All Jim Lawrence metalware starts off in the workshop where it is forged, welded and cleaned ready for finishing. We stock our products in the finishes that we feel suit them best. From traditional antiqued metal effects, to bold contemporary paint colours, our products are available in a fantastic variety of hand crafted finishes to perfectly suit your home’s style.

Our painted options include colours like our Old Gold, Clay, Slate Grey and Matt Black to name a few. These unique-to-us colours are created by painting the items in a powder coating process that creates a smooth, hard-wearing surface which is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. We use hand-held paint guns to spray every product with powder paint that bonds to the surface electromagnetically. It takes a lot of skill and practice to make sure the colour is sprayed evenly over the surface to produce a uniform tone and colour, and we thought you might like to see a glimpse of the talented team behind the products you take home.

Responsible for running our painting department is team lead Carrie Drake. We caught up with her in the workshop to ask a few questions…

First of all, who makes up the team?

We have a small group of skilled craftsmen who are able to work across different sections of the Jim Lawrence foundry depending on where they are needed most. There’s Gary, Karl, Marcel, Wally and Tim.

What does a typical day look like?

Most of us start early at 7 or 7.30am so we can get prepped for the day. We sort out the paint shop tasks ready for our daily meeting at 9am when we decide on the products been painted that day and chase up any products that have been held up in the workshop.

The paint line is generally in full operation between 10am to 12noon with us doing the majority of spray painting then. The afternoon is then spent quality checking the days’ paint jobs, doing any wet spray painting, cleaning down the equipment and prepping for the next day. Most of the team head home by 3.30pm but I stay later to experiment with new colours and finishes that we may be considering for new products.

You get to work with paint all day, do you have an artistic background?

Art was always my favourite lesson at school and I did a degree in model making and effects, so yes I love working with my hands. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else! After uni I worked in the film industry making sets and props for films and advertising. I worked on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and The Favourite with Olivia Coleman among a lot of others, but after a good few years I found the long hours, commuting and intense deadlines exhausting. I moved back home to Suffolk to look for a change of direction and found Jim Lawrence.

What do you love most about your job?

I enjoy the calmness of having a routine, of being able to plan my day as I like and of the freedom I get working with the design team to experiment with new colours, finishes and products. I also love wet painting our old gold and old ivory products in particular, as it is a very ‘painterly’ process that involves building up layers of paint and hand touching the embossed details to make them stand out.

What is the most challenging product to work with?

Products with a slate grey finish and/or gloss white interiors are the is the most difficult to paint because they are a gloss finish which is really unforgiving and shows up any kind of mark. They are also incredibly static so draw any specks of dust to them. The paint room has to be spotless before we start painting, and no one is allowed in or out, or else you get dust or pieces of fluff stuck to them!

What is your favourite product?

It has to be the Sussex wall and pendant lights as they are such a beautiful pieces. They really are works of art. They are incredibly tactile, so are wonderful to handle and take the old gold finish so well. The black seeps into all the nooks and crannies so when you overpaint them with the gold it looks amazing, it really shows off the leaves and sheaves of wheat.

How do you enjoy being part of the Jim Lawrence family?

I love the fact that we’re a small company where everyone knows one another and are very approachable. We work hard but are calm and relaxed. People are always respectful of the skills you have and are open to ideas and, unlike the film industry, which was always chaotic, I enjoy having a routine and the freedom to get creative. My brother also works at Jim Lawrence. He’s in the machine shop so we’ll often have lunch together!

You can browse all of our hand forged and finished products on our website. Don’t forget to tag us in your own imagery on Instagram and Facebook – we love seeing our products in their new homes. To learn more about our painted finishes and what might best suit your home style, visit our product finish guide.

Working with us means joining an ever-growing family of talented artisan craftsmen and business influencers. Having such a cross section of skills and talents under one roof gives us the chance to offer a fantastically broad range of new challenges throughout our staff, and our exciting career development programmes are tailored to help you grow and make the most of every opportunity within the business.

