Interior designer Kathryn Hughes makes herself at home in the new Bishop’s Stortford store

Interior designer Kathryn Hughes made herself at home in downtown Bishops Stortford.

Fashion Flooring and Interiors has opened a new store, Fashion Interiors, in the former Cancer Research store on Potter Street which was engulfed in flames in July 2018.

The brand has been well established on High Street since returning to Stortford in October 2017.

Tony Orme, now retired, founded the city’s first Fashion Flooring outlet in 1992 and moved in 2003. His son Dave works in the business as a flooring specialist, with colleague Anthony OConnell, while Kathryn orchestrates the interior design arm.

For him, a new place was a critical step forward.

“The biggest problem I have is that people don’t know there’s an interior side to this business because it’s upstairs in a High Street shop,” he said. A lot of people think we just make flooring so they don’t come to find out about anything else we have to offer.

“This new store concentrates more on lighting and home accessories as it is better suited for highway locations that have more footfall.

The curtain side and business floor live in the High Street shop; because they are more specialist, people will look for them, while the accessories are more of an impulse buy.

The expansion has created new jobs for the city. His department will soon have five staff, up from two.