Interior Design Masters ~ Series 6/Episode 5 ~ Twickenham hospitality boxes
This week Head Judge Michelle Ogundehin had a new challenge for the five aspiring designers left in the competition: to redesign some very uninspiring plain white hospitality boxes at Twickenham, home of England rugby. Each designer had £2000 to provide a premium space for up to twelve rugby fans to drink, eat, drink again, watch the rugby, and then possibly have some more drinks (Michelle didn’t actually say this, but anyone who knows rugby fans won’t argue with me). The boxes are not cheap, and are often used by companies to entertain customers/clients. Box owners typically pay £60,000 per year for the box, so Michelle was keen that the designers provide somewhere “premium” and “super smart and swanky”.
Michelle also added that she wanted the boxes to reflect the passion of England rugby fans, and that guests should know that they were ‘at the heart of England rugby’. I know that’s what she said as I rewound to check…..but not sure all the designers were still listening.
Obligatory 'before' photo
Bryony decided that ‘premium’ meant ‘pub’, and decided to transform her box into what she imagined a rugby-themed pub would look like. You’ll never guess what she planned to put on the walls…..yes, panelling. The same thing she has put on the walls on almost every challenge so far. They say that rugby is a game played with odd shaped balls, and Bryony went with this theme, making a wall display of a combination of vintage rugby balls and - when the budget ran out - some made from what looked like bandages and plaster of paris. I hope these were going to be firmly fixed in place in case one or two rugby fans of my acquaintance are ever invited there.
Painting the chairs
All the designers had the choice of keeping or junking the tables and chairs that were left in the boxes by Twickenham. Bryony was the only designer who decided to keep them, hiding the table under what looked like an Ikea duvet cover, and then painting (yes, I said PAINTING) the fabric chairs. I have no idea how a painted chair would fare if a pint was spilled on it, but I wouldn't want to be wearing an expensive suit when I found out.
Running out of paint, Bryony then decided to re-upholster the rest of her chairs using some mustard velvet. She had never upholstered before, and (how do I put this politely?) it showed. In the end, her room featured a too big table in the centre of the room surrounded by a weird selection of chairs. Big rugby types would have a job to manoeuvre around the table, and it just didn’t look ‘premium’ at all. I have no idea what she spent most of her budget on, but it certainly had no wow factor and instead looked inoffensive and bland.
What John's room should have looked like
John, who has a season ticket for the Sofa of Doom rather than for any rugby club, was determined that this week he would avoid the wrath of Michelle. He came up with a striped wall scheme based on rugby shirts that was going to take the decorator ages to do, and an even more ambitious wood panelling scheme that saw poor carpenter Rob spend almost the entire time making grooves (and not in an Austin Powers way). There was an impressive rose design which would then feature on the panelling, but which would have needed an extra carpenter and about two extra days to finish. It looked as if John had spent too much time having a new haircut and not enough working on his timings.
Not exactly go faster stripes
Victoria thought that she had come up with a way to avoid John’s timing issues: she had her own striped design printed onto some wallpaper so that no painting was required. A doddle, she thought. Her decorator probably had a few different words in mind as he tried to fix her wallpaper to the walls and ceiling – presumably due to budgetary constraints Victoria had gone for the cheapest quality paper, and it showed. The paper tore, bubbled, and refused to stick to the wall – the resulting dog’s dinner would have been fine for last week’s canine project, but it looked awful for what was supposed to be a ‘premium’ space. Sticking it up using double sided tape was her solution, but it still looked awful.
Bubbling wallpaper
Still, Victoria had a lovely big mirror to cut to shape behind the bar so all was not lost. Except it turned out to be a pig to cut, shattering in all the wrong places and ending up in the skip. Her last chance to impress was an England ceiling rose, which was her one and only triumph – but would it be enough?
Having a smashing time
Rita decided that her corporate box would celebrate women’s rugby. A worthy ambition. Unfortunately, the painting that had inspired Rita’s design and colour scheme was a girl wearing a Springbok rugby kit. Which is, of course, the kit of South Africa – one of England’s greatest rivals. Imagine paying for a corporate box at Arsenal and finding it decorated Chelsea blue and with a painting of a player wearing a Chelsea strip on the wall - there would be a riot. How would this go down with Michelle, who had definitely said she wanted the guests in the spaces to ‘know that they are at the heart of England rugby’?
Rita's Springbok inspiration
Craig won Standout Space for the previous week’s task, and I have a feeling it might have gone to his head. He perhaps thought he was untouchable, as his design chose to ignore references to rugby and to instead channel Mad Men. I know rugby players can be a little boisterous, but this was perhaps a stretch too far. His design was actually very good: he went for a mid-century theme with dark asymmetric panelling, a curved tile bar, and a wall mounted sideboard for serving. He also decided to pay homage to the artist Rothko (sounding a bit condescending about the chances of rugby fans having heard of the famous painter) by sploshing some poster paints on a canvas from The Works.
Rothko or Craig? Indistinguishable to art critics
His room certainly looked the most ‘premium’, but guests would probably feel that they were in 1950s New York rather than the ‘heart of England rugby’. Would that matter?
Craig's finished room. Good enough for Don Draper.
Guest Judge for this week was Nisha Katona – not an obvious rugby fan, but someone who knows about hospitality. A representative from Twickenham might have been a better choice, as both Michelle and Nisha complained about seating or tables being in the way of watching the rugby through the windows of the boxes in a couple of the designer’s spaces. I’m not sure that it occurred to them that rugby fans were more likely to be sitting outside on the provided balcony seating during the actual game?
Bryony's finished room (complete with rugby ball installation)
Both judges liked Bryony’s bland box and enjoyed Rita’s nod to female rugby (Nisha did notice the Springbok jersey but for some odd reason it didn’t seem to matter). John’s box was criticised for not finishing – although they did like his ideas. Victoria was criticised for being ‘too corporate’ - in a corporate box? How dare she? – and also for the poor quality of the finish. Nisha loved Craig’s room, but Michelle was in a picky mood and didn’t see ‘enough rugby’. Perhaps Craig missed a trick by not putting a ‘homage to the jockstrap’ on the wall instead of his pound shop Rothko.
John's finished room - minus the England rose feature on the bar
Victoria's finished room....
.
....complete with England ceiling rose that the judge's didn't even spot!
Rita's finished room
Back to Design HQ, and to the surprise of many watching (including, I suspect, Craig), Bryony was awarded Standout Space for her ‘big table, duvet table cloth, bandaged rugby ball’ room; and Rita was also spared the dreaded sofa with her South African rugby themed room. The Sofa of Doom was therefore to be occupied by Victoria, Craig, and the ever-present John. Craig looked surprised to be there, and hopefully the experience will puncture his over-inflated sense of importance….but of course he was never going to be eliminated. John was once again given a lecture (this time about trying to do too much and not being able to manage his time), but it was Victoria and her dodgy striped wallpaper that were deemed to have offended the design gods this week and she was eliminated from the show.
Do you think it was the right decision? Was Victoria robbed? Who do you think will be the eventual winner? What about John’s new haircut? Let us know in the comments!