Interior Design Sales and Operations Manager, Dawn Llewellyn Jones of Leekes, Llantrisant talks to Vale Life about the job she loves and design trends for this coming season.

LEEKES YOU’RE HOME

Dawn, what is your background?
My background is predominantly in sales with 12 years experience at Leekes. Before joining the company I worked as a self employed Interior Designer.

How long have you been employed at Leekes?
I have worked for Leekes for over twelve years and I love my job!

Why did you choose Leekes as a place of employment?
With Leekes being a prosperous family business I felt that they would provide me with good career prospects and a chance for development, which has certainly been the case. After starting my career as an Interior Designer within Leekes at Llantrisant, I am now in charge of the service across all three stores.

What does this entail?
The key objective within my role is to develop the interior design service across all three branches. Alongside that I am responsible for managing project procedures to ensure that residential and commercial sales and objectives are successfully fulfilled and identifying key business sectors where we can develop successful commercial relationships.

What service do you offer to your customers?
The Interior Design Studio provides a personal service which combines design with practical advice. Our design teams are supported by furniture, home textiles, kitchen and bathroom experts and highly trained installation teams for more complex projects. We provide the customer with a comprehensive service, from design to purchase, through to installation. All via one main point of contact. The service has been designed to assist customers in seeing their home in a different light, providing alternative ideas and solutions to help them bring their homes to life.

What are the current trends for spring/summer?
The coming season is all about injecting colours more commonly found in your fruit bowl to your interior schemes, so think oranges, lemons, limes and even a touch of kiwi. The trend is perfect for reviving your monochrome themes, the bright colours will brighten up any classic black and white décor.

Those popular plums and aubergines that made an appearance in last season’s designs will remain evident this year but in a much more exuberant and dramatic way.



Accessorising is the key to this year’s trends, add extravagant gilt framed mirrors and picture frames to give a touch of glamour and style.

What five items of furniture and/or accessories would be on your must have list this season and why?

1. Kylie Minogue’s bed linen collection is to die for, beautiful designs in luxurious fabrics.
2. Rotpunkt kitchens which is a collection new to Leekes. Rotpunkt combine great creative colour choices, such as fuchsias and lime greens with innovative features and finishes for something completely different. 3. The Kohler Sok overflowing bath is a must have for the hard working woman!
4. Handmade, bespoke tiebacks from Margam Jones, a multitude of colours, textures and designs are available for you to choose from.
5. My Weber outdoor kitchen, a barbecue that I use all year round!

Leekes Llantrisant Cowbridge Road, Pontyclun CF72 8XU 01443 667350 www.leekes.co.uk Call 0800 970 9162 for a copy ofLeekes’ latest brochure.