When your product range is built on quality, style and design, your store needs to say the same thing. That was the brief for Utility's fourth location, a flagship on Manchester's newly redeveloped Oxford Road, and it shaped every decision we made.
Utility is an independent retailer with a strong online following and three established stores in Liverpool, selling designer furniture, lighting, homeware and gifts. The Manchester opening marked a significant step: a new city, a high-footfall location, and a store format weighted towards gifts and homewares.
WDC Spaces was commissioned to design the interior from the ground up.
The brief was clear: the products are the hero. Our job was to build an environment that communicates quality and style without competing with what's on the shelves.
We used a muted colour and material palette to create a contemporary space with warm, considered tones. Steel-framed fixtures paired with birch-faced plywood shelves keep the aesthetic clean and honest. Card and pegboard wall panels add texture and a softer, natural counterpoint to the harder materials. Material choices were also guided by longevity, specifying responsibly sourced and durable finishes that reduce the need for costly refits down the line.
Good retail design increases time in store. We built dedicated reading bays that function as proper book displays, structured to encourage customers to browse, sit with a title and stay longer.
Every lighting and infrastructure decision reinforced the same utilitarian aesthetic: nothing decorative for its own sake, everything purposeful.
Oxford Road carries the busiest bus route in Europe. We made sure Utility was visible from it. A metre-high logo on the main bulkhead gives the store a strong street presence that’s readable from the pavement and striking after dark.
If you're planning a new retail space or rethinking an existing one, we'd like to hear about it. Get in touch with the WDC Spaces team.
Created on
September 5, 2021
Last updated on
June 24, 2026
