A DESIGNER from Stourbridge who only started her interior design company two years ago has scooped two prestigious awards.

32-year-old Hannah Cockburn of Cream & Black Interior Design, based at Saxon Business Park in Bromsgrove, won the ‘Best Residential Interior Designer of the Year’ award, and her company, which also includes Mia Matharu, Nahla Hawash and Laura Cund, also won ‘Best Conversion of the Year’, at the recent Northern Design Awards ceremony, being presented with her award by designer Wayne Hemmingway.

She said: “We were over the moon to win not one but two awards at the Northern Design Awards. It was the first competition we have ever entered, it’s amazing for our small business to have won these awards.

“We are a small design studio constantly learning and developing our skill set. To be recognised by such experienced industry professionals is an honour. We met some well-known architects and designers on the night including Wayne Hemmingway, Lynda Barker and George Clarke who were very complimentary about our work. I couldn't quite believe it after winning ‘Best Conversion of the Year’ and the excitement that my name was called out for ‘Best Residential Interior Designer of the Year' it was a very surreal but amazing night.”

The company won its ‘Best Conversion of the Year’ award for converting a large old garage building near Malvern, into a stylish three bedroom dwelling using recycled materials wherever possible, with the property’s old water tank being dismantled and the panels set into the external walls and painted petrol blue, while bricks from the recently demolished on-site stable building were used to create internal exposed brick walls.