At the heart of this company we still have a ‘roll your sleeves up and get it done’ mentality that means everyone pitches in and helps no matter what the challenge – there’s no corporate boardrooms here! People tend to stay…we have an amazingly high staff retention rate (averaging 90% annually) which is testament to a genuine belief that our business is only as strong as the links that bind it.

So, if you are looking for an interesting job that challenges and stretches you, in an environment where it’s not unusual to be greeted by a friendly dog (or two) at the door then we are the company for you! We are always keen to hear from new talent, even if your perfect role isn’t currently listed above.

If you would like to apply or request further details on any of the roles, please email us your CV to recruitment@jim-lawrence.co.uk

Ever wondered how we test the stability of our glass shades, or how hardy our chains are? Have you pondered over how we monitor the perfect paint shade and ensure the trustworthiness of our nuts and bolts? We want you to be confident that your lights, sockets, switches and poles are the best they can be. Just as our products are made by hand, they’re checked by hand too. We caught up with Senior QC Engineer Nick Rogers to find out more about how we test and try our products under the meticulous eyes of our Quality Control team.

QC Technician Shane

Firstly, can you tell us who makes up the team, and how you got into this line of work?

I am the Senior QC Engineer, Mark is Head of Engineering Quality, Lorraine and Shane are our QC Technicians and Harry operates as QC Support to check the glass.

Can you explain what the QC team do at Jim Lawrence?

Well, the overall aim of our job is very simple – to reduce the number of Free of Charge (FOC) items we send out to customer to replace faulty or damaged goods and to reduce the amount of scrap that we produce. If we’re successful, our customers are happy as they have better quality products and the company is happy that we’ve saved thousands of pounds worth of scrap.

There two sides to our QC. One is more of a Quality Assurance role where we come up with strategies to make the company more efficient and cost effective by looking at all the manufacturing procedures we do here to see how they can be monitored to find problems earlier on in the making process. Usually, the earlier you catch them, the easier it is to put right and the quicker we can give everyone the ‘heads up’. This way we prevent mistakes and ensure there is consistency. With a bit of training, everyone becomes their own QC team.

The other side of the job is to test our components and products to make sure they meet the required standards. To do this we work with our suppliers, other Jim Lawrence departments and our customers to get feedback, think of workarounds and solve problems.

Talk us through your typical working day.

I honestly don’t think there is such a thing as a typical day, which is one of the things I love about this job. Any plans you have are usually blown out of the water by about 10.30am! In QC you spend a lot of time looking at problems and how you can resolve them. You’re always asking yourself, is there a problem with this? Why? How did it pass QC first time round? What can I do about it? How can I correct it? How can I stop it happening again?

Every morning we have a meeting with our Returns Dept to go through the FOC orders to see why things are being returned and if there is a genuine quality issue that needs looking at. This is often the issue that dictates what we do for the rest of the day. If there is a problem, we may need to remove the product from sale until it is corrected.

Some days we might find that a shipment of components has arrived that we will sample check and find that they don’t meet our standards, so we have to work with the supplier to see if they can be returned or if we can rework them in the workshop. Other days there may be an issue with a piece of machinery that has affected the quality of a product, or a staff absence which has had a random effect. There is always something to keep you on your feet.

What’s the criteria you look at when testing our products?

Everything needs to be checked to make sure it complies UK standards and our own design specifications. First, we use our own judgement to look at products to make sure the finish is right and that it is consistent. Then we use a range of clever measuring devices to sample check products to make sure they have been made to the standard spec. It is up to us to work with the technical team to make sure the specs are up to date and followed by everyone in the company so that we are all working in the same way. The design team will have considered the durability of the product when designing it, so as long as the measurements comply, it’s a good test that it has been made properly.

What happens if products don’t pass QC?

