About Ashbank

Ashbank Design Studios is a company founded by Katie Buchanan to provide designs with flair and a strong creative focus. This is coupled with a 'no nonsense' approach gained from over a decade of experience in the construction industry to deliver workable solutions on budget and on time.

Katie Buchanan qualified in Interior Design at Duncan of Jordanstone College in 1991. She went on to work freelance with a number of prestigious Architectural practices. These included Andrew Merrylees Associates, McColls, Parr Interiors and Holmes Jack Partnership. She also completed several commissions in the healthcare sector including the main entrance areas at Princess Margaret Rose and Liberton Hospitals.

In the mid 90s, having been awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Furniture Design, she exhibited a number of pieces in group exhibitions, most notably The Roger Billcliffe Gallery in Glasgow, The National Trust for Scotland Book Festival Exhibition and Aberdeen Art Gallery.

Over the following decade Katie consolidated her experience in Interiors and Furniture Design. Whilst working for one of Scotland's largest furniture manufacturers and contract furnishers to the hospitality sector, she was instrumental in setting up a Contracts division and developing projects throughout the UK. Projects successfully undertaken included Holiday Inn Glasgow, Hanover Hotel in Edinburgh, the R&As Waldon House, St. Andrews and the Garden Rooms at Kilworth House, Leicestershire.

When she launched her own company in 2005, her mission was to provide affordable, design led solutions. The design practice serves a range of clients from the hospitality and leisure, healthcare and private sectors. The company enjoys the challenge of any scale of project, and applies the same attention to detail to an individual room as a multi million pound re-fit. Indeed, many of the company's contracts in recent years have been repeat business for clients who value the commitment and care Ashbank Design Studios brings to every project.

Ashbank Design Studios understands however that not all clients require the same range of services. We provide a one stop shop for many of our clients, undertaking not only the design, but also the implementation, by working with a trusted team of contractors. We also work with architects, quantity surveyors and other professionals, providing the final link between the client and the design team and turning a building into a working interior.

Although we usually prefer to be involved with a project through to the final stages, there are occasions when our clients require a 'design only' solution to be prepared for them to take forward 'in-house.' We are happy to provide such a service when requested. Similarly we can provide an interior specification service to other design professionals, drawing on our extensive selection of sampling from suppliers and manufacturers around the globe.

Whatever the project, the team at Ashbank Design Studios work alongside the client to design an interior where style and materials enhance form and function.

"The essence of interior design will always be about people and how they live. It is about the realities of what makes for an attractive, civilized, meaningful environment, not about fashion or what's in or what's out."

Albert Hadley, The Story of America's Preeminent Interior Designer