Design, Construction & Full Fit Out

Shropshire Petals is a fourth-generation family farm that has grown from selling dried flowers at a local market into the UK’s leading supplier of biodegradable petal confetti, sending orders to weddings and events across the world. When the business outgrew its old site and needed a headquarters to match its ambitions, they brought Chameleon Business Interiors on board to make it happen.

This was never just a building project, it was a full turn key service. The brief was to create a working environment that told the story of the farm, its history and its people, while giving the business the space and infrastructure it needed to keep growing. Chameleon took on every aspect of the development, from initial design through to the final fit out of the 10,000 sq ft warehouse and office building at Lynn South Farm.

A complete design and build commission

We were involved from day one, leading the full design and build process across both the warehouse and office. For a project of this scale and complexity, having a single team responsible for everything meant faster decisions, tighter coordination and a finished result that works as one cohesive building rather than a collection of separate elements.

Our scope of works included:

– Full architectural design and project management of the warehouse and office building

– Decorative rainscreen cladding to the feature south elevation

– Curtain walling and window installation throughout

– Bespoke feature staircase connecting the office floors

– Single ply roofing works to the feature reception lobby and balcony

– Feature decking and balustrade and to the balcony

– Complete interior fit out to a high specification

The finished building works hard operationally and looks the part. It reflects where Shropshire Petals has come from and where the business is heading.

A warehouse built for growth

Before this project, the team was working out of an ageing, cramped warehouse that had simply run out of road. The petal picking, drying, preparation and packing operation had grown faster than the space could keep up with, and it was holding the business back.

The new warehouse at Lynn South Farm was designed and built by Chameleon to handle the full production and fulfilment operation. The high-bay structure gives the team the floor space, ceiling height and access they need to work efficiently, with a layout that allows stock to move smoothly from preparation through to despatch. It is built to support the business as it continues to scale.

What makes this project particularly effective is that the warehouse and office sit together as one integrated building rather than two separate facilities. The petal preparation team and the office-based marketing, sales and customer service staff share the same entrance, the same breakout spaces and the same facilities. That proximity has made a real practical difference to how the business runs day to day.

Bringing the two sides of the business under one roof has had a number of clear benefits:

– Teams move between the warehouse, preparation areas and offices quickly, without the delays that come with separate buildings

– Farm workers, production staff and office teams share the same communal spaces, which has helped build a stronger sense of being one team

– Management can oversee both the operational and administrative sides of the business from the same location

– Every member of staff, whether on the warehouse floor or at a desk, has access to the same quality breakout and welfare facilities

When your product travels from the field through the preparation shed and out to customers around the world, having your whole operation in one place is not a luxury. It is just good business.

A heritage wall like no other.

The feature wall in the reception and breakout area is one of the first things you notice when you walk into the building. It has been constructed entirely from reclaimed potato chitting crates collected from Shropshire Petals’ own farm and the surrounding local farms. Potato chitting crates are the traditional timber trays that farmers use to sprout seed potatoes before planting. They are a workhorse of agricultural life in this part of Shropshire, and many of the crates salvaged for this project are decades old.

Rather than disposing of the redundant crates, every plank was salvaged, cleaned and repurposed to clad the wall from floor to ceiling. Look closely and you can read the names of the farming families stamped into the timber. J.M. Bubb and Son, Watson Jones Ltd, L. Raby and Sons, L.S. White. These are the neighbouring farms whose fields surround Lynn South Farm, and their names are now a permanent part of the building. It is a genuine piece of local agricultural history.

The sustainability credentials of this feature are worth highlighting. Not a single plank was bought new. No new timber was processed or transported. Materials that would otherwise have gone to waste have instead been given a second life at the centre of the building, which ties directly to Shropshire Petals’ own values around sustainability and connection to the land. The crates came from the farm. They have gone back to the farm.

Getting this right took time. Sourcing the crates, preparing the timber and installing it across the full span of the wall was not a straightforward job. But it is exactly the kind of detail that makes a building feel genuinely considered rather than just well built, and it would not have happened without a close working relationship between the Chameleon team and the client.

An interior that celebrates the farm.

The design brief for the interior was to create somewhere that felt like Shropshire Petals. Colourful, natural and rooted in what the farm does. Every space has been designed with that in mind.

Key features of the fit out include:

– A bespoke dried flower installation suspended from an oval lighting feature in the reception area, filled with the farm’s own delphiniums, helichrysum, lagurus, calendula and more

– A bespoke coffee table designed by the Chameleon team and built specifically to display and house Shropshire Petals’ own dried petals within the reception area

– Crittall-style steel frame glazed partitions throughout the office, keeping the space open and well lit while creating distinct working areas

– A mature olive tree as the centrepiece of the reception area, surrounded by biophilic planting throughout the building

– Open-plan workspaces with exposed services ceiling, timber flooring and circular pendant lighting

– A staff breakout and canteen area for both the office team and the warehouse and farm workforce

– A boardroom with a dark feature ceiling, green cabinetry, pendant lighting, integrated AV screen and framed photography from the farm

The breakout space has been designed for everyone on site, not just office staff. Farm and warehouse workers have somewhere comfortable to take a break, and the flower installation overhead is a reminder of what the whole operation is built around.

Designed for agricultural business growth.

Agricultural businesses have specific demands when it comes to new buildings. The structure needs to be tough enough for working farm life, practical enough to support production and logistics, and professional enough to represent a business that is serious about where it is going. Those requirements do not always sit easily together, and getting the balance right takes experience.

Having worked with agricultural and rural clients we understand those pressures. At Shropshire Petals we delivered a warehouse built for the realities of petal preparation, drying, packing and despatch, alongside an office environment that any business would be proud of. The two work together because they were designed together from the start.

This project is a good example of what is possible when an agricultural business invests properly in its facilities. The team at Shropshire Petals now have a building that supports how they work today and gives them room to grow into the future.