The first thing we do is put them into ‘quarantine’ so they don’t get muddled up with the rest of the stock, while investigations are under way. If it is a component that is wrong, we have to talk to the supplier to resolve the issue and see if we can correct it in-house or send it back. If it is one of our products, we have to consider how many of them are wrong, whether we should send them back to the workshop to be re-worked or whether they will have to be scrapped. We also have to ask ourselves what we can do to stop the same problem happening again. Do we need new or better equipment? More training? Better components? A new design?

When it comes to more fragile items like glass, how do you go about testing a product without deliberately trying to break it? It must be a meticulous task.

Yes, we can’t go around smashing things. We have a special device that uses a magnet to measure the thickness of the neck of the glass, which is important as that is where you unscrew the shade to change the bulb or clean it. We also use Vernier gauges, calipers and micrometres to check other parts of the glass.

The glass of our Lovell Pendant being inspected by the team

A lot of our job roles are hands on here at Jim Lawrence, but it must be really fun to pick apart our products all day. What’s the best part of the role?

I love the fact it is so varied. No two days are the same. I go home every day having learnt something new, so it is constantly challenging. It’s a funny thing, but no matter how much I think I know about our products and the issues that sometime arise, there is always something new! I enjoy working with the engineering and design teams to investigate issues and working out ways we can overcome them and it’s very satisfying when you get good customer feedback having solved a problem for someone.

With all your expertise, what would you say makes our lighting and homeware high quality?

You can see our products have heart and soul, that’s what makes them different from our competitors. They look and feel better because they are handmade. They may not be perfect, but in my book, they are all the better for it. You can see our products have been made with real care and attention. There are not that many places where you can buy something that has been individually hand forged or glass blown. And everyone, not just the makers, but everyone who works here, cares about our products.

Can you recommend some tips for customers when it comes to taking care of their items? For example, getting the most use out of a light.

A lot of thought and attention has gone into making sure the raw materials are as robust as possible. I’d say you should treat your Jim Lawrence product like a fine wine. It will work happily for years in your room with gentle handling and a bit of care and attention – like using warm soapy water to keep it in tip top condition. If you are worried handling a light, make sure there is someone there to help you.

Finally, what’s the best part of working for a family business like Jim Lawrence?

I like the fact that everyone is very approachable, unlike more corporate businesses, and that you really get a sense of working together. Jim Lawrence is special because here you are part of a fairly small but very dedicated team of people who incredibly good at their jobs and are passionate about what they do. They are always prepared to go that extra mile to make sure our customers are happy with the products we make.

You can browse all of our hand forged products on our website and enjoy other stylish customer homes on Instagram. Don’t forget to tag us in your own imagery on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook – we love seeing our products in their new homes. 

Working with us means joining an ever-growing family of talented artisan craftsmen and business influencers. Having such a cross section of skills and talents under one roof gives us the chance to offer a fantastically broad range of new challenges throughout our staff, and our exciting career development programmes are tailored to help you grow and make the most of every opportunity within the business.

At the heart of this company we still have a ‘roll your sleeves up and get it done’ mentality that means everyone pitches in and helps no matter what the challenge – there’s no corporate boardrooms here! People tend to stay…we have an amazingly high staff retention rate (averaging 90% annually) which is testament to a genuine belief that our business is only as strong as the links that bind it.

So, if you are looking for an interesting job that challenges and stretches you, in an environment where it’s not unusual to be greeted by a friendly dog (or two) at the door then we are the company for you! We are always keen to hear from new talent, even if your perfect role isn’t currently listed above.

If you would like to apply or request further details on any of the roles, please email us your CV to recruitment@jim-lawrence.co.uk

With our new Bath showroom styled in our favourite modern country style, we thought we’d give the Jim Lawrence Suffolk showroom a bit of a makeover too.⁠⁠ We chat with Laura Mobbs and Laura Faulkner from our showroom team about their essential role in making your Jim Lawrence experience the best it can be. As Christmas is just around the corner, it felt like just the right time to show off our twinkling lights too…

Hi both, can you tell us who makes up the Suffolk showroom team at Jim Lawrence?

