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If you’ve been on Church Street and noticed all the construction going on at Bespoke, come on in and take a look around. The store is open and you’re more than welcome.
“People know we’re here,” said Bespoke co-owner Melinda Guglietta. “But they think they’re not allowed to come in. We’re happy to give people tours and show them what we’re going to be.”
Guglietta and her partners Doug Prohn, Anthony Chisholm and Sasha Durand moved to their new 27 Church St. location in January with plans to expand their business. Their former spot at 25 Thompson St. had been home for the past 10 years until last August when the Church Street location came up for sale.
Guglietta said in 2014 she was a designer, along with her cabinet-making partners, working with a contractor who grew up in Winchester. The group would meet at Starbuck’s to discuss plans.
They liked what they saw of the community and decided maybe this would be a good place to settle down. That’s when a space opened up on Thompson Street.
“We rented that spot,” Guglietta said. “It had a room in the back and a large room with six or seven vignettes. Then the dentist in the front left and we took over. That was during COVID. Then at that point, we were growing as a company and the two apartments upstairs opened.”
The company seized the opportunity to expand upstairs as well.
Then one day, Guglietta walked over to see her accountant, who happened to inhabit the Church Street location. She said she loved the space and would tell him that if they ever wanted to sell, Bespoke might be interested.
“I went to see him and he told me the space was on the market,” she said. “We made an offer and now we have the building.”
That was last fall.
What’s going on inside
Every once in a while, the door opens to the new Bespoke location and someone pops their head in to see what’s going on inside.
Guglietta said the idea behind the new Bespoke is to treat the house as exactly that — a house that might just be your own or a friend’s.
“Our idea is that you just walked into someone’s home and you’re experiencing having the cabinets in the home, but as a showroom,” she said. “Each room is a different vignette.”
The displays will include two kitchens, one of which is in the English style. There will also be a closet and mudroom, a living room display with bookcases, a bar and paneling and a galley kitchen work station that will feature cooking demonstrations or host cookbook or chefs.
“There’s no bedroom display because we need to keep it accessible to the first floor,” Guglietta said. “There’s no laundry room because that’s similar to the mudroom.”
Towards the back of the building will be a new addition. The foundation for that part of the building is finished and framing will soon start.
Guglietta said the front display portion of the building will be finished first while the addition is closed off. Once the addition is finished, both spaces will be joined together.
But there’s no timeframe for when it will all be done.
In the meantime, Bespoke is still in full work mode. The 30 plus people on staff are working, not just on the custom cabinets in their Revere location, but a full range of services that include design.
“As always, the customers come first,” Guglietta said, of fact that Bespoke is still working despite the ongoing construction.
Trends
So, what’s keeping Bespoke busy these days? There’s been a few changes in the world of design, since COVID hit in 2020.
Guglietta said most people are moving away from the open space trend of a few years ago.
“With COVID, everyone was in one room and people realized how much they wanted separate rooms,” she said. “So the individual rooms are coming back. People are returning to the traditional floor plans.”
And with interest rates and house prices so high, she said most people are looking at their properties and seeing what they can fix, add or change.
Inside the English Tea Room, from left, is a secret room, custom cabinets and a gold screen to keep those pantry items or dishes hidden away. WINCHESTER NEWS STAFF PHOTOS/NELL ESCOBAR COAKLEY
Oak, she said, has been very popular. And new products like cintered and porcelain that look like marble, but can take a beating while still looking great are of interest to homeowners.
“And appliances,” she added. “They’re more eco-friendly, like induction tops.”
She said she just saw a demonstration where a paper towel was placed on the cooker with a pot on top and before Guglietta could whip out her phone for a video, the water was boiling away.
“It was amazing,” she said, adding her favorite new item is a water filter that offers instant cold, chilled and sparking water on demand.
With customers keeping the store busy and the ongoing construction, Guglietta said there’s a lot going on at Bespoke. When asked what she’d like people to most know about the business, she smiled.
“We may look unapproachable because of the construction, but we’re not,” Guglietta said. “People can come in. We offer design services, not just cabinets.”
