She would use her garage as a miniature warehouse; take five parcels a day to the post office after the daily school run (kids in tow!) and answer emails at 2am.
Over 15 years later, Melody Maison has become a leading retailer for Shabby French Chic and vintage style home furnishings. Melody Maison is still very much a family run business, with cousins, brothers, aunties and daughters all working together to offer a personal touch to every single Melody Maison customer.
Of course, they have added some fabulous members of staff outside of the Elkington heritage since then, all of which we treasure just as much!
The little things really do make a difference to us, that’s why if you give us a call we won’t put you through to a robot, we just have a customer care team here all day, happy to answer any questions you may have.
They design, manufacture and distribute French style furniture to all corners of the globe, and have many thousands of satisfied customers worldwide.
A spokeswoman said: "I hope you will agree that we have many beautiful things, mainly furniture ranges in our most popular colours; cream, ivory and white. Each range of furniture is either designed by us and made exclusively for Melody Maison, or sourced from our chosen suppliers from all over the world.
"Here at Melody Maison we have the most unique selection of French style furniture and home accessories in the world, and pride ourselves in doing so. Our promise to you is to provide the smoothest and most stress free purchase you have ever experienced over the internet, with fabulous customer service at every step of the way.
"You only have to read our reviews to realise we treat every customer with the up most respect that they deserve."