Rhuthun / Ruthin

Adore Ruthin Décor

Why are we using this irritating, illegible font? Please read on... if you can...

To some, the move from Ruthin Décor's backwater shack on Lôn Parcwr that it occupied from 2000 to much larger premises on Well Street was something of a gamble. It required a significant investment just when the credit crunch had morphed into recession. I expect there were times when Nick Birch & Maureen Young wondered whether they were doing the right thing.

February 2015 website update

Conversion work on the former Slater's car site began in 2011. Beforehand, it had been vacant for three years. Slater's was profitable in Rhuthun/Ruthin but the premises did not meet with Citroën's approval: it was too cramped and too dated., with no scope for expansion or renovation, Slater's closed down in Rhuthun and its former Abergele garage, concentrating its Citroën sales at new premises by Tesco, Abergele.

Besides, the business realised that the Rhuthun land was worth a significant amount. It was just a pity that they couldn't sell it quickly. 2008 was not the time and they missed out by months.

Eventually, along came Ruthin Décor. They converted the sales area and part of the workshop into what is Rhuthun's fourth largest floor area, after Tesco, the large Co-op and B & M.

That gamble paid off. Now with a much higher profile that is actually in town and with a greater floor area (without any upper gallery), the business has never looked back. It won Décor Retailer of the Year in 2014 and 2015. It's prices are reasonable and often the same as base prices at chain retailer sheds. It has gradually extended its ranges and, for example, from this month sells a variety of ready made curtains.

From July 27th, it extended its opening hours by half-an-hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Fridays to 6.00 p.m. This followed a customer survey and the realisation that a number of clients were squealing their tyres to get in at 5.29 before the store closed.

There's now also proper late night opening on Thursdays, till 8.00 p.m. The reasoning behind Thursday was DIY preparation time for the weekend and the fact that most hair salons stayed open late on Thursdays. This might seem a tenuous link but Ruthin Décor continues to up its home furnishing offer. 

Original 2011-2015 website

In February this year, Ruthin Décor launched an updated website. It's now configured to enable online shopping. This was the first refresh of its site since it was introduced in 2011, to coincide with the new premises.

And with the new website began a change in branding style.  Although still displaying the blocky RUTHIN DÉCOR name (without the acute diacritical mark É) & DIY implement icons above its shop (that have served the retailer well), online they have moved to what they at least consider to be something more modern, with a combination of Arial and Lucida Handwriting fonts:

Ruthin Décor
Homely inspiration for cottages to castles

We aren't sure that the homespun Lucidna Handwriting works that well. It feels like an attempt to be modern that misses the mark. Others have left the Lucida Handwriting stage of text development way behind, in the search for something more stylish. Still ,Ruthin Décor does now have a logo and a strapline. These days, every business needs  these.  Yet, "homely" can mean cosy and comfy but the trouble is that it can also smack of unattractiveness, inelegance , plainness & domesticity. Surely, this isn't what they were going for.

Spot the error

The  revised July 2015 opening hours do come with two problem, though. The signage at the front of the premises gives a mixed message: both the old and the new are up.

But, for those who notice such things, the new hours sign refers to "Homeley inspiration..." rather than the correct word, homely. The firm's corrected this on its website but it still stands out on the Well Street wall. A lack of attention to detail, guys.