IDM Episode 5 Decoded

What worked, and why, and the 4 biggest mistakes I see time and time again

Notes on design from my perspective as Interior Design Masters’ Head Judge

This week’s challenge took the designers to Leeds, to create aspirational studio apartments within a new rental development aimed at making renting feel every bit as seductive as owning. But this was not a challenge about merely decorating a small flat.

The entire concept behind the development mattered. These apartments came with rooftop gardens, a gym, cinema rooms, co-working spaces, even a bowling alley. The brief was asking for something much bigger than a functional box for sleeping in. It was about selling a lifestyle. Which is why the winning scheme (Emmely’s) worked so well.

It understood that in a building where residents already have access to expansive communal amenities, the apartment itself doesn’t need to contain absolutely everything. It simply needs to feel coherent, calm, considered and emotionally desirable. Somewhere you genuinely want to return to.

And, unusually, I called all of the other four remaining designers to my sofa. Each had made a different mistake, but all four mistakes (that I see in every series!) pointed towards larger lessons that apply far beyond television. I explain them here…

1. Don’t zone small spaces

I’m not keen on zoning generally (demarcating distinct areas with solid blocks of colour, pattern or material), but in small-space design it rarely ever works well because the space simply won’t be big enough to hold it.

Designers often feel they need to visually mark every separate function — eating here, sleeping there, working there, relaxing here — but in compact spaces this usually has the opposite effect. Instead of making a room feel organised, it fragments it. The eye keeps stopping, and the room immediately feels smaller.

The strongest scheme understood this instinctively.

Rather than dividing the apartment into obvious “zones”, Emmely allowed the space to function as a unified whole, using colour and stained wood to create continuity. One statement, carried consistently across the scheme, became enough to hold everything together. Even the artwork reinforced the palette rather than interrupting it. And that coherence created flow, which matters more than separation.

Emmely used one strong colour and stained wood to draw the different elements of her scheme together. She also recognised that the existing black kitchen was an element to incorporate, not fight against. Here she used the same colour of wood to create a new splashback, this uniting it with the whole.

2. Don’t let a theme take over

Another repeated issue was the danger of becoming overly attached to a theme.

For example, a designer decides they want a room to feel “70s”, and instead of just abstracting what they love about that era, they begin recreating it literally. A retro wallpaper is followed by a scattering of retro accessories and furniture — until the room starts to feel more like a confused stage set than a contemporary interior.

Good design doesn’t copy. It interprets. The strongest designs understand how to distil an influence, refine it and translate it into something modern and liveable. Using atmosphere, coherence and materiality is what allows a space to feel eternally current without trying so hard to announce itself.

Lia fell in love with a 70s wallpaper, and used it to inspire here bedhead. Excellent. But she didn't need to then use the actual wallpaper to 'zone' the sitting area. It had served its purpose.

3. Coherence is not the same as coordination

A common misconception is the idea that if everything shares the same colour palette, it will automatically work together. This is not necessarily the case.

For sure, good interiors do not require slavish adherence to a single style, era or material, but they do require coherence. Objects need to feel as though they belong in conversation with one another. You notice this most clearly when something jars. For example, if an entire scheme is built around soft curves, organic forms and warm timber, an angular black metal table suddenly feels disproportionately loud, even if technically its colour still “matches”.

What made Emmely’s apartment so successful was the care taken in resolving those moments. Rather than simply accepting the existing table, she redesigned the top into a softer shape and stained it to match the timber detailing around the bed area. A relatively small gesture, but one that made the room feel fully considered. That level of attention to detail is what separates design from decoration.

Emmely showed that you can still have fun, and be creative in commercial design, as long as it's in service to the bigger picture. So she managed to incorporate her beloved paper maché, but discreetly, and appropriately as bases for an equally sinuous table top. Her art work wasn't 'look-at-me' it was a coherent and welcome addition, livening up an otherwise blank wall space.

4. You are not the user (when designing for a client)

This may be the point I return to most often throughout the series. Designers continually fall into the trap of designing for themselves rather than for the person intended to use the space. We hear endless variations of “I like this” or “I’d want that in my home.” But it’s not about them. The strongest interiors emerge from empathy, not self-expression. Yes you may identify with the demographic, but the core of the brief here was to design a show flat for young renters moving into an aspirational residential development. Thus, the key challenge, was to make this single space feel like an expansive home — so I don’t want to feel like my bed is in the kitchen, even if that’s how it’s planned.

The designer’s personal preferences are largely irrelevant unless they help solve that brief. This was not an exercise in decorating their own apartment. Emmely understood the user. She understood the building. She understood the lifestyle being sold. And because of that, her apartment felt believable. Not simply styled, but lived-in before anyone had even moved in.

Design the feeling, not just the room

Ultimately, this episode was about restraint. About understanding that a small space cannot survive too many competing ideas. About knowing when to unify rather than divide. And about recognising that good design does not begin with aesthetics alone, but with the experience of the person moving through the space. The best interiors quietly resolve things. And in small spaces especially, that sense of resolution is what allows a room — and the person inside it — to breathe.

The details are everything when it comes to creating a feeling. From cushion colours and textures, to lamps and plants. It all matters.

Now read on…