Victorian - Birmingham: Semi-Final The Great Interior Design Challenge

In Britain, we have an amazing array of places we call home,

from thatched cottages and conversions

to terraced housing and tower blocks.

But when it comes to interior design,

we don't always make the best of the rooms we live in.

So we asked 24 amateur interior designers to show us

how it should be done.

I'm really, really pleased with that.

Perfect!

Oh, God, that's tight.

Each time, the would-be designers took on similar rooms in neighbouring homes.

And after eight heats and two quarterfinals, we're down to the last four.

They've shown skill...

Slightly unconventional, sewing in the dark.

..creativity...

-I don't feel at all stressed.

-..ingenuity...

I can plant something in the back of my mind, it just ticks over and once

it's agreed an idea, it seems to just pop into the front of my head.

..and showmanship.

The contrast of that is really going to stand out beautifully.

Deciding who has what it takes to make it through to the final

are president-elect of the British Institute of Interior Design,

Daniel Hopwood...

At the semifinals, we have got four very talented designers.

The challenge for them is to see

if they've got more than their standard repertoire.

..and interior stylist and magazine journalist, Sophie Robinson.

We're going to be getting a lot more astute with our judging

and less forgiving of mistakes.

The last four amateur designers must now fight it out for just two

places in the grand final.

This time our amateurs will be redesigning one front room each

in four large Victorian houses.

The final four have shown skill and creativity to get here.

The designers going through are Luke and Susan.

SMATTERING OF APPLAUSE

Jordan...

and Sarah.

Well done, guys.

Now they must prove they've learned lessons along the way

from their first two professional projects.

I just worry that it's just going to be dull.

With £1,500 to spend, the budget is bigger and expectations higher.

There is a lot to do, how is he going to get this room finished?

I just don't see it working OK.

Whatever, it's done.

Only two can make it to the final.

And the designers going through to the finals are...

In the 19th century, six million homes were built in Britain,

making it the biggest housing boom this country had ever seen.

This street of Victorian houses in Moseley were built in the 1890s

at a time when Birmingham was the manufacturing workshop of the world.

These homes weren't built for the workers, though,

they were built for the industrial bosses who shaped the city.

This was a time when architects and developers were wildly

experimenting with reviving styles from the past. On the house

behind me you can see black and white timber, called magpie style.

obviously referencing Tudor architecture.

And other houses on the street, you can see baroque plasterwork

nodding to the Queen Anne style.

But one influence runs through all the homes on this street -

the ever popular arts and crafts style.

Emerging in the late 1850s as a reaction to mass production,

the arts and crafts movement harked back to a romanticised past

when craftsmen were famed for their artistry at a time

when most of us worked in the factory.

It celebrated the handmade.

It became immensely successful

and has gone on to influence British architecture ever since.

Now four of these magnificent homes will be

the setting for our semifinal.

The amateurs must create suitably impressive designs

for these Victorian front rooms.

In her heat, Sarah first showed off her craft skills, redesigning

a traditional Edwardian bedroom before giving a country cottage

front room a vintage woodland look with a slight modern edge.

Feels pretty amazing to have made it as far as the semifinal.

I'm beginning to feel a bit like a designer!

Luke first updated a converted warehouse to an African-inspired

brief with ingenious home-made furniture,

before applying his brainpower to a tower block bedroom

with an engineered industrial scheme.

I deal with pressure in a peculiar way - the harder it gets,

the calmer I become, apart from the last 15 minutes.

Jordan initially gave a Regency living room

a restrained scheme with a touch of Hollywood glamour.

And then updated a country cottage front room with

an eye-catching colourful design.

I've always said from the very beginning that I'm in this to

win it, and I think it's definitely brought out my competitive streak.

In Susan's heat,

she gave a Victorian terrace front room a lively shabby chic look.

And then turned her hand to transforming a bachelor's bedroom

with a slick masculine design.

I suppose, really, I would really like to win, but wouldn't everybody?

The first of our vast Victorian homes belongs to Philip and Sue.

The front room is their main dining room,

where their love of Asia is on full display.

Because we've got all these Asian artefacts, it would actually be

very good to get a bit of an Eastern slant in here. And it would be lovely

to feel that you're sitting in a bit of Asia, really, wouldn't it?

