 THE home of Janet and Rick Petini, owners of upmarket Northumberland sofa makers Delcor, is packed with their own designs in all the latest fabrics. With a showroom/workshop within a Georgian country house in Seaton Delaval as well as a second shop on London’s trendy King’s Road, Delcor’s bespoke sofas and chairs can be found in the homes of many celebrities including Newcastle United’s Shola Ameobi, singer Gabrielle, Coronation Street’s Tina O’Brien and Sir John Hall. They are also dotted throughout the Petinis’ home in Hepscott Park, Stannington, near Morpeth. "People think we’re crazy because we change furniture quite often," says Janet. "Being in that trade there are really lovely fabrics coming out all the time. Rick’s worse than me for that. He’s always thinking of new ideas. If we get a new sofa we tend to do a whole new theme." The pair, who have been together 27 years, bought out Delcor last November after Rick had been working for the firm as production director for nine years. But they made a permanent move to the North East from Nottingham eight years ago. "We just loved it here," says Janet. "When we came up we were living in a flat for a few months because there weren’t an awful lot of properties on the market. I didn’t actually like the house when I first saw it. "It was very ordinary and old fashioned. It needed modernising and extending but we could see the potential. " The couple fell in love with the quiet woodland setting and set about gutting the house, eating into the front garden with a two-storey extension. The previously long, narrow kitchen at the rear was transformed into a L-shaped kitchen/diner with seating area along with a utility and downstairs loo. Upstairs they gained an extra bedroom and en suite. Now they have a stunning four-bedroom home, which they share with sons Matthew, 23, and Joe, 16 as well as dogs Cody and Max. Sadly they lost their middle son Daniel to leukaemia two years ago and the house is filled with framed pictures of him. Both Rick and Janet have very similar tastes and love the stylish contemporary look sourcing many of their homewares from trade favourites like Sia, Coach House and Libra. "We basically started again with new furniture," says Janet. "I don’t like lots of clutter. I like it nice and simple." | 
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