Laura F: Alongside me there’s Sophie Brouillet – our manager, Sarah Waskett, Laura Mobbs, Sharon Compton, David Smith, Charlotte Ruffles and Rachel Miller. We’re all part of the Jim Lawrence Customer Services team, so as well as manning the showroom, we’ll be on the phones taking orders and helping our customers with any advice they need or enquires they have.

Can you talk us through your typical day?

Laura F: Generally, we arrive any time between 8.30 and 8.45 and start getting the showroom ready for visitors. We turn on all the lights – checking the display lights are all working – and then the heating or aircon (in the summer!). We get the till and computers up and running, check the customer toilets are clean and tidy and turn on the coffee machine before opening the doors at 9am.

Laura M: Our customers are our first priority. Some will come straight over to talk to us if they need something sorting out, or else they’ll want to browse, so we make sure we say hello and check if they need any help. We’re often asked for advice on fittings and styles and as we are all part of the customer services team, when its quiet we’ll be on the phones taking orders, helping customers with their enquires or catching up with our emails. We’re also responsible for posting brochures.

You have to have a lot of product knowledge to cover all the products here, what’s the best part of helping people choose the items to style their homes?

Laura F: A lot of our customers come into the showroom to glean ideas for a new build or renovation project they are working on, so we do spend a lot of time discussing ideas and making suggestions which is great fun. I particularly like it when they bring in a photo of a kitchen, bathroom or extension they are building as you can really get into it. I had one gentleman who spent two hours with us. He wanted four floor lamps and needed help deciding on what size, shape and colour lampshades to choose.

A lot of shopping is conducted online now, so it’s lovely we can still take a personal approach with customers in this way. Do you find people come from further afield than Hadleigh to see our products and get a feel for them in person?

Laura F: We deal with customers who have come from all over the world, particularly from Australia and New Zealand. Most of the time they will have a connection to the area, perhaps visiting family, but they make a point of coming to see us while they are here. Some customers drive hours to be with us. We have a lot of visitors from Cambridge and Norwich, which are both an hour away.

Laura M: We also get people from places like the Peake District, Cumbria and Yorkshire who want to see our products ‘in the flesh’ so they make a weekend of it, staying at a local hotel or B&B and visiting the wider Suffolk area while they are here.

Going from a smaller farm forge, to our workshops here and now with our showroom in Bath, your roles and responsibilities must have changed. How does it feel to see the business grow beyond these four walls?

Laura F: I’ve been at Jim Lawrence for 15 years now. I’ve grown up with the company as I was only 16 when I started working full time in the sales office at the farm. Back then we were a sales/admin team of eight, now there are about 20 of us. I’m still working in the customer service team but the job is a lot more varied now as we different roles to fulfil between us. I’ll be in the sales office one day, the showroom the next and sorting returns the one after, which is great.

It’s really exciting to be part of a company that is successful and growing and to see how much it is appreciated by other people. I think that because everything is handmade, we invest a lot more it in – as do our customers. We know the people who design and make our products, so we know how much care and attention goes into them and that makes us feel proud of its success.

Of course we have many ‘customer favourites’ on display, but what’s your favourite, possibly lesser known Jim Lawrence product that people might not have seen?

Laura F: I love the Harleston Table Lamp with fluted glass. I have one at home and it is just such a pretty lamp that reflects light everywhere.

Laura M: My favourite is the Cowley Pendant Light in Polished Lacquer because it’s quite a ‘raw’ design with an industrial edge that is unusual for us.

We’re edging very close to Christmas now! Which Jim Lawrence item would you love to see under the tree this year?

Laura F: I would love to see a Heart Door Knocker under the tree. I think it is such a cute product that looks fab on a front door. But it’s also pretty weighty and feels great to hold.

Laura M: I’d hope for the Walcot Pendant Light in Polished Lacquer. It’s my favourite finish because it’s a lovely dark grey with a slightly mottled pattern to it. I love the simplicity of the Walcot and know it would look fantastic in my kitchen!

