Interior Design Masters

[Cocolapew]

New series on BBC1 on Tuesday 7th March at 8pm 🙂

Same here. He bar area was stunning the rest meh but Jack's overall look was great.

We had Jack down as winner all.the way through.

I’ve been very critical of Monica but actually really loved the bar tonight.
Do you think Jack had extra staff as he had a bigger space?
Zodiac themed seems very 90’s to me but given that my teenagers seem to be wearing a version of my 90’s outfits maybe it’s all en vogue again, they’ve probably all got bath pearls from the body shop! Lol
I have loved loads of Jacks stuff but also really liked Tom and Ry.
I feel for Monica, whilst she’s been emotional, she’s been very open about having ADHD and the overwhelm with ideas but also time keeping. Sending hugs Monica if you are reading this as I totally struggle too.

Felt Monika was on course to win no matter what tonight, so it was all a bit disappointing.

I felt that although Monika's tables and chairs were criticised as being too cafe it would be overlooked whereas the criticism of Jack's not being gastropub enough would be over emphasised.

Ta daa.

Monika failed with the tables and chairs, I think. Little square pine tables and white chairs didn't match the bar area at all. However, the bar did look amazing. I felt that Jack's was a bit more polished, but perhaps didn't have the wow factor. I think he was consistently better overall, but Monika did well tonight.

I loved the white flower design in Monika's. It looked like it was projected on to the wall and then "coloured in"? Clever.

Not sure how they would have done the one on the outside though.

I absolutely loved the flower wallpaper ceiling and the way it came down the pillar.

Ooh tell us who it was!

It was quite telling that Monika said that when she started in the show, she thought interior design is just doing things to your own taste, and that her 'journey' was realising that they need to be versatile and fulfil a range of briefs. No shit! I'm no interior designer but surely that's basic knowledge.

Tom came across very well in this episode and the previous one... I suspect he was unfairly edited along the way to make him seem arrogant. He's the only one of the cohort I can imagine having a career in interior design ahead of him. He seems very grounded and consistent and able to listen to what the client wants. Ry was also good; shame we didn't see enough of him to know how he'd have progressed further on. Very annoying that Monika was kept in and depriving another participant of getting further. Her copper plated bar did indeed have the wow factor, but that doesn't cancel out all the budget miscalculations, time management issues, acres of black or the horrendous plastic flowers.

My guess is Molly!

@ChocChipHandbag yeah it was Molly! She said it was a really hard process. They get barely any time to plan, a tiny budget and then 2 days to get everything done. Her normal interior design projects are luckily nothing like that now! She is very talented, it's just so hard to get that across with a tiny budget and 2 days to through it together!

I got that horrible underwhelming feeling when they read out Monica's name.

She kept the walls practically the same colour yet still won

The owner of Jacks pub said he hadn't stuck to the brief which may have lost him the task despite it being more interesting transformation

I agree that for whatever reason they wanted Monika to win regardless. Probably the prize wanted her specifically to design for them

I knew Monika was going to win when they showed Michelle saying the decision was only based on this project.

So agree with you all re Monika being kept in too long.

The problem I could see with Jack’s design is that it was a gastropub with an foodie ethos and nearly all his tables were small and round and he’d turned into a glam restaurant. Gatsby-meets-gastropub doesn’t feel like a natural pairing!

I didn’t see where anyone would sit to eat a proper meal unless they were on their own - or in a big group at one of the two very large tables he seemed to have. It looked far more like a bar where you might have high-end nibbles (if that’s a thing) or small plates. Michelle and guest judges said upstairs was more like the gastropub area which a) wasn’t true as it had little bar chairs and low tables b) meant that the food offering would be out of sight so the initial impression walking in would be of a bar and c) imagine the reality for the kitchen and waiting staff of moving your food ops upstairs when you didn’t ask for that. I know lots of places have upstairs dining but finding your interior designer had forced that decision on you would be annoying in the extreme!

That was a long post. I may have overthought this!

Monika was lucky to still be there however
I loved her bar and wall paper
tom was awesome for her as someone to make her work through a list which as an adhd person can be extremely hard

jack missed the brief

well done Monika

That’s spot on. It 100% came down to how useful the design was for its purpose. Monika did well on that front last night but Jack didn’t so she had to win (which I’m not in the least bit sad about since I like her a lot).