We don't want it looking like a Chinese gambling house.

-No.

-You know, it needs to maintain its Victorian elegance.

Working in such grand rooms will prove

a challenge for the semifinalists,

so the judges want to see the potential of each room first.

This is a great room to work on, it's got perfect proportions,

nice high ceilings, clearly designed for a dining table

because the shape of the room is slightly rectangular.

Clearly, also, it's a grand room because you can tell by the height

of the skirting. Also, it's at the front of the house and is defined

by the bay window which is bringing in a beautiful amount of light.

But the big challenge is going to be making sense of it all,

because there is lots and lots of knick-knackery,

and nothing's really cohesively displayed, is it?

I think the designer should really go for it, it can't be

a half-baked attempt. Just like the Victorians would have done.

If you're going to pick a theme, make sure you carry it throughout the whole room.

Taking on this Asian-inspired brief will be mum, Sarah.

She has proven her abilities with creativity

and excellent crafting skills, such as roller stencilling

and re-upholstery, in both her previous projects.

But she needs to show the judges

that she can take risks with her designs.

I've put together some ideas I'd like to show you.

OK, thank you.

Sarah's had one week to come up with a scheme that matches

the homeowners' brief, but this is the first time she's meeting

her client and seeing the room.

I know that green is an auspicious colour in the East

and I thought that would be a good way to introduce.

-And it will work very well with the rosewood, the furniture.

-Yes.

I think that most of the houses in this road were built around 1890,

and I found some wallpaper that was first produced in 1890

and found in a house in London.

-And it's a fantastic design with some bamboo and parrots.

-Oh, lovely.

I would like to wallpaper the whole room,

I don't want to hold back and just do one wall.

-I think it'd be lovely to create an elegant room with it.

-Yeah.

For her Asian-flavoured scheme, Sarah is using chinoiserie-style

wallpaper and green traditional fabrics.

She also plans SOME more modern touches.

What I'd like to do is build a very simple fire surround for you,

and that'll be painted the same colour as the skirting.

I've actually got a sample of that and I think it just...

It will allow all of your treasures and things like that to shine out.

Yes, because the hearth, we've not really done anything with,

and it does need a bit of updating.

I'm really pleased to see she's picked up on the chinoiserie trend,

and green, what an elegant colour choice.

But, this one, I don't know,

it's edging on being a little bit boring and a bit too tasteful.

We need something just to lift that scheme.

Like all the designers, Sarah now has 48 hours spread over

three days, the help of a builder and £1,500 to create her room.

Just getting the first coat of the emulsion onto the cornicing.

It is a nightmare.

So this is going to be the whole of the ceiling and all the picture rail

and the cornicing is all going into this green.

It's going to be quite green, the whole room. It's going to be great.

Just a few doors down,

our second home belongs to musicians Alison and Graham.

They bought the house two years ago and inherited the colour

scheme in the front room, but it's not to their taste.

We didn't get off to a good start with this room, we put the piano

in the wrong place and the rest of it is somebody else's choice.

It's not a welcoming room, somehow,

it's not a comfortable room to sit in.

It always looks dark, no matter how bright the sun is shining outside.

-But it's just not very inviting.

-It's not very inviting at all.

We come in here to do music,

but then we go and sit in the back, which is a lot lighter.

Alison and Graham's music room.

They've got these display cabinets to show off their china.

I think that would have been very similar to what happened

with the Victorians, they would have had the giant sideboard

and a great display on top.

So it's going in keeping

but they're just a little heavy for this room, aren't they?

You want to group them, bring them all together

so they create more a focal point and make a pleasing display

and not dot them around willy-nilly.

Taking on this challenge is 33-year-old sales assistant

Luke, from Oxford.

Luke has shown creative flair

and inventiveness in his previous two projects,

from building cat furniture

to cutting-edge light fixtures.

But this Victorian front room is larger than anything he's

tackled yet, so he must prove he can upscale his designs.

I'm going to use different tones of the same colour,

so obviously you can see here that you've got sort of these slightly creamy colours.

This wallpaper here is going to go on the chimney breast.

Oh, right!

The space I want to create on the left and the right of this

wonderful fireplace to display the majority of your pottery.

Are you intending to put shelves in both, are you?

