DUNK’S DESIGN FOR LIFE IN THE PREM

Seagulls star warmed up for the season by decorating his new home and his passion for interiors matches his love of defending

LEWIS DUNK spent part of his summer mucking in, getting his hands dirty and helping put up walls.

That should be ideal preparation for his task ahead in a Brighton defence aiming to keep out the Premier League’s best strikers.

Dunk is the newly-promoted Seagulls’ lynchpin with a passion for interior design to match his love of defending.

Once Brighton’s deserved “few weeks” of promotion celebrations finished, Dunk turned his attention to building his new dream home in the city.

And Dunk, 25, didn’t just sit back while others, including his dad and brother, did the hard work. Instead, he made use of the skills he gleaned growing up around tradesmen to pull his weight on the building site.

He said: “I love interior design and designing how houses will look. Maybe after football, that will be something I do.

“My dad Mark is a plumber, brother Carl is a plasterer, my uncle is an electrician and my girlfriend’s dad is a bricklayer, so I have been quite lucky in that sense.

“I have done one house up that I’m in now, to sell on eventually and now I am doing another one which will be my last home.

“I left, maybe two walls, and extending down, up and sideways. Just gutted it and started again. Hopefully one day I will have enough property so that I can have a nice portfolio.”

Brighton has been Dunk’s football home since he was 10.

His affinity to the club stopped him leaving for the top flight sooner and made Brighton’s promotion last season that bit sweeter.

He said: “Fulham was probably the closest I came to leaving in 2015, but this club have always said they won’t sell me. It’s turned out for the best really.” Another advantage of staying is Dunk arrives in the Premier League battle-hardened, with almost 200 senior games under his belt.

He has also been working on his on-pitch discipline, which has occasionally let him down, with manager Chris Hughton, a sports psychologist and his dad Mark.

And he has all the attributes to become the next young English centre-back with a Football League background to shine in the Premier League.

But what a test to start with – free-spending title favourites Manchester City.

Dunk said: “The only harder game we could have got was Man City away.

“Some of the strikers in this league are the best in the world. I don’t want to be embarrassed.

“But I won’t let that happen to me. I want to prove to everyone in the football world that I am good enough to play at that level.”