Interior Design Masters: Series 6/Episode 8 The Grand Final!

Interior Design Masters: The Grand Final!

Ten would-be designers walked into Head Judge Michelle Ogundehin's Design HQ just eight episodes ago.  Now there are just two left - all hoping to win the prize of designing a range for John Lewis (which isn't really Interior Design, but we'll skip over that).

Rita's Edinburgh fringe?

Journeyman John or Reliable Rita?  Would Rita's consistently good results win the day?  Or would Michelle pick John - a Sofa of Doom resident, but who seemed to have finally sorted out his timing issues?  Like Eurovision, the judges opinion doesn't always coincide with that of the audience or the bookies' favourite - maverick Michelle has form for picking the outsider for the prize.

The final challenge was to re-design two holiday cottages in the quirky village of Portmeirion, in North Wales.  I've been to Portmeirion and quite frankly it is bonkers.  Loosely based on the architecture of an Italian village, it has unusual buildings galore and an aesthetic that can only really be described as completely crackers.  Michelle wanted the designers to 'create a destination holiday cottage that shows who you are, but gives me that sense of this incredible village'.

The two cottages ripe for renewal were allocated randomly, with John getting Toll House, and Rita drawing Battery Cottage.  The designers were given £6,500, three days and the usual coterie of carpenters and decorators to make over the living spaces, the kitchen, and two bedrooms.  I looked on the Portmeirion website, and strangely both cottages are listed as having three bedrooms - presumably the budget didn't stretch to the third bedroom?  Weird.

As always, each designer was allowed to bring back an eliminated contestant to give them a hand.  John chose Craig, so we were once again treated to his slightly snarky comments on both John and Rita's efforts; and Rita chose Bryony - who turned up with 'Team Rita' badges.  I discovered that Bryony's surname is Ace, which suited her enthusiastic support (although we didn't see an awful lot of her in action).

For such a quirky location, the 'before' photos of the cottages show disappointingly white boxes furnished with dark leather furniture that had seen better days.  Equally disappointing is the fact that Portmeirion haven't updated their website to show the new designs......unless they ripped everything out and put it back to how it was before?!

Rita's dining room

Both Rita and John opted to bring colour into their cottages using both paint and patterned wallpapers.  Rita went for a pale pink kitchen, a buttermilk and blue combination for the living room, a bright patterned dining area, and a yellow and white striped second bedroom.  The master bedroom featured rusty red woodwork, white walls, with a selection of water-based accessories (oars on the walls and sundry fishing stuff turned into lamps and wall planters).  Rita saved her brightest paint for the stairs and landing - painting over the original woodchip wallpaper with a glossy orange paint to reflect the light (or as host Alan Carr put it, 'be trapped in a Wotsit'). 

Wotsit?  It's Rita's stairwell of course.

John went for a brighter selection of colours than Rita (satsuma stairs aside), and chose a Mediterranean theme for his interiors.  The kitchen cupboards were painted bright blue, and the white tiles were covered with blue and white tile stickers that looked great on tv (but I'd like to see them close up before passing judgement).  John's open plan lounge/diner was a riot of red and yellow and his spare bedroom a mass of florals in peachy orange.  His master bedroom, however, toned down the colourful walls in favour of crisp white with turquoise blue window frames.  He'd also designed a white headboard with built in lights that would enhance his white textural wall panels, and a Greek-style blue and white display cabinet.  Craig wanted more colour, but I liked it just as it was.

John's kitchen makeover

Rita's feature wallpaper was put up early in the process, but in a bid to add some jeopardy (there hasn't been nearly enough 'will xxxxx arrive on time?' this series), John's Big Wallpaper hadn't arrived from the manufacturer based in Transylvania.  Would it be here in time to go on the walls?  Once I found out that it had got as far as Manchester I was pretty confident that it could manage the last few miles and it did in fact arrive on the final day to pull all of John's scheme together.

John's lounge featuring Transylvanian wallpaper around the window and the tv in a really weird place.

Being the final, we were treated to even more background on the two finalists.  We met Rita's mother, and learned about her life moving from Iraq to Lancashire via Cyprus and Lebanon.  John's family was also featured, with two children who seemed exceedingly good at drawing, and a wife that looked as if she couldn't wait for the whole thing to be over.  I saw an interview with John - who must still be teaching - who said that his Sixth Form students were very keen to give him constructive feedback each week, but that his Yr 8 form just wanted to tease him about constantly being on Michelle's sofa.

Room for about eight people to sit down

This week's Guest Judge was maximalist fan Sophie Robinson, who loves bright colours and patterns.  Would Rita's pale pink kitchen do it for her?  Would she wrinkle her nose at John's white bedroom walls?  Would Michelle take the slightest notice of anything she said?

Craig thought there was too much white in this room.

I disagree.

John's 'Italian plates' wallpaper

Both Michelle and Sophie absolutely loved John's kitchen and lounge/diner transformations, and found it difficult to find any fault at all.  My only criticism was that there seemed to be an awful lot of furniture for what was being presented to us as a cottage that only slept three - but now I know that they LIED about the size of the place I can sort of understand.  Michelle loved the white walled master bedroom more than Sophie (surprise, surprise), with Sophie wondering if the walls would look grey on non-sunshine days.  Michelle's only super-picky feedback was that the textured above-bed wall panels could have been bigger, whereas I loved that room and would have saved my super-picky feedback for the second bedroom, which I didn't like much at all.  If I was a teenage boy being taken away by my parents I'd have hated having to sleep in there.

This room didn't do it for me

Rita's cottage was initially greeted with delight by the judges, who loved her living and dining rooms.  They were less impressed with the kitchen, both feeling that Rita needed to have used a bolder colour.  Surprisingly neither of them disliked the very orange stairs and landing, but less surprisingly they also liked the yellow and blue spare room.  Whilst praising Rita's upcycling oars etc in the master bedroom, the keeping of the original dark bedroom furniture and the two dark leather tub chairs scored about as well as the UK usually does at the aforementioned Eurovision.  I was also surprised that they loved Rita's marker pen art on the walls of the bedroom - I wasn't keen on it, although did like her larger floral version in the lounge.

Seating for four, but only two could see the tv

Rita's sunny second bedroom

Rita's master bedroom complete with the offending tub chairs

So.....who would get the nod?  After much deliberation, Michelle gathered the entire cast of this season together and announced that this year's Interior Design Master would be.....John!  Despite Rita asking her hairdresser to give her a 'Michelle Ogundehin' style, her consistently good performances throughout the series were eclipsed by John's superior design in the final - Michelle once again showing that she loves someone who appears to listen to her feedback and 'grow'. 

The moral of the story is 'never re-use a dark leather tub chair without putting a bright throw on it'.

The return of the Statement Sleeve!

Craig burst into tears, John's wife looked relieved, and a John Lewis collection beckoned.  Which, coincidentally, was launched today.  Here's a selection from the 17 items available if you fancy a piece of John in your home - luckily they didn't allow him to design any hats.

Cushion £35

Set of two prints £150

Fabric available by the metre

Chair (not tub) £499

Candle £30

What do you think?  Do you agree with Michelle?  Are you going to buy John's candle?  Did you think the standard was as good this year?  Or better?  Let us know in the comments!