Yes, because we're going to do a few tricks with lighting to

create a more visual impact but also make the room look even lighter.

Along with the illuminated shelves, he's planning an elaborate

wall-mounted CD unit.

CDs are just physically going to stack inside a big hoop on the wall.

His modern music room design will include an unusual

way of displaying instruments.

This is the method by which I'd imagined actually

displaying your items.

These are retort stands, and this way you can remove them

and use them and put them back.

He's really addressing the brief with the palate of colours.

They're contemporary and they're light

and will help that room feel a lot more sunny,

but he's also adding lots of layers of artificial lighting as well.

The lit floating shelves...

But is he going to deliver?

-Just hold yours there.

-Yeah, got it.

This may be Luke's most ambitious project to date,

but he's taking a typically cerebral approach.

I've got a clear schedule in my mind.

'Today is just going to be all about paint.'

That's the first thing, we've got to get rid of that red,

so that's going to take a lot of undercoats.

Yeah, I'm going to be doing a lot of painting,

but, hey, that's the gig, right?

-What noise does a dinosaur make?

-Roar!

-Raaarr!

The third front room is a family room taken over by toys,

with dated decor inherited by owners Cally, Ian and son Alfie.

I'd like it to be lighter and airier

and just to be more sort of comfortable and inviting.

Have a room that we can still keep his toys and his books in

without it actually looking like a bomb site like it does now.

-Oh, dear.

-Yeah.

Playschool heaven, isn't it?

Storage is a key issue in this room.

You know, baskets that pull out,

open shelving so the child can even tidy up

after themselves at the end of the day in an ideal world.

Just because it's full of kids' toys

doesn't mean it has to look like a playschool.

Well, there are examples in history of that. The Victorians were

great family people, it was all about family harmony.

So just as the Victorians lived in one room doing

lots of different things, perhaps Ian and Cally can have a room

that is multi-purpose but at the same time exquisite and elegant.

Taking on this project is 30-year-old coffee shop owner Jordan.

Jordan's first design demonstrated a talent for restrained elegance,

blending furniture into his controlled grey scheme.

His second project showed he was unafraid of bold colours

and liked to make a design statement.

Now he must prove he knows how to strike a balance.

There's going to be a window seat with loads of storage in,

which we're going to wrap round into a media unit here which is

full height with some lighting.

I wanted to use a bare wood so it added some warmth to the room,

but then I'm going to be introducing colour in that a lot as well,

and geometric shapes.

We've got the colour scheme here,

the lovely pale mint which is going to be on the ceiling

and down to the picture rail, and then I'm picking

out the fireplace in this gorgeous colour here, which I really love.

It's such a beautiful shape and I think with a nice chalky

paint on it, it's going to look phenomenal.

Jordan aims to use a contemporary colour scheme with a geometric

pattern across his window seat, radiator cover, and furnishings.

But he's also got unique plans

to make this family room scheme cutting edge.

What's this piece?

This is a sample version of a wallpaper I'm going to be using.

-And, full size...

-Whoa!

-..it looks like this.

Hmm.

-Shocking?

-Shocking.

How do you feel about that?

-I quite like it.

-THEY LAUGH

It's incredible,

and that's going to be a huge feature on this wall behind us.

-Just this one?

-Yeah.

Is it Alfie-proof?

It's really tough, so hopefully that's going to look amazing.

It's Jordan showing us that he's at the cutting edge of design,

he's pushing the boundaries.

The colours, for me, I'm not sure, it felt a bit '80s, that yellow

and sort of turquoise colour was, to me... I don't know.

So, we've got loads of stuff for you to be building, I'm afraid.

We've got the big media unit here which is going to house a little

lamp, then the piece de resistance is this monster of a window seat.

So not too much, then!

-JORDAN LAUGHS

-No(!)

In our fourth property live Tracy and her young family.

Their front room is a dining room that's only been used a few times.

Tracy would like a colourful room for entertaining that

celebrates the Victorian features.

It's a lovely room, I think the stained glass is beautiful,

but it's purely down to the decor, I just don't like being in here.

It feels lifeless to me at the moment,

I don't feel it's a very inviting room.

The room is in fact classically late Victorian.

I'm just looking at the fireplace. Super, isn't it?