Finally, many of our employees have been here long term, including most of you! What’s the best part of working for a family business like Jim Lawrence?

Laura F: For me it is that I feel valued here. Although it is not the small family business it was when I joined, it still has a family feel about it and you work as part of a team where you know you have something to contribute and your contribution is important. People listen. I also appreciate the fact that we can bring our dogs in my Cockerpoo Biscuit loves coming to work with me, she sleeps under my desk all day.

Laura M: I like the fact that we all have time for one another, not just my for colleagues but for our customers as well. It is great being able to talk to customers face to face when they come into the showroom where you can engage them better than perhaps you can on the phone.

Using a selection of Farrow & Ball shades paired with our range of unique finishes, and new backdrops with Georgian-inspired detailing, we’ve created a subtly chic pared back look whilst embracing neutral tones and textures throughout. We’ve used Farrow & Ball across the board, in shades Wevet, Purbeck Stone, Pointing, Cromarty, Blackened and Bone. These chalky off-whites and grey variants are perfect for showing off the details of our finishes, and fresh enough to make the showroom feel invigorated and new.

We were looking to create a simple, classically inspired back drop with neat panelling designs to underline the understated elegance of the wall lights. We know lots of you use Farrow and Ball paint to get that period look, so we thought it would be fun to marry a variety of tones of paint with some of our most popular candle shades in subtly coloured linens, velvets and cottons.

Embracing the natural patina of Antiqued Brass and the unrefined texture of the Isabelle Linen shades shows off our products in their best light, highlighting the quality craftmanship of our Suffolk workers. Our neutral linen and silk fabrics are also a great accompaniment, letting the lights themselves do the talking whilst complimenting each finish beautifully. We chose to use the Royal Oyster Silk and Cream Kilowen Linen together on these displays, as they lend themselves wonderfully to our antique, classic and botanical inspired collections.

The Botanical Collection is inspired by the great British countryside we love. From hints of the coastline in our Scallop Wall Light and delicate strands of wheat in our Sussex Lights, the surroundings from which we built our brand upon are ever present in our design work. When it comes to period style, whether swaying towards classic or contemporary, we feel that what goes into a home should respect the history of the land and architecture – manmade or otherwise! We try to embrace this notion as much as we can when designing products to suit those homes.

If you’re inspired by our style, please do come and say hello at the Ironworks, Lady Lane, Hadleigh IP7 6BQ and browse our lighting and homeware to complete your look at home. Our showroom houses our entire range of over 8,000 products, and our team will be here Monday – Saturday to help you find your match. You can see how stunning our lights look in situ and use our displays to find inspiration for your window, door and bathroom accessories.  Happy shopping! ⁠

In our Suffolk workshop we employ a skilled team of 150 engineers, painters, seamstresses, designers, lampshade makers and technicians alongside a full cohort of support staff. As we unpick the Jim Lawrence family and invite you to see a day in the life of our makers, we want to introduce you to a huge part of our heritage: the welders. This is really where it all began, using traditional metal working techniques here in Suffolk. We chat to our Technical Lead, Lee Saxby about this craft and how we create the lights you love.

Firstly, can you tell us who makes up the team?

There are about 20 welders, aged from 18 to their mid 60s, split into two teams, one working with steel the other with brass as they are different metals that require different types of welding.

Talk us through your typical workday in the workshop.

Our working day is generally 8am to 4.30pm but everyone works different shifts within that. We all have our own benches or workstations where the supervisors will have given us our job sheets for the day so that everyone knows what they are working on and how many they need to make by the end of the day.
A typical job varies between 4-5 hours for a large or complicated light, to one every 5 minutes for a simpler design. We have a tea break at 10.30-10.45, half an hour for lunch any time between 1 & 2pm and finish at around 4.30pm.

How many products do you now make in a day?

It depends which products we are making. As a team we can make 2-300 smaller lights like the Thorpe or Cranfield spotlight in a day, but if we’re working on a new Sussex wall or pendant light, we’ll only produce one a day as they are a more ornate so there’s a lot of welding involved.

