One of the UK’s leading independent furniture retailers is rolling back the years to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in vintage style – while offering customers the chance to win a £1,000 home update.
Cookes, the family owned furniture company, is re-creating the 1950s at its Birmingham and Christchurch stores over the Bank Holiday weekend. As well as staff dressing up in retro costumes, part of the showroom will be transformed into a typical 1952 room set, highlighting the changes in home design and lifestyles over the past six decades.
And because managing director Graham Cooke is celebrating his own diamond anniversary – his 60th birthday – the company is giving away £1,000 worth of Cookes Furniture vouchers in a free online and in-store prize draw.
Graham said: “I’ve seen just how much furnishing styles have changed over the years.
“We moved away from traditional sitting rooms and dining rooms in the 70s, to open plan living. But judging by the current popularity of tables and chairs, we do seem to be heading back to more formal dining.
“Not just that, but the way we use our homes has evolved. It’s well known that very few people owned a television before the Queen’s Coronation – these days we have them in every room, as well as computers and integrated music systems, showing how much we have welcomed technology into the home. And hardly anyone back in the 50s would have had a home office, yet these days they are very popular.
“Over the decades, we have prided ourselves on being a family-run business, giving excellent service to the local community. So we are taking the opportunity to share my birthday with our customers and have some fun over the Jubilee weekend.
“We are re-creating the 50s in-store with a vintage room setting, to showcase how times have changed, and inviting customers to enter a free prize draw to win £1,000 of Cookes Furniture vouchers – just in case their own home needs a bit of an update.”
Entries to the prize draw can be made through the Cookes website – www.cookesfurniture.co.uk – or in store.
Cookes was established in 1946 by Graham’s father, Edward, and today the management team includes the founder’s three granddaughters, Michelle, Vanessa and Jennifer.