I'm also thrilled to see we have the original skirting,

picture rail and cornice in the room.

One idea would be, if you don't want it to look overly decorative,

you could just paint the whole lot out in one colour,

just tonally, but don't get rid of it, that's what we're saying.

Exactly. It was classical reference.

Imagine this wall is like a column

and the skirting is the base of the column.

The column would reach up to the picture rail,

followed by the cornice which introduces you to the ceiling.

And there was a reason why you had chandeliers hanging here,

and that's because it represented the stars.

Planning to bring colour and flair to this room

is 65-year-old housewife Susan, from Kent.

Previously, Susan has impressed by delivering two very different

styles, showcasing her paint effect skills and artistic ability.

Now she must keep up the momentum

and show what other looks she's capable of.

My design evolved round the floral wallpaper, really,

that's how I started.

So I thought I'd try and make your room into a garden, so I have

-given you panels of wallpaper which would represent flowerbeds.

-OK.

This is my design solution to your windows.

I'm having Victorian shutters made for your windows.

Yes! I love the colours, it's definitely me.

I quite like the idea of the panelling with the wallpaper.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-That's a great idea, I think.

I've bought you a garden bench, a wrought iron garden bench,

because I presume you don't have any extra seating in this room?

No, we don't. Different. I'll go with it.

This is all bang on trend, garden furniture, so...

-In the house?

-In the house.

SHE LAUGHS OK!

To enhance the floral wallpaper panels,

Susan's planning her signature brightly painted furniture,

and she wants to tackle the room's main original feature.

Right, you don't like your fireplace. You said it's too dark.

No, it's just too dark.

Right, I mean... You can go wacky but I'd quite like to sand it down

and put a light white colouring over it

and gradually bring some colour to it so it's still white at the top.

OK, I like the idea of it being lighter,

I'm just not sure about the colour,

-but we'll go with it and see what it looks like.

-OK, then. OK.

-OK.

I like the idea of the garden room theme, I think

it works really well with Tracy's love of bright colours

and florals, and it's making some sense of that and pushing it

a bit further on rather than just, hey, this is just a floral room.

It's coming up with a cohesive scheme. I thought that was great.

I've got to represent every single proud Victorian family

who will be all turning in their graves right now if they heard

Susan say, "That original mahogany fireplace, I'm going to paint it."

Sure enough, as Susan starts to clear the room, doubts creep in.

Now I'm concerned about this fireplace.

I feel as though I'm destroying something. I don't know.

-SUSAN SIGHS

-If we painted it and sanded it down, you may regret it afterwards.

I just think it's so highly polished.

You'd have to strip it back properly

-and it will take a long time to do it.

-OK, not a problem.

OK, then. Right.

Susan's respect for craftsmanship echoes the beliefs that

led to the arts and crafts movement.

One of the leading inspirations behind the arts

and crafts movement was the poet, socialist

and art critic, John Ruskin, who famously said the way society makes

its architecture tells us everything we need to know about the society.

Unlike flat-fronted and regular Georgian architecture,

arts and crafts style revelled in multi-faceted facades

and higgledy-piggledy roofs, like on the house behind me.

Ruskin hoped that design, including architecture, would truly

reflect this golden age of Victorian society.

It may have been romantic, even idealistic,

but Ruskin went on to inspire a whole generation of writers,

artists, designers and architects.

Quality craftsmanship is something all our designers are striving for.

The first coat has gone on the ceiling, it's great.

To compliment the willow green paint in her Eastern scheme,

Sarah is introducing the colour elsewhere.

Obviously there isn't enough green in the room, so I'm going to dye

the napkins green as well, but these are just a cotton mix napkin.

Because I'm working to a budget for the room, it is really much

cheaper to buy a three quid sachet of dye

and dye plain, simple napkins into the colour you want than it is

to buy napkins probably £5 each. So it's a really quick-fix solution.

Sarah's saving money where she can

so she can afford an innovative £400 carpet.

What do you reckon to the carpet?

It's awful green, isn't it? Awfully green, not "awful green".

The word "Astroturf" springs to mind.

But it's green in more ways than one.

I love the feeling of the carpet, it's actually made out of corn

and recycled bottle tops.

