's probably gonna be frowned upon as well. I'm just gonna put that out there. How did you get into furniture in the 1st place, Catherine? So we both love interiors and then it happens through Instagram that while we were documenting our own homes. So people started contacting us about doing their homes which we were slow to Potter into. Now why we got into furniture is because while we were doing people's homes we realized that there's a huge delay in if we wanted to put a certain. Spoke Ottoman or re opposed through a chair or get a headboard made. There's a huge lead time. You have to find fabric you have to find it a pollster they're not all waiting for you to get in line and people don't have the time for this now it's grand when we're running a project but this gap kind of came in the market. It is really big gap became loud to us that. People who are busy, who are working, don't have time for this. They would love to be able to just buy the Ottoman, but you could go to the shelf, couldn't you, and pick something off the shelf 18. What is it about the specific pieces that you that appealed to you and it's supposed to that to that gap in the market. Well, I think what what we saw emerging was people anytime we did place an Ottoman or some cushions into somebody's home, people were that we had created bespoke only for those clients and we'd find other people contacting us on Instagram looking to replicate. Something similar for themselves. You see, you can't buy it on the shelf. These things aren't available. You can buy a Gray one in the likes of Harvey Normans or Caseys something. Everything's great. There's nothing. We're not great. We're very colorful. We love pattern that's not available. So that's what we're doing. So I mean, going back to the word fancy here. So in other words, people have their own ideas of what something should look like. And so if they come to you and say I have this pattern in my mind, can you put it on to a piece of furniture? Can you do that? We can. You can. So the whole concept at the moment is that these are ready to go. They're made. We have, we have a series of fabrics, we call them our in-house fabrics. So we've got some plans, some patterned depending on which you prefer. So the idea is that these are ready to go, there's no lead time. You can add them to the basket and they'll be delivered within a few days. So in other words, you're not waiting six months for something to be made. And the other brilliant thing is if you pick an Ottoman, what we find with clients is they they might have bought a piece furniture themselves. They then don't know, they have this terrible fear. Of what cushion they show us when we get to their house. They're like, I was looking at this, I was looking at this, and they're scrolling and they have all these Pinterest images. In our website if you buy a piece of furniture or if you even buy a cushion, all the associated colours and patterns with there'll be a suggested match to what you are going to call that an idiots guide. Someone who's not used to it. Yeah, taking the fear out of it. So they're bringing our design, It's people. People are able to buy into our design services in a way that way because we've we've curated this collection of fabrics, cushions and documents. All the fancy house growing up where. This became seeded or was this something you came into? We had a great mother we have come we we we grew up in a three bed semi detached. But our mother always had a lovely home and she left us decorate our rooms and things like that. I I think it's just really run through us. Well I'm on the way. She'd set the table on Sunday. Would be you know it would be elevated. It wouldn't just be normal. She'd always have nice posies of flowers. Nice too. You didn't lick it off the stones we did say, you know. So it's gonna come from good heritage there. Where Downton Abbey in a three red series. Perfect and a wonderful analogy. Now you were very good at picking out the colors, You're very good at spotting a good design. How were you at setting up a website when you decided this was going to be your business? So difficult. It has, I can't believe how much work is involved actually thought someone else, we just have the idea and we'd be the creatives, but there would be someone else to be doing the pricing and all the folks like everything, like you've even direct the photography. You know we have to create a set that has to be really strong. In line with our, with our brand and what we've kind of created on Instagram. So the photographs were really, really important and is that the local enterprise office kind of came in to help you with the trading online voucher and the product launch. It is. So they gave us, they give you half, I think up to 2 1/2 thousand for your website, which has been amazing because that's obviously a huge investment. And actually it was Derval O'Rourke who had on here before UM put us in touch with the local enterprise board because they think she's received lots and lots. Now Gerbil has done a lot and she's a great supporter of it as well. So that kind of got she to where you were packed us. Yeah, that connected us with the local enterprise board to begin with, I think dealing with just chatting to Dervo. So in other words, you you set up the business, you moved from Instagram to a website, you started trading and then you both decide that that's not enough, which I suspect is a bit of a theme coming out of both you and now you're doing your own range. So what's the new range going to be? The new, the new ranges, the Ottomans, the cushions and the OK, so that is the that is the new range. So previously would have been kind of refurb stuff. Previously it was just solely doing people's houses. Yes. OK And that was like just our design services was, was what we did and everything that. So the new service is, is all of those fancy new designs. We're still doing our own private projects but then we're also giving people this opportunity. Do you have, do you have a shout out the back that you're upholstering in or how does it work? No it's it's not in house Suppository we do have. The imposters in Cork. We've won in Cork, one in Dublin and one in Caroline. So there's a lot going on and the The thing is to just keep it moving the whole time. So it's reordering, reordering, reordering. We do have a lovely coach house that we're working out of that we're currently, But the one thing, looking at the website earlier, it's not as expensive as I thought it was going to be. I was thinking that, you know, a piece like this would set you back 7 or 8 grand. Ohh, I'd heard back. Then we looked up. Undercutting themselves, but the prices are reasonable that's that's impressive. Ohh, that's great. So we we were careful about it. So we've we've done a signature range which is kind of more in line with you know if normal people's budgets we'll say and then we have a premium rage for people who are looking for something. And then, like, prices. And then. Yeah, well, I have to say, it's brilliant that you get done so well as sisters because I know many says don't get on as well as he. Never mind running a business together. What is the website if people want to look up Pebble and Sash, It's www.pebblingslash.com. OK, I'm gonna go Pebble and slash. Am I wrong? You're right. You're right. Finally got something back. Thank you so much for coming in to join us. Thank you. Thank you. And that is it for this episode. Thank you so much for watching. We'll be back next time. Talk to you.To view or add a comment, sign in