Can you describe the key steps of the welding process?

The first thing we do is collect the carcass (component parts) for the product we are making. These will have been picked from the storeroom when a customer’s order comes through and passed on to us. We always make products in batches, regardless of how many orders there are so that we have enough kept in stock.

The first thing we do is clean the raw metal with a shot blaster to get rid of any scale that has built up. Then we use a Tig to weld the joints together to build the three dimensional product. When it is finished, we use a circular grinder to clean up the metalwork, going over the joints and edges to remove any rough bits so that it’s sharp, clean and tidy.
When we’ve done, we’ll put the products on the Quality Control shelf to be inspected. If they pass, they will be given to the finishing teams who will paint, polish or antique the products ready to be wired up. If the products don’t pass QC, we have to take them back and continue working on them until they do.

Like many of our makers at Jim Lawrence, it must be rewarding to be making something creative with your hands – though very hard work! With well over three thousand products available, what is the most challenging Jim Lawrence product to create?

Definitely the Montgomery or Sussex lights (shown below) which can take around 16 hours to make and require experienced welders with specialist skills. They are beautiful designs but incredibly complicated to make. The Large Charlecote Lantern is another example. The tables we make are surprisingly difficult because although they look relatively simple, all the legs and edges need welding and the smallest mistake can be very visible.

As a team, do you ever have any input on the design process?

Yes, the design team are always asking us if it’s possible to make the things they dream up. They need to know what is the best way to make it, what the pitfalls are and if it can be made more efficiently.

Do you get to work on any creative bespoke requests?

Not as many as we used to because as demand has risen and the company has grown, we’ve had to stop a lot of our bespoke work in favour of keeping up with our stocked products. I remember having to make two huge wagon wheel style lights for a converted barn in France a few years ago, and we once had a request to make metal flags and flagpoles for a turret on a country mansion, which was quite a job!

Going from a smaller farm forge and expanding to a location where you’re welding for one of the country’s leading lighting and home furnishings retailers, your roles and responsibilities must have changed. How has this effected the craft?

Well, I’ve been at Jim Lawrence for around 20 years so I’ve seen a lot of changes. Back in the day at Jim’s farm there were only five or six of us making about 20 products a month, whereas now there are 15 or 16 of us making 80-90. A lot of what we do now is about constantly asking ourselves what we can do to make things more efficient so we can get them out quicker. We used to have to do everything whereas now we have machinery to deal with repetitive tasks which is great because it means you can get on with the more fun stuff.

We are very lucky to be able to preserve this traditional way of making, including hand finishing our products. Why do you think people love to know that their products are handmade?

You can tell something is handmade by the quality of it. It just looks and feels different which people really appreciate. To us, when you make products yourself, you put your heart into it because you are doing what you love and you want it to be the best example of your work, so it shows in the finished result. It doesn’t matter if it’s a door hook or a glass pendant light, you want people to love it and they generally do.

Finally, many of our employees have been here long term, including most of you! What’s the best part of working for a family business like Jim Lawrence?

To me it’s because it’s personal. I’ve worked with a lot of the team for years so we’ve become good friends and have a great understanding of the pressures of the job. Jim used to work with us in the workshop and he and Sheena are still very hands on and come down all the time. Our managers also worked alongside us once, so you build up good relationships and new people find it easy to fit in.

You can browse all of our hand forged products on our website and enjoy other stylish customer homes on Instagram. Don’t forget to tag us in your own imagery on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook – we love seeing our products in their new homes. 

Did you know you can visit our Suffolk workshop? Our showroom and workshops are located here: Jim Lawrence Traditional Ironworks, The Ironworks, Lady Lane, Hadleigh, Suffolk, IP7 6BQ. Anyone is welcome to enjoy and shop the showroom, but please contact us in advance should you want a group tour of the workshops and warehouses: we are very open to showing you where your products are made, but do require some notice.