Oh, wow! Actually, on that basis, it'll be extremely practical.

I've seen some carpets come out like this now.

Bizarrely, they're relatively inexpensive but extremely durable.

But at the same time, they've got this lovely,

almost silky effect on them.

It's going to actually be rather in period, because the Victorians

would have had a collection of items, especially from China.

As we said, chinoiserie was very fashionable at that time.

And we're sort of bringing it back a little bit,

but just hoping you've got a bit of a new take on it too.

-Yes, so am I.

-THEY LAUGH

She's doing it all correctly,

but, you know, we've always said we're wanting a little bit of

left-field thinking, a bit of rock and roll, something a bit edgy.

"I know the rules, I know I can break the rules,"

and that's what I want to see her do.

It's whiter, is it not?

To bring a modern look to this music room,

Luke is painting over the red with a first of four coats,

and is turning his attention to the lighting.

That one needs to just come down a touch.

-Yeah, I'll level it up.

-Yeah.

-Can you move it up just a little bit?

-Up?

Just a tiny bit. Sorry to be a real pain.

This light, it's a very expensive designer fitting.

It should work out at £1,100, so I've spent the money on the actual

fitting and then I've used other cheaper lampshades that fit

just as well and give a beautiful effect.

The fitting cost £240,

but he's cleverly sourced paper shades for just £12 each.

I'm really pleased with how that looks.

A few doors down in his cutting edge family room, Jordan's working

with colour on the walls, ceilings and bespoke accessories.

-Have you made this yourself?

-Yes.

It's quite incredible. So, it's a collection of action

figures on an ordinary lamp base under there somewhere.

Yeah, lots of charity shop toys.

Glued them all together, spray can,

and you've got a real designer piece. I'm very impressed.

It's around eight o'clock in the evening

and all the designers are still painting out the old colour scheme.

Some are feeling confident.

Today has been a good day, and it's been the most successful

first day I've had in this competition.

But not all.

The ceiling hasn't been finished, painted yet, so I'm not too happy.

I just worry that it's just going to be dull.

But there's definitely room for improvement within the design.

I've got a very safe, blank colour of curtain,

bright green going up on the wall. I don't know if they're going to work.

It's definitely going to need something,

so I'm going to take a really hard think tonight

and see what extra I can bring to this scheme.

Sarah may be having doubts, but Jordan's been let down.

My seamstress pulled out, which has dropped a bit of a bombshell

because we got a really good price to do all of my upholstery,

curtains, cushions, so it's a little bit stressful.

Jordan's managed to find a new seamstress,

but they're quoting £100 more than he'd allocated.

I wondered if you might be able to break down what the costs of stuff is

so I can either try and...

You can? What can I cut?

I can't really cut anything. HE LAUGHS

Erm... Oh, dear.

And there's no way you can come down any on the price at all for us?

You'll do it for £400?

Oh, listen, thank you so, so much. Honestly, you've saved my life.

I thought I was going to have a sleepless night tonight.

A bit of human kindness there, isn't there?

I think that's, you know, at the end of the day, a bit of charming.

Jordan has negotiated well, but the delay means he'll have to wait

until the last day for delivery, leaving no margin for error.

After a fraught first day with Jordan's curtains

hanging in the balance and Luke and Susan frantically painting,

day two is when they have to really take control of their designs.

Overnight, Sarah's decided to make a radical change

to give her Eastern scheme an edge.

My builder's got this fantastic edge glaze Perspex

to pop the wallpaper up, and these things are looking like

they need to be included, these colours.

It needs some zing in here, and I think drop those

colours into the chandelier and the lighting and really just go for it.

Meanwhile, Jordan's going subtle with his colours.

I love plywood. It's a relatively cheap material,

but with some good joinery and introducing a bit of colour to it,

I think it's really interesting.

Something unexpected, a bit different.

All the plywood is costing a hefty £215.

He's painting a geometric pattern in emulsion on the radiator cover

that will be repeated across the room.

I'm putting a really thin coat on and then sponging it off

because I really want to see a lot of the wood grain from underneath.

I mean, the key to it, really, is to keep it as dry as possible,

particularly with the plywood, because I don't want any bleed

around the edges. And the proof will be when I remove the tape.

Wonderful.

Oh, yes.

Ta-da!

