Gill Slade is one of two designers at Parkside Cabinets and Interiors based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Parkside celebrates 25 years of kitchen furniture manufacturing and designing this year and Gill took time out of her schedule to talk us through the typical day of a working mum and kitchen designer.

5.30am I get up early because there's always so much to do before I start work. I have my breakfast, which is normally a bowl of porridge, orange juice and a cup of coffee to wake me up, while I check my e-mails.

7am I get my 10-year-old daughter up and out of bed, or should I say I scream her out of bed, for school at around 7am.

8.30am I drop my daughter at school by 8.30am and get to work for 9am when the showroom opens. I live about four miles away so I drive in. We make all of our own cabinets here so the factory side of the operation is opened from 8am every morning by Janice, one of the company directors.

9am My working day starts at 9am and the first thing I do when I get in is make myself a cup of coffee and get myself sorted. Unless I have scheduled appointments, everyday is completely different and when I come in to the office I don't know what the day will bring. The showroom is situated on the main road into High Wycombe so we get a lot of passing trade, there's always someone looking around the showroom. Parkside itself is 150 years old, it started life as a furniture making company and over the years progressed into kitchen cabinets. In fact the kitchen side of the business celebrates its silver jubilee this August. I've been here for two years now and I'm one of two designers. Generally, an average day will involve me visiting a customer to go through their plans and to measure up their kitchen. We then go through a step by step process of planning and once the basics are agreed, we bring those plans back to the showroom where I actually design the kitchen and produce a quote, both of which I would send back to the client for approval. If they like it and accept the cost, I visit their house for a second time to double check the measurements and then we go into production.
If I took an order in for a kitchen today, we could probably get it designed, made and installed in about six to eight weeks. The quality of our workmanship is so good that we get customers in who we fitted a kitchen for 20 years ago and they come back in saying 'the carcases are fantastic we just want to change the doors.'
Business is great at the moment, in fact recently we've been phenomenally busy. There is still the threat of competition like B&Q and MFI, but they're not really at our level as we're more mid to high end. There are also one or two kitchen companies in High Wycombe but, again, they don't make their own carcases so we are very unique in that respect. We also carry the largest selection of worktops in the area.
We use Axiom, Duropal, and Omega worktops. We don't get involved in the granite and Corian side of things, we actually have a company we sub-contract out to if somebody wants those types of surface.

1pm There's no set time for lunch but by 1pm I'm usually ready to eat. Generally though it's a case of grabbing it when the showroom is quiet, and when that will be is anyone's guess.  

2.30pm I leave work around 2.30pm to pick my daughter up from school. It's great working here as my job is flexible and I'm lucky that I can arrange work around her. I make sure that I do everything that can't be done at home while I'm in the showroom but just because I leave the showroom my working day doesn't finish there.

4pm I do a lot of my designing at home and I often work from when I get back home from the school run, right up until at least 9pm but sometimes as late as 10pm or 11pm.
Designing is by far my favourite part of the job and I still get a buzz when I see my design go from the drawing stage right through to the finished kitchen. It's absolutely brilliant. I enjoy my work immensely, I absolutely love it, and I get lost in my designs so even when I'm working at home it doesn't really feel like work.

9pm I have a house to run and obviously I work so I don't ever find myself with much free time on my hands. In fact my daughter has a better social life than me!  So when I'm not working or ferrying her round from A to B, I'm usually reading; I absolutely love to read. I also love writing and actually write children's stories. I haven't had any published as yet but I do hope to have one out very soon.

Gill Slade
Parkside Cabinets and Interiors,
West Wycombe Road,
High Wycombe,
HP12 4AH