IDM 5 Episode Four
Off to Wales we went, where the designers worked in pairs to overhaul three different restaurants. Or did they?
In this challenge the designers get to present their ideas directly to the clients. My advice to them was to invite the café owners to paint a broad picture of how they wanted their space to feel and function, and try not to get too bogged down in details.
The designers job is to give them what they don’t know they needed, or wanted. Which is of course easy to say, harder to do. It’s not about bulldozing the client into submission, but delivering on the requirements, while exceeding expectations for how it looks. Guest judge Nisha Katona, founder and CEO of the Mowgli Street Food chain, was also on hand to set me straight about anything very sector specific for a successful eaterie.
Working in pairs at this stage is also intense. Each designer has now revealed their clear strengths and weaknesses, so they need to play this to their advantage. How to bring their skills and talents together without compromise or fisty cuffs at dawn!
Key Challenge points: the clients variously asked for industrial chic, a home-from-home, and said they liked both Scandinavian and Australian interiors. What’s does this all mean? Our designers need to ask a lot of questions to unravel the feel the café owners are really after, and not just go along with their own stories based on what they think a description means.
It’s all about, as was ever the case, excellent communication, alongside owning, and having the humility to learn from, your mistakes. Because, no matter how sharp the talent, this is the only way to improve. Quite aside from which, these designers are at the very beginning of their interior design journey, so errors are par for the course.
IDM Season 5 Episode Three
Horse racing can be controversial, I get that. Personally, I’m a bit scared of horses! They always seem so much bigger than anticipated. But as a design brief, creating for such an established brand was an absolute dream opportunity. Why? Because it comes with so many assumptions. High society and putting on your fancy gear. The nature of display and entertainment. What does it even mean to ‘go to the races’? There are so many references to draw upon. Plus Ascot’s stated values are:
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PS For my fast-track, How to Become an Interior Designer ‘course’ see my notes on Season 4, back a year, right here on Substack (which will be behind the paywall unless you’re a subscriber). You can find quick links to every S4 episode via my website here.
IDM Alumni
Season 3 saw Banjo Beale, a cheesemaker living on the Isle of Mull, amble nonchalantly into our studio. And what a blast of wonder he was! I think I’ve rarely met someone who designed so instinctively, was so eager to learn, yet also such a gentle pleasure to be around. He was also completely authentic and genuine to his core, again, not something you come across every day.
Since he won the show, he’s been the justly deserved star of his own spin-off TV show Designing the Hebrides (BAFTA-award-winning no less and already commissioned for a second series), he’s written a beautiful book — Wild Ilse Style — released in October 2023, which “champions design that doesn't cost the earth and celebrates style from the British Isles to the Antipodes.”
To create his Interior Design Masters prize winning space, Winnow at Watergate Bay in Cornwall, Banjo employed to great effect his now trademark mix of antique, vintage and upcycled furniture alongside recycled and natural fabrics. The Beach Retreats property was transformed into a light-filled, warm and inviting coastal haven with sustainability at its core, tells a story of “the wild Atlantic ocean, surrounding rugged cliffs and the colourful characters that inhabit it”.
Behind the Scenes
I think I’m right in saying that Nisha Katona has joined me as a guest judge for restaurants in every season so far. I think we look like we could be siblings, and we