Interior Design Masters: Series 6/Episode 6 ~ Shop Week!

Interior Design Masters S6/Ep6 ~ it's SHOP WEEK!

Always a popular week for Interior Design Masters fans (for the contestants it's the equivalent of getting to Blackpool on Strictly) the four remaining designers were despatched to glorious Rye to make over a couple of shops in the quaint town.  Would John manage to finish in time?  Would Bryony finally pick an accent and stick with it?  Would Craig and Alan continue their flirting?  Would the cameras pick up local resident Paul McCartney popping out for a pack of hair dye?  The nation held its breath.

Look what got washed up in Rye this week

The production company made us wait a little longer for Shop Week this series - possibly due to only being able to find two shops willing to be covered in MDF and embrace old curtains masquerading as upholstery.  The shops were in lovely Rye - and I'm gutted as I was there over Christmas and could have gone for a nose if I'd known which two shops had been involved. 

Niche women's wear (& jewellery) pre makeover....

The underwear department

The first was a women's clothing store which doubled as a fairly high end jewellery shop, with the owners happy for the team of Rita and Bryony to move the till, hide the changing room, and come up with more inventive ways of displaying the jewellery.  Both Bryony and Rita have retail experience, with Bryony telling us that the majority of customers turn to the left and walk clockwise round a shop (cue the entire audience trying to work out if that applied to them.....I'm afraid I'm guilty).  On their initial visit the team was shown a variety of very colourful clothes, leading them to decide upon a neutral beige colour scheme to 'let the clothes sing'.  

The singing clothes

Team Craig and John were tasked with redesigning an Indian Paper shop, which had lovely colourful stock currently displayed with all the panache of the office stationery cupboard.  Rather than going down the other team's route of paring back the background to make the products, er, 'sing', Craig and John went in the opposite direction and chose a riot of colourful paint for the walls and display shelves, with pink fretwork, yellow walls, and sanded turquoise wood.  Design & Technology teacher John was the only one of the four designers with no retail experience, but after three appearances on Head Judge Michelle Ogundehin's Sofa of Doom he was determined that his inexperience would not be a hindrance.  Craig, on the other hand, was determined that John's poor time management would not prove a hindrance to his ambitions.

The unimaginative interior of the paper shop

Team Rita and Bryony set to work, with a large amount of screen time given to Rita's decision to paint all the chrome metal rails in the shop with black paint.  Would it stick?  Of course not.  She eventually succeeded after rubbing down the metal and using a primer, but this took longer than she wanted.  Was it worth it?  I'm not sure - I would worry that the paint would eventually start to peel off, and that the rails of expensive clothing would all end up covered in flakes of black paint.  Talking of flakes, hopefully no visiting children would be eating one when shopping with their mothers as Bryony decided to upholster the chairs in a cream fabric.  Not sure about that. 

Over at the paper shop, John was painting bits of pallet wood with turquoise paint and then sanding them back to make a feature wall.  A lot of faff, but I think it worked really well.  Craig had been busy making origami balls from the various papers for sale, and had echoed the fretwork that John had used at the front of the shop in stencil format on a big display table.

The colourful transformation in the paper shop

Bryony's big idea for displaying the jewellery sold in her shop was to break up some pieces of travertine into irregular lumps, and then drape the necklaces over them.  It sounded a bit weird, but I thought worked really well.  Rita echoed the 'jewellery + industrial stonework' theme by using bricks in the window as a display tool, and again I thought that worked well too.  Rita also made some wooden hands to display the rings, but I wasn't quite so keen on those.

Alan hand modelling for Rita

Having mastered origami, Craig then made some lampshades using paper samples, which again looked good and gave customers more ideas of what the stock could be used for.  Craig sometimes veers dangerously near smug territory, but I have to give him credit for being able to make things look really good on a small budget.  While Craig was doing crafts, John was once again worrying about finishing all his projects on time - a few items on his list had to be pared back - leading to some useful storage on casters being replaced by a few random baskets (that would have looked much nicer if he'd put some stock in them).

Craig's lampshades over stencilled table (and floor)

Both teams also had to transform the exterior of the shops, with new signage and paintwork.  Craig and John went for a mint green, while Rita and Bryony continued with their neutral theme.

The Paper Place, featuring Craig's balls

Michelle was joined this week by Mary Portas, who turned up dressed as rapper Honey G from X Factor 2016.  Both judges were looking for a shopping experience that was 'premium' (this word has replaced 'cohesion' as the Word of the Series), and were initially pleased with Rita and Bryony's clothing and jewellery emporium.

Michelle and Honey G

Mary Portas

They loved that Bryony and Rita had given the store a more upmarket and professional feel, although Mary had reservations as to the neutral colour scheme.  She felt that an opportunity had been missed to include a few 'wow' pieces, and that maybe the black curtains used for behind the till, the cream seating, and the dressing room curtains could have been replaced by a bold print or bright colour.  In fairness to Rita and Bryony, the stock that they were given to display on the day of the competition was nowhere near as colourful as on their first visit, so the clothes were 'singing' about as well as Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia.

Could the black curtain be, er, 'curtains' for either Rita or Bryony?

The 'after' photos

Next up for inspection was Craig and John's paper shop, with both Michelle and Mary loving the bold colour scheme.

Michelle admitted that both schemes were great and that they would have to be 'picky' to er, pick the winner.  

Mary thought that it might have been better to have mixed up the stock a little, but this seemed like a futile attempt to find something to criticise - in general this was given a big thumbs up.

After the judges had finished being picky, the owners of the two shops were allowed to inspect the finished designs, and both were absolutely delighted.  

So......back to Design HQ, and a decision from M&M.  It felt like Craig was safe - there had been little to no criticism of any of his work.  John had once again had timing issues, and Rita and Bryony's lack of a bold centrepiece to contrast with their neutral design could see them on the sofa.

The contestants arrived, and it was at this point that I began to worry about John's mid-life crisis.  Last week was a new haircut, and this week the choice of a large hat.  How long before a clown outfit or a pinny? 

John tries to make himself more interesting

Whether or not it was due to the hat, John's sofa streak came to an end with he and Craig declared the designers of this week's 'Standout Space'.  Rita and Bryony were relegated to the Sofa of Doom, with Michelle eventually sending Bryony home over Rita for no apparent reason other than Rita has been the more impressive over previous weeks (not that this had helped certain other designers in a similar position if I'm being picky).  

So - our three semi-finalists are Craig, Rita and John.  Is it Craig's to lose?  Will Rita triumph?  Or will John's lucky hat help him make it through to the final?  Let us know what you think!