Yeah, I'm so pleased with that.

In her garden-themed dining room,

Susan's window shutters are being made from MDF.

A short-term substitute for proper hardwood,

but one that's within her budget...

I chose this piece of furniture because I just like the shape of it.

..while she does some upcycling.

I can see you're slapping on some normal emulsion paint,

-so quite affordable paint.

-Very affordable.

And then how are you going to get this graduated look?

I'm mixing the paint with what's called a scumble.

It basically stops the paint from drying out.

Scumble is an opaque glaze

which allows the paint below to shine through.

Using it in different thicknesses graduates the colour

as it goes up the table legs.

And you're just adding more and more as you work the paint up the leg?

Yes, more and more scumble.

And as long as you put a good quality

varnish on the top of it - I usually use a mixed matte with satin -

it lasts for years and years and years. It's quite durable.

That is the difference between this room being dull,

boring hotel suite

into fantastic dining room.

And that is a brilliant colour. That is going to just sing.

First up for the highlight treatment is the chandelier.

In Chinese culture, I think yellow means "beautiful"

and, oddly, I think it means "the centre of things",

which works out really well for our central hanging light.

Two lamps bought online for £25

are also getting the florescent treatment.

As is the modern fireplace surround.

So this is the biggest chunk of yellow that's going in there.

I think I'm going to put a light coat on

and I'm going to get it against the wall to see how it's looking.

It's a fine line between doing something that is interesting

and adding colour to the room and looking like you're desperate.

Um, so, I hope I'm not giving off the desperate aura.

It's certainly better than putty, though, isn't it?

I feel that Sarah is really out to impress us and show us that

she can be versatile, she can be contemporary and edgy and move

away from this vintage look that we know she's got nailed very well.

But...that fluoro-yellow, are her clients really going to dig it?

Well, you know, we talk about pushing the parameters for a client.

She's actually pushing her own parameters

and I think we should allow her to experiment.

24 hours after he started re-painting his music room,

Luke's nearly finished redecorating.

My builder's done a magnificent job on getting the fireplace

wallpapered, which looks amazing, really happy with that.

So we're on schedule, um...

I'm feeling good at the moment.

Bringing a modern touch to the room will be Luke's design

for illuminated floating shelves.

These are my LED lights that are going to act as

the illumination around the floating wall

and floating shelving that we've got on either side of the fireplace.

Lighting large shelves such as these will take a lot of LEDs,

but Luke's managed to buy 13 packs for just £11 each.

So hopefully we'll get this one completed sooner rather than later,

drop onto the other one later in the day,

get both complete by the end of the day,

which means that tomorrow there'll just be the CD storage to complete.

Operating on budget without compromising quality

is a challenge all designers face,

and one that eventually contributed to the decline

of the arts and crafts movement.

By the time these houses were built in the 1890s, the arts and crafts

had been the height of fashion for 15 years.

Already Ruskin had condemned the suburbs

built in his name as "Frankenstein's monsters of my own making."

The original principles of the movement had been lost,

so what you see here is a very loose interpretation

of those design principles.

But there are key design details from the arts and crafts here,

like the heavy gable end,

the overhanging eaves, and those exposed beams.

In fact, showing off the craft of construction

is a hallmark of arts and crafts style.

As are terracotta tiles.

There are no local building stones in Birmingham

so terracotta's perfect, and it throws off the grime and the soot.

By the 1890s, the snob value of doors was being realised,

so builders would cover them with ornate porches

and more stained glass and following encouragement from the Post Office

by the middle of the century, a new-fangled invention -

the letter box.

More than a century later,

and one of our designers is also adopting a new-fangled idea.

This morning my wallpaper has arrived for the origami wall

just behind you there.

This hand-folded product is not yet on the market.

It's at a prototype stage,

and Jordan has negotiated an experimental installation

for a reduced price of £100.

My initial concern was that it's so beautiful and splendid,

is it really a practical choice for a family room?

I really think it is, it's a non-woven paper

so it's really durable, it doesn't tear, it's really hard-wearing,

you can sort of hoover it, dust it.

It's done in such small sections

that it'd be reasonably easy to replace a section.

Jordan may be a fan, but it divided his clients and may be a risky move.

