Interior Design masters s5 BBC 1 8pm starts tonight

[Netaporter]

Looks like the producers have rounded up some ‘interesting’ contestants….😂

TonIght’s opening episode features renovation of accommodation in a Norfolk convent. From today’s Times :- “ one of the contestants first appears in an outfit that Carr playfully suggests makes her look as though she has arrived from zippos Circus and the Victorian enthusiast Ben is not an unflamboyant presence”

TV Gold 😂

There are definitely rhinos in India - about 3500 of them. It’s been a good bit of rhino conservation news - there were very few there only 100 years ago.

Joining! Just catching up. Matt and Anthony did well with that one. I actually thought Ben’s was fun and I would have enjoyed an afternoon in Francesca’s too.

@BenIDM Awful that you’ve been insulted on some socials. Nobody has done that on here though so your anger feels misplaced.

Ben was one of my favourites until that outburst downthread 🙁

Francesca's surprised me - it looked far better at the end than I thought it would. A bit "American diner" but good.

I liked it too. I didn’t love it, but it worked a lot better than I was expecting.

I don't think Michelle's advice is necessarily contradictory. In some situations, "literal" (like the train carriage) is good. In this case, with it being corporate hospitality, "theme park" isn't the right style. Knowing when to do it and when to just create the feel of a particular theme is a skill. That's my take on it.

Missed it yesterday so just caught up. I’m glad Anthony did well; his room was extremely elegant and simple and fitted the brief, as did Matt's. Agree that the right people went home.

I hope they involve the café owners a bit next week.

I’m wondering what Domnall’s going to do, now he’s been told by Michelle to stop the graphic design collaging.

@PaperBauble i guess he could use more wallpaper.etc.
The problem is few of them actually seem to understand what a good interior designer does. It's not just paint and furniture, but looking at the form and function of a room. For me it shows the real talent and the 'fillers'. Last year I thought the woman who won shouldn't, I thought Jack was far better and understanding how to use space. And I love banjo from the year before, he's gone on to do some gorgeous spaces. This year its got to be matt, right?

I think he needs to tone it down and stop relying on it. I think this week the artwork was fine but the caricatures were a step too far. If he uses it just as "seasoning" rather than the main ingredient it would be better.

Do you think Ascot kept the boxes like that? Do they now have a load of bland corporate boxes and some of these decorated ones?

Ascot might have used them for a couple of staff parties, but I feel pretty confident that they would be stripped back to "Corporate".

Rooms like that have to be easy to clean/touch up.

The trellis would be a nightmare to keep clean.

I think they could have kept Matt's room and even decorated the others to match. It seems to have the right balance between "bland corporate" and something with a bit of style. It also looked easy enough to maintain. Whilst I really liked Anthony's, the dark paint would show every chip.

Using trellis is unforgivable imo. I know the budget is small but dear god, but all the trellis rooms looked like BHS, M&S cafes circa 1982. It’s cheap, it’s tacky, it looks shit no matter what you do to it, and I’d expect anyone who makes it into a design programme would do better.

Apart from Domnall, Matt and Anthony, the rest were laughably grim imo. Francesca needs to stop with the handmade artwork. It’s horrible. Making a room ‘inclusive’ for the LGBTQ communities, just turns the assignment into a personal vanity project.

oh I agree! my partner and I hated the trellis ones, it just looked cheap and not at all a good fit for Ascot.

I liked Matt's the best too.

I cannot believe one of the contestants has come here to tell us off for not being motherly enough 😂dude, step away from social media for the rest of the series!

Surely Matt is going to win, he seems to be the only one with consistent "taste" levels.
In saying that, I thought v much the wrong person won last year, I thought Dave was a far far better overall.
I didn't think Ben's room was bad in comparison to some of the rest. Right two went home though

Making a room ‘inclusive’ for the LGBTQ communities, just turns the assignment into a personal vanity project.

What does a room need in order to be "inclusive"? I get the part about the dress code having been updated but room decor is surely completely separate to sexuality or gender identity. weird idea IMO.

I'd like to see those Ascot rooms now 😀

Thank you for replying -- I stand corrected. I did Google before I posted but now (after re-Googling and finding there are indeed rhinos in India), see that I had not been reading the right Wiki pages.... How I made this stupid mistake I don't know! I feel ashamed now for criticising the girl who put the rhinos and lions on the wall. Very very sorry! And happy to have learnt about the Indian rhino.

Thank you for replying -- I stand corrected. I did Google before I posted but now (after re-Googling and finding there are indeed rhinos in India), see that I had not been reading the right Wiki pages.... How I made this stupid mistake I don't know! I feel ashamed now for criticising the girl who put the rhinos and lions on the wall. Very very sorry! And happy to have learnt about the Indian rhino.

Totally agree with you about last year! In my opinion, Jack was a much better designer, and I was really quite shocked when he didn't win. Hope he's doing well in his career now.

You don't need politics at Ascot and the velvet arches were quite dismal

I was so pissed off with foisting a personal agenda into an assignment. The only time any agenda should be part of a project is if it’s part of a commission. Otherwise it’s unprofessional, immature and shows the inability to not foist your personal politics and viewpoints onto your clients. That’s not what an interior design is about. I’d pull a GCSE design pupil up on doing that, never mind someone hoping to make it as a professional.