There are some things that when you watch the show (like I did for series one) that make you think, ‘why don’t they just do x, y, z’ so I’m here to explain!
Photo credit @TheSpacemaker_interiors
Rules
The rules of the show are quite straightforward really. Stick to the budget and provide receipts for all purchases. And anything you want to make should be made on camera and not in advance to ensure we all have the same time restrictions. The slight exception was if we were going to make multiples i.e. if you wanted to make 10 cushions you could make some in advance and a few on camera.
The Schedule
The schedule was tight! With only one week to plan and source during a pandemic we were really up against it. Often our first, second and third choices weren’t available. Frequently orders didn’t arrive in time. It was hard to think of a dream scheme and source everything when shops were closed, markets were cancelled and even Amazon deliveries were delayed.
On site we had two and a half days to implement our designs with a brand new team of trades who we weren’t allowed to speak to in advance. So its fair to say we were really up against it!
Trades
As designers we were not able to talk to the tradespeople before filming so couldn’t ask the carpenters advice on how to build something or how much wood to buy. We had to work that out ourselves. Hence why sometimes we don’t have the right materials or enough materials!
All the trades work their own way and sometimes they prefer to build things differently or paint things in a different order. Some decorators were speedier than others and some carpenters were much more forthcoming with solutions. That’s just the way of the world. And part of the competition was navigating these new relationships and differences in working.
The tradespeople were also not meant to advise us. Part of the show is that we design things and hand it over, come what may.
Obviously none of this is true to the real world of interior design where you would work with your tradespeople whilst designing to ensure you were on budget and gauge timeframes etc. Your trades would also usually advise you and offer solutions if things went wrong.
The Pandemic
Filming during a pandemic was really tough. The production team had a full time health professional on site to advise us of any new covid restrictions and protocols. The crew and tradespeople always wore masks and where possible the number of people in a room were kept to a minimum.
Being Filmed & The Crew
It’s a really strange adjustment to make when you’re being filmed for up to 12 hours a day. I found it quite strange to constantly talk about how I was getting on and what was happening. Im also usually quite a positive and professional person so I steer away from talking about things that aren’t going quite to plan. But obviously here I had to try and get used to leaning into those conversations. Which didn’t come very naturally to me.
You do eventually forget the camera crew are there and I felt quite comfortable just getting on with my design and making things whilst being filmed.
One thing I struggled with was saying things a few times in a row. To make sure it was useable for tv sometimes we had to repeat ourselves quite a bit! That always feels a bit strange at first.
The runners in particular really deserve a shout out - I have to say without them the show wouldn’t get made and our designs would remain unfinished! What a brilliant bunch of hard workers running from one room to another - lifting heavy wood deliveries, storing furniture until we’re ready to place it and even bringing us snacks! The true heroes of this story to me in every way. Thank you all!
Judging
When I signed up to the show I thought we would almost be mentored by Michelle Ogundehin, the judge of the show. But to ensure she judges as fairly as possible she is kept quite separate from the designers. So we only actually got to chat to her if we were called in to the sofa. I think that was to make sure it’s fair to all the designers.
Some designers were on the sofa more than others and I took the view that being on the sofa was a great chance for some feedback because we were not told what the judges said in our rooms at all! So we will have to watch the episodes on TV with all of you lovely people to actually see what was said about our designs!
That also means that we couldn’t necessarily learn from mistakes we may have made. Some designers weren’t on the sofa much at all and so didn’t get any feedback.