Emily's lighting up our lives

THE first thing that hits you when you step into Emily Butterill’s beautiful Edwardian hallway isn’t the stunning original tiled floor, period cornices or magnificent stained glass panelled door. It’s the light – a beautiful, warm, atmospheric glow with a touch of theatre about it. Pretty, fragmented, dappled rays dance over the walls, ceiling and floor, emanating from a dazzling glass and metal orb hanging above the staircase.

In the main living room, to the left, a witty central light made from a gold lined bowler hat adds a touch of humour, while a funky cluster of bare, old-style filament bulbs, with multi-coloured fabric cables tied together in a huge knot, looks like a work of modern art in the downstairs toilet.

Emily clearly doesn’t view lighting as an afterthought, but as something which is very much an integral part of the interior design of her 1908 period property.

Having worked in the commercial lighting business for years, she became increasingly frustrated at not being able to find the sort of high quality, artfully designed, British-made lights that she wanted for her home. So the mother-of-three set up her own business to design and manufacture them herself in North Yorkshire

Launched just nine months ago, Glow lighting is based in Ripon and draws on all the experience 35-year-old Emily gained from working at Thirsk-based commercial and industrial lighting firm, TRAC, which was set up by her father, Philip Appleyard. That business foundered after cheap imports from China started to flood the market as the recession hit and Philip was diagnosed with cancer. He sadly died in 2013, just a few months after TRAC went into administration. “It was a horrendous time,” says Emily.

The company, which dealt in commercial and industrial lighting both for the UK and abroad, had a turnover of £7m at its height and employed 60 people. “I worked in every area of my dad’s business, from the sales office to accounts. In the end I was buying manager. It was invaluable experience.”

Her father made Emily and sister Lucy directors when they were just 27 and 30 years old. “It ended up being a bit of a poisoned chalice,” says Emily. TRAC had moved to new buildings and invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in new equipment when the recession hit. “Then Dad got ill, Mum got ill, cheap imports from China were flooding the market.”

She was 33, and her youngest son was just a baby when it all unravelled. “It was an awful time. After Dad died, Mum had to sell the family home. And we were heartbroken for our amazing staff. We were a true family business, staffed by lovely people, some of whom had worked for us for 20 years.”

When the business went bust, Emily decided to go back to university to train as a midwife, but before she started the course, her husband Mike, a structural engineer who also runs a commercial lighting business, suggested she restart a small home interiors website he used to run with a friend. She visited the gift and home products Spring Fair at the NEC. “At the show, I was drawn, as usual, to the lighting. And it was all so uninspiring, mainstream and boring, with so much was plastic. I rang Mike and said ‘Everything looks the same and most of it is imported.’ I had walked into that show planning to do midwifery, but this was like a thunderbolt. Something inside me was telling me to do something with everything I had done all my life.”

Emily who, with Mike, restored their period home to its former glory after they moved in in 2007, has always had a flair for design. The house had been well loved and cared for, but was dated. While it retained many of its original features, including cornices and cast iron radiators, Emily restored period fireplaces and reclaimed original floors. The couple knocked through walls and put down oak floors where necessary, installing an Aga in the kitchen, taking care to replace modern skirting boards with specially made deep boards to match the originals.

Just like her lighting, Emily’s style is traditional, using quality materials and finishes, but with lots of quirky, modern twists: “We love sleek, simple lines, elegant looks and a splash of colour,” she explains.

One of her own, bespoke ribbed glass pendant shades, with a bright pink fabric cable, hangs at end of her hallway. More of her glass shades light up her stunning converted attic bedroom, where she has used attractive vintage brass fittings. “I love glass and it took me a long time to find a good quality English glassmaker who could make bespoke pieces," she says. "Each one is different and there is such depth to the glass.”

She has just designed new opal glass and coloured, fine ribbed glass shades, which look stunning with her trademark fabric cables in a multitude of colours and patterns, with matching ceiling roses. “They are retro and old fashioned but with a modern twist,” she says.

Emily also makes shades in wood, using a woodturner based in Knaresborough, and metal ones in any colour, which can be chromed or nickel-plated. She uses an expert English metal spinner. “The quality is unbelievable, you just have to pick it up and touch it to tell.”

The boys’ playroom has a stunning metal factory pendant. “It’s been oiled and blow-torched. It looks as if petrol has been spilt on it, creating an amazing iridescent finish in blues and purples. Over time it goes a bit golden, changing as it ages. We can also create other finishes, to look rustic or rusty.”

Clients come to her for something different. “They want something unique, and don’t want to just buy it off the shelf," she says. "They might want a blue, pink or orange cable or a ceiling rose or light bulbs that are different. Because we don’t order thousands of the same items from China, we can do small runs and bespoke orders and can also experiment.”

Emily, who also sources lighting for interiors projects, most recently for an upmarket spa in the French ski resort of Mageve, has also just produced a central light fitting for one client made out of three gramophone horns. Another client has asked her to create a lamp using a wooden artist’s hand model holding a light bulb.

Her popular drum lampshades, can be made in any fabric or colours, including Emily’s own designs of black crocodile with gold and linen with gold, and are all handmade in Dorset. Most of the lights are assembled in Emily’s Ripon workshop, with all the parts made in Britain and, where possible, Yorkshire. “People want to support British makers and local suppliers now and this has always been a passion of mine,” she says.

It also means she can keep a close eye on quality. “I have a brilliant metal finisher who works on some of my lights and he says half his working week is spent re-painting stuff that has been brought in from China," she says.

Rather than sell to large retailers, she deals with interior designers and local independent shops, as well as end users. The Olive Branch in Easingwold and the Devoted To section of Redbrick Mill in Batley are two of her local clients. She also sells online at Notonthehighstreet.

“But, increasingly, a lot of my work comes through word of mouth,” she says.

“People are much more interested in lighting in their homes now. It has always been overlooked before but it can make or break an interior.

“I know all about light levels and the effect they have because lighting is always for a purpose in the commercial and industrial sector. But most people don’t think about light output in the residential sector,” she says.

She loves the fact that her sons, Oscar, 13, Jacob, 10 and William, four, love her designs just as much as her mother does. “They suit all ages," says Emily. "It's great that my kids want them in their bedrooms.”

• Glow Lighting: www.glowlighting.co.uk Prices start from £68 for a metal light with cable and ceiling rose up to £300 for the wooden lights.