Cate Burren loves Cambridge. She loves it because her clients are more interested in creating homes to love rather than places to impress; and she loves it because it’s stuffed with brilliant crafts- and tradespeople, and with independent creatives who are fresh, and exciting, and have something new to offer.
Cate found her place in the world at Central St Martin’s where she did an MA in design, and her mission now is to help clients create their world in their places. She set up her interior design business, Angel & Blume, in 2002 and although the business is ostensibly just her, it is, in fact, her and her enormous address book.
As an interior designer, Cate says, it’s the people she knows that are partly what the clients are buying – that, and her ability to bring everyone together to achieve what the client wants. She sees herself as a sort of liaison officer and if things aren’t going according to plan, then she has to be light on her feet and find a solution. And in Cate’s experience, there is always a solution. After all, Cambridge is full of people who know someone who knows someone who can do that exact thing you need.
No job is too small for Angel & Blume. Cate’s as happy chatting about colour for an hour as she is designing and delivering a large refurbishment project. She works in a wide range of genres, from very contemporary to very traditional, and she doesn’t mind if you want to be involved at every step of the process or you just want to hand the doing of it all over to her.
What she wants above all is to interpret what you want and then help you create it, a home that is recognisably yours.
“Houses should express a person’s personality,” she says. “The best houses are those that make you think, when you go into them, that, yes, this is you, it works.”
Angel + Blume
17 Emmanuel Road
Cambridge
CB1 1JW
Telephone 01223 479434
www.angelandblume.com
Discover unique boutiques and boutique hotels mingled with communities of artists and craftspeople. Sample an award-winning restaurant or thriving little café tucked away in a back street – all easy to locate via the comprehensive Indie Cambridge directory. It features hundreds of local traders, artists, makers, producers, venues and events – all of which play a part in the real life of the city and local area. Run by long-term residents with a true passion for all things indie, the site is packed with valuable insider knowledge of the local scene. And whoever you are - resident or visitor; whatever you search for, read about and choose to visit, you can be sure it’s independent!
Look out for the latest edition of Indie Cambridge's magazine, The Indie, out now - or read it online here