I wonder if the tables in Monika’s were overlooked a bit more since the judges knew the old tables could be brought back in and would match well enough whereas Jack’s might not match now or work in the somewhat reduced floor space.

Would love to see what Tom would have done !

It 100% came down to how useful the design was for its purpose.

And that's fair enough if the judging had been in any way consistent. But Monika's hair salon was completely not fit for purpose: it was a dark shadowy space with a complete lack of adequate lighting around the work areas. Yet she was put through to the final ahead of Tom, who absolutely nailed the lighting (and had a far more challenging salon to work with from the outset.)

Michelle really messed up her role this series.

I think the prize should be a place on an interior design course. The decorative ideas are only a part, albeit a large part. The understanding of lighting ( as shown when Monika didn’t realise that the ceiling lights couldn’t be placed) and the understanding of how materials perform is essential for the professional designer.

@Beebumble2 yes, there was a lot of dressing a room rather than designing.

I think the fact Monika was on the couch more than any other contestant over the series and never actually won a round highlights the pitfalls of this series. She got through to the final when she really shouldn't have and then pulled something out the bag which overall was judged better than Jack's (though again, that's debatable as it was only her bar which worked well, the rest was so-so) It was a win by default rather than talent imo

I agree with this exactly. Monica did pull something rather striking out of the bag this week, despite its shortcomings.
I felt that Jack was able to do more within his pub this week, despite the two floors, or maybe because of it.
I also agree that the first prize should include an Interior Design course or Apprenticeship, if these talented amateurs are to continue as professionals. I would certainly want someone who had gone through learning about some of the boring bits, like costing, materials, health and safety, etc. (I actually have no idea what they would teach on such a course)

would certainly want someone who had gone through learning about some of the boring bits, like costing, materials, health and safety, etc. (I actually have no idea what they would teach on such a course)

Yes, that’s exactly what they do teach, plus a lot more. I did a post graduate interior design course and a lot was technical such as designing an electrical circuit and installation for a whole house. Not my favourite bit!

The owner of Jack’s pub said he hadn’t stuck to the brief - but he loved it. On another week, that would have seen Jack win for trusting his own instincts.

Monica would be an absolute nightmare to work for though. I’m sure they took the chairs away and put extra people on painting them so it got done - unfair . I had a horrible feeling she would win though as she has definitely improved whereas Jack has pretty much stayed at the same level. He was excellent to start with . If I was loaded I’d hire him in a shot to design my home! Jack is clearly also lovely to work with and much nicer to the tradespeople. I hate it when bad managers do well!

Jack is overall the better designer. Monika is inconsistent, flaky and poor at managing time. I hope Jack does better out of the experience.

I just didn't understand Michelle's judging this series.
I felt Tom and Jack were robbed.

On an entirely separate note I learned from Jack's Mum on the show that cystic fibrosis can be diagnosed much later than I thought.

@LadyEloise1 me too; I've only ever heard of people being diagnosed much younger. It sounds like Jack had various health issues which took time to investigate and get to the bottom of. I assume CF is a condition which can vary quite a bit in severity and hopefully for Jack it doesn't impact too hugely. He seems like a lovely guy - though I'm still reeling at how he's living in such an expensive opulent house at his age!

Agree 100% about Tom being robbed. He seemed a very genuine guy (despite the unfair editing early on which made him seem a bit annoying) He's also in his 40s, quite a lot older than the other finalists and I think it said he works in a bar, so it's not like he currently has a job in design. He's clearly developed his techniques over time and was able to flex his designs to meet the brief, despite being given the most difficult space to deal with... that hair salon was hands down the hardest starting point in the series, with the brief that he had to keep the brickwork. It felt like Monika picked him as her helper in the final because she knew he had the ability and also the capacity to stick within budget and timing constraints. She spent an entire day at least doing that bar so I'm damn sure everyone else was running around working twice as hard to do everything else. And yes those chairs... one minute there wasn't enough time to paint them because she completely ignored the fact they needed priming, next minute, 25 painted chairs are delivered, all done.

I guess at the end of the day it's entertainment, not a serious contest to see who is the best designer.