PETER PLASKITT'S search for an apprentice is over.

Claire Mullen has been chosen as the new showroom manager for interior designers Plaskitt & Plaskitt in Monkgate, York.

Miss Mullen, 25, of Holme on Spalding Moor, joins the firm having completed her BA Hons interior design course at Leeds College of Art & Design. For the past seven months, while taking her course she has been working for Plaskitt & Plaskitt on Saturdays.

Now she will also help Mr Plaskitt on his various international projects as an interior architect and special designer, including a £2.5 million remodeling of a luxury Cliffside holiday villa with swimming pool for a Leeds businessman in the village of Salobrena, in southern Spain; as well as with a contract to beautify apartments in Bucharest.

One of her first jobs will be to help host a seminar on interior design for MFI store staff who are travelling to York showroom for the event on June 5.