DESIGN FYI

Design FYI is a commercial design and build practice with design at its core. Not as a service bolted on at the start, but as the lens through which every decision — structural, material, spatial — is made.

We work with businesses across the UK to create commercial environments that feel calm, considered, and genuinely theirs.

Most fit-out companies treat design as something to be commissioned and managed. We treat it as something to be lived in from the very beginning. Our background is in interior design first, construction second, and that order matters. It means the creative thinking and the technical delivery are never in tension; they're part of the same conversation, led by the same team, from day one.

Design FYI grew from a long tradition of close collaboration between designers, makers, and clients who wanted something more considered than the market usually offers. That tradition shapes how we work today. With care, with craft, and with a genuine commitment to the result.

Design isn't what we add at the beginning. It's what holds everything together from start to finish.

We work across the full spectrum of commercial environments: offices, receptions, hospitality spaces, collaborative and breakout areas. Each project begins with listening to how a business operates, what its people need, and what kind of environment would genuinely serve both. From there, we develop spaces that are functional without being utilitarian, and beautiful without being impractical.

Our approach favours natural materials, soft architectural gestures, and palettes that age well. We're not chasing trends. We're building spaces that feel right today and continue to feel right in ten years, spaces that reflect the identity of the businesses inside them, not the moment they were built.

THE PERSON BEHIND IT

Gareth is a designer first. With over 20 years experience across interior design and construction, his career was shaped through years of close collaboration with the late Paul Kelly at Kelson Interiors, developing an understanding of both the creative and technical sides of building spaces.

When Paul passed, Gareth brought together long-standing collaborators and trusted contractors to carry that work forward. Design FYI grew from that foundation: a practice rooted in considered design, natural materials, and the belief that a commercial space should feel just as thoughtful as a private one.

Alongside his work in interiors, Gareth has a passion for photography and painting with a deep connection to food, nature, and the places he explores. That curiosity shows up in his work, in the way a palette is balanced, the way light is considered, the way a space ultimately feels to be in.