The Great Interior Design Challenge

[Davros]

New series starts tomorrow, 7pm on BBC2. Anyone else in?

Slummy! What a surprise from TV people. I'd have responded like you too.

I am not even slightly surprised that Sarah won. She was the best one out of the two of them.

Hated all Sarah's rooms - particularly the lounge, which looked like a cheap second hand shop IMHO.

Since when did naff and ugly = "brave"

I thought her original design looked like the HQ of S.M.E.R.S.H (Seventies and Soviet)

I hated Sarah's rooms too. Loathed them. In fact I didn't rate either of the finalists and thought the whole series was weak.

I'm afraid I found Sarah very hard to warm to from the word go.

I think Frankie should have been in the final instead of Lucy.

Sarah didn't meet her client's brief and I don't see how someone can win when the client so obviously hates the end result. The reality was that Lucy wasn't good enough to win (still can't get over the weird decapitated dog wall hanging!) and so the judges had no choice!

I think I have managed to find Lucy's wallpaper! It's called Flights of Fancy by House of Hackney.

I also found this. Only £300 a mural. Needs more beige.

I think Sarah deserved to win. She coped very well, with her client chopping and changing constantly, although I wasn't overly impressed with the style of her rooms. I liked Lucy's bedroom and some of her dining room. Overall though, all the contestants were weaker this series.

I completely agree with you MeolsCop. I didn't like any of Sarah's rooms and thought her manner very high-handed. Lucy seemed far more likeable although her habit of welling up was beginning to get a bit wearing...

I thought Lucy's taste was awful - a mix of Pedlars and the Next Catalogue via Pinterest Fails. Sara was a bit arrogant and she was WAY off brief in the final, but her designs had loads more class.

Still think we was robbed though and Frankie should've won it.

Sarah would make a good textile designer, she is creative but I didn't like any of the rooms tonight. She won because Lucy was just not in the running. The best thing about this series has been this thread

Yes thank you for watching with me everyone! OTheHugeManatee I totally agree with your description of Lucy's style, I wasn't a fan. Also did anyone else get the impression that she's proud of herself?

Did anyone else get the feeling that Sophie really just didn't like Sarah?

Ooh look Sophie Robinson has interviewed Sarah on her YouTube channel

Agree about Lucy, the so-called wood-panelling effect looked terrible, and the silver feature wall was ho-hum. And as for the decapitated toys...... She just didn't have the flair to carry ideas through.

Sarah looked SO murderous when anyone had the temerity to question her ideas, though. In RL a client would be paying £££ and personally I wouldn't be pleased if a designer I was employing was so obstinate and high-handed. Surely establishing and keeping a good relationship with your customer, no matter what, is a very important skill you need to learn? She did have a brief, and she ignored it, then only softened if/when THEY started agreeing with HER, not the other way round.

On another note, thank god I don't have to hear them talk about being 'craytive' a thousand times in every episode. Drove me crazy

I wasn't sure wtf all the 'craytive' huff was at all. I looked at some Kelly Hoppen interiors and they looked like every other beige hotel interior ever. Nothing craytive about that at all

I Googled Kelly hoppen too, my goodness how dull and monochrome are her designs! Not one colour in any picture I saw. Not a fan at all.

Good grief Sarah didn't listen to her client at all!
I wasnt impressed with either of then tbh, the quality was very poor this series.
Why would you take out a perfectly good sofa a replace it with a chaise lounge type thing? I presume they just move
the sofas and store them some where?
Such a shame Frankie ballsed up.

I reckon that "the client from hell" Actually did Sarah a favour and pulled her back from outrageousness. She IS a good designer but very 'entitled' IMO, those fabulous rooms needed elegance and SOME colour not fucking BLACK panels or ceilings totally covered with paper on that looked like a leaking bowl of blood from an abattoir . No wonder the client couldn't bear to sleep in that bedroom.

If I'd had a go at that bedroom and wanted the ceiling paper to look like a 'canopy' for the bed I'd have put proper 4 posts on the bed or just 2 at the foot to give an idea of a 4 poster. To be fair I liked the cushions on the bed and ottoman. The pale pink walls were ok I'm not sure about the black lines along the wardrobes though.

If only lucy knew when to STOP with the dressing of the rooms. I liked the silver chimney breast and she could 've put that pretty bird paper on 2 walls not one!

I really felt for Sarah's client - you could see that she was genuinely distressed, not trying to be difficult but really unhappy with the design proposal.

I hated the wallpaper on the ceiling - can't imagine waking up to that every day.

Totally agree that it's arrogant to over-rule your clients. It's such an artificial set-up, though - in real life, it's all about the client's views, but in this competition, you win by playing to the judges, so it's more about coaxing the client to go along with your ideas.

Thanks to those who mentioned Kelly Hoppen's face. I had felt there was something "off" about her facial expressions (or lack thereof), but hadn't twigged what it was.

I thought most of the rooms looked better before the designers got to work. Boring, but less headache-inducing.

Yes me too bibliomania, I was thinking how lovely the rooms BEFORE they were 'designed'.

Kelly's face and hair hardly ever moved!

We have similar good taste, ppeat!

Great minds and all that

Oh I meant to thank you Slummy for answering my questions Oh and slummy don't worry about your weight , the telly puts on a stone apparently. (It makes me think how painfully thin a lot of telly stars and celebs must be in RL).

Didn't like any of Sarah's rooms - I thought that bedroom with the half wallpapered flowered ceiling and that weird frame thing going across the wardrobe doors and the black paint was shit and found Kelly Hoppen's over the top comments about Sarah's styling - just bizarre. Being able to arrange a few objects does not an interior designer make. She won that even though her original designs were rejected (and rightly too), and the client didn't like the living room after it was done.

Likewise I wasn't crazy about Lucy's rooms either although I thought the dining room (the one they said was her weakest) had potential with the deep red paint and the birdy wallpaper. If she'd stuck to that it might have worked but the random grey wall/doors etc. and some of her odd styling let it down badly. I also liked the bedroom with the cloudy wallpaper - thought that was ok - not fantastic but not bad and one of the better of the six rooms. I also thought her living room was ok - some nice touches and certainly better than Sarah's abomination.

All in all it was pretty poor. How they can say thing slapping colours everywhere and wallpapering ceilings is 'cutting edge' is just bollocks, especially when they can't even manage to buy enough wallpaper!

They were beautiful rooms in a beautiful building and they could have looked utterly fabulous. None of them did - from either designer.

Another thing, I wouldn't want all my ornaments pictures etc taken away and replaced by stuff that meant nothing to me.