Naturally we like to showcase the finished product as a brand, but what about what goes on behind the scenes? Because, if we’re honest… a great amount does! We’ve met several makers on the blog, but think it’s high time we introduce our own. We want to start with our talented Soft Furnishings team who make your Jim Lawrence lampshades in our Suffolk workshop.

All Jim Lawrence lampshades that you see online are individually handmade, including any ready made designs and made to order styles. This means every one that we lovingly send out to you is that bit more personal, which is why we want to introduce you to the lovely people behind them. We catch up with Supervisor Julie to ask a few questions…

Firstly, can you tell us who makes up the team?

I’m Julie, the one who manages the team, checks stock in and out and allocates the production orders as well as helping the others to make whatever soft furnishings are required. We have Shaun, who is based in the workshop, and makes all our wire frames. There’s Tony who cuts out and laminates the card panels we use for our different stocked shade shapes. Emma, Charlene, Vikkie and Jackie are our shade makers and Gill and Vonny who make our curtains, blinds and cushions as well as shades.

What does a typical work day look like in the soft furnishings department?

I’m generally in at 7.30 with the rest of the team starting at 8.30. I’ll have a daily production meeting where we prioritise the day’s jobs with any urgent orders first and the Made to Order and standard stocked items to follow. The team will come in and pick up their production order sheets and start making their shades straight away.

How many shades do you make a week?

On average I’d say about 300 to 500. When I first started working at Jim Lawrence it was a lot less because we used to have to do every single stage by hand, from measuring out and cutting the wire frame to cutting and laminating the card, whereas now we have machines to help us.

In an age where many of us are sat behind computer screens, it must be rewarding to be making something creative with your hands. Do you all have a background in sewing and crafting?

Funnily enough, with the exception of Vonny who has worked as a seamstress previously, and Tony who had his own lampshade business, none of us have a background in sewing and crafting, although we all enjoyed doing a bit as a past time. I like crafting things, Gill used to make her children’s clothes, Charlene customises a lot of her clothes and Becca made her own curtains.

Jim was one of Tony’s customers and loved his shades so much that when there was an opportunity Jim bought the business and Tony came with it! I was a self-employed landscape gardener before I came to Jim Lawrence, Gill and Vonny were dinner ladies, June worked in catering and then stone carving while Emma was a playground assistant.

Do you notice certain trends coming through with the soft furnishings orders? What is the most popular style you tend to make?

Candle shades are always the most popular because you generally need a few of them for your wall lights. The run up to Christmas is our busiest time of year for all shades, but particularly for candles. We notice trends in fabric more. Soft furnishing fashions usually follow trends in paint colours so neutrals have been popular for ages, along with grey and plain fabrics. Our tweeds and velvet’s are more popular in winter with lighter linens and cotton coming into their own during the summer. As for prints, our Honey Bees fabric is popular at the moment, along with our other Ratty Golightly country collection.

With over a thousand shade and fabric combinations available, what is your favourite Jim Lawrence material to work with?

I love the Hunstanton velvets as they are a beautiful fabric to work with, not only because they are so nice to handle but because they also cut and glue well. They make amazing shades. I also like our Featherdown because it is basically a neutral but with soft, subtle colours that look particularly good on a shade or cushion.

Other than lampshades, what bespoke soft furnishing orders come through your department?

We don’t make as many bespoke soft furnishings as we used to because of time constraints, but I remember one order we had to make a shade out of horsehair! We also had a request for a shade using antique napkins with initials on and once had a large order for waterproof, canvas shades for a house in Barbados that were shipped over on a private jet. We’ve also made shades for the Duchy of Cornwall and Clarence House among some of our more famous clients.

Finally, many of our employees have been here long term, including most of you! What’s the best part of working for a family business like Jim Lawrence?

We love the fact that we work in relatively small teams at Jim Lawrence so it is easy to settle in and get to know everyone. Because most of us have worked here a long time. We’re good friends as well as colleagues and know what we need to do every day with very little direction which means we work productively in a relaxed, easy atmosphere. Our workspace is also fantastic, really light, bright and airy – even in winter – which makes it a pleasure to come to work. Also, Jim allows us to bring our dogs in, as long as they are well behaved, which is a huge bonus!

You can browse all the gorgeous Jim Lawrence lampshades Julie and the team make, as well as a wealth of sumptuous fabrics for curtains and blinds on our website or in our Suffolk and Bath Showrooms.

Don’t forget to tag us in your interior updates on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook – we love seeing our products in their new homes.

Emma and Camilla are a styling duo who operate under the name Interior Facelift. Far from surgical, their Instagram is bursting with classically romantic décor and tumbling foliage aplenty. Featuring Jim Lawrence lights in Camilla’s own home, we were stunned by their skill in creating atmosphere and individuality to a space. With an aptitude for sourcing unique pieces and a self-professed skill for ‘decluttering and reorganising’ we wanted to learn more about their business and the rooms they transform.

Photographer: Fiona Murray

Camilla’s stunning city home was recently featured in a beautiful article for 25 Beautiful Homes Magazine. Was the styling of your home Interior Facelift’s first project together?

No, our first project together was an Edwardian house in London – the owners had used a developer and an interior designer to update their house but they couldn’t make the sitting room feel cosy and so called us in to add style and individuality.

On your website you talk about how ‘breathing new life’ into a home through styling can be just as effective as starting the whole decoration process from scratch. What is the best starting place for a client when they want to refresh their home?

To work out how they would like to use the room, what they would like to keep in it, (if anything) and what they would like to change. for example, we are currently doing a job in which the client has a wonderful painting above the fireplace which is very special to them so we are designing colours around it and eclectic pieces from our treasure trove of reclaimed goodies to bring the room together.

What would you say is the most transformative step in restyling?

For us, the way to add the greatest impact when restyling is to add a few key features in a room, such as panelling as well as a couple of interesting pieces, perhaps an oversized mirror or some reclaimed doors that then make the room come alive.

What is your top tip for lighting a room?

We would say lighting is one of the most dramatic ways of adding impact and creating an atmosphere in a room. Layering is how we add interest with light, from overhead pendants to wall lights to table lamps.

Where does your flair for design come from?

For Emma life has always been about being visual – she trained as an artist , so colours and attention to detail have been second nature to her for more years than she might care to remember. I (Camilla) lived in Italy for several years, where style and design go hand in hand in effortless fashion.

With a wealth of inspiration on platforms like Instagram, sometimes it seems like a lot of houses can end up looking the same and filled with similar things. How do you tap into adding your own personality into a home?

We are both opposed to the ‘developers look’ where rooms can look bland and lack individuality. Instead, for us it is about layering different textures, making pieces work against each other and mixing reclaimed with new to add interest. The most wonderful part of our job is that we can combine our experience and flair with the client’s personality to make their home truly original.

Which has been the most enjoyable project to design?

Probably our most enjoyable project to date has been a house which just needed styling as opposed to building work; we were given free reign to style shelves, consoles, wall art etc – our idea of heaven.

Which has been the most challenging?

We have had one job where the client kept changing their mind with regards to what they wanted – a few mood boards later we got there!

Can you tell us about your dream project?

A project that allows us to use lots of reclaimed features and interesting styling. We are most excited when we can explore our ‘ inside-out’ philosophy….crafting out door spaces so that they flow from the indoor rooms and reflect each other by strategically positioned mirrors and of course magical lighting.

Last but not least, what’s in store next for Interior Facelift?

We are really excited about doing a project in Mallorca – we are planning to use a lot of natural wood and stone with limed walls, rattan pendants and some stunning Jim Lawrence outdoor wall lights. We have already discovered some dusty reclamation yards waiting for our attention!

We can’t wait to see this Mallorca project, it sounds divine… Follow Camilla and Emma on Instagram at @Interiorfacelift, and see more of their work on their website.