You don't put your hands on the shelf, put your hands

on the sides of the unit, because bending the shelves is not helping.

In his music room,

Luke is struggling to get his floating shelves off the ground.

-LUKE GROWLS

-You OK?

-Yeah.

Sorry. Going to get heavy!

We've got distinctly more lip on this right side than the left.

Made from MDF, they're big and bulky to install,

and wiring in the LED lights is complicated.

Floating wall sections are burning up a lot of time,

so it's a question of how to make sure everything does happen still,

but in the least stressful way.

-Move it round?

-Leave it there.

-Is that OK?

Across the road,

Susan's big statement is the floral wallpaper for her garden theme.

Is there an easy way of doing this? This is so big.

-Just got to find it, I think.

-It's there, it's that one onto that one.

That's it, there it is, that's it there.

OK, fold it and I'll come round.

I knew I didn't want to wallpaper the whole room

because number one, budget, expense, very expensive wallpaper.

And number two, I thought it'd be too much.

The paper cost £60 per roll,

so Susan's plan of using it sparingly is paying off.

Is that the right way up?

Yes, grows up, doesn't it?

Oh, I like that.

I think that's good, goes with the green.

This will be the best room in her house, without a shadow of a doubt.

With a coveted place in the final at stake,

all the designers need to work hard.

And they're in good company because this part of Birmingham

is historically associated with some of the city's most successful names.

The suburb of Moseley, situated right at the top of a hill,

away from all the factory gloom and grime,

became synonymous with the rich and powerful,

including James Taylor, founder of Lloyds Bank,

chocolate magnate Richard Cadbury,

and Victorian politician, and mayor of Birmingham, Joseph Chamberlain.

Between the 1870s and 90s,

Moseley's population had increased six-fold.

The area was transformed by a new breed of rich clientele

looking for their own private castle.

Multiple developers snapped up plots,

wringing every inch of profit from the land.

By the time this developer got to his plot,

number 37 had been built and number 43.

But he managed to squeeze in three houses nonetheless,

calling them number 39, 41 and 41a.

Our designers also need to be wringing every ounce of potential

from their projects if they're to stand a chance

of making it into the final.

In the music room, one of Luke's illuminated shelves

is on the wall, but the other has yet to be built.

Probably it has taken longer than expected,

but then don't all great things?

And there's little progress on his CD storage hoop.

The larger elements that are being made in my room

are taking longer than anticipated,

so obviously time is ticking down

and I've got quite a lot to do still.

So panicking's not going to achieve anything,

I've just got to keep going.

I can see he's put a lot of thought into his room

but project management, getting it done on time,

we're yet to see, aren't we?

I feel Luke is quite a long way behind at the moment.

There is a lot to do, he's only got one shelving unit up.

How is he going to get this room finished?

In his cutting-edge family room,

Jordan's painted the fireplace a muted blue.

Not bad.

Gone yellow on one wall,

and his origami wallpaper is nearly finished,

but he has more innovative ideas.

So this is the magnetic paint.

You paint on a couple of layers of it and then any normal emulsion

over the top, so it's invisible to the eye but obviously it's magnetic.

The paint contains tiny metal fibres which will react with magnets.

So the wall will provide two-and-a-half-year-old Alfie

with a changeable gallery for his paintings.

There they are, yeah.

I've got some magnets here,

I'm just going to chuck them at the wall and see if it works.

Oh, yeah.

-It works!

-That's amazing!

Maybe every wall should be magnetic in a house

because then it saves so much nailing up,

-doesn't it?

-Yeah, it's true.

You're playing with these sort of green-blues and blues

and all that, but putting in that sort of wow yellow,

that's all I can call it, it's semi-fluorescent.

It fascinates me because I'd never dare do that myself.

Yeah, it's a play room at the end of the day

so it's not too serious.

Love the turquoise fireplace, love the yellow wall

but do those parts make a great sum? I'm not sure of that.

I'm not convinced by that scheme if I was really honest.

I'm just trying to make a sleeve for the light, but hopefully

that's a pretty simple solution to cover it in the beautiful fabric.

The lamps match the chinoisery wallpaper,

but her yellow fire surround certainly stands out.

I just wonder if it's too mad and bold,

or if it's actually really going to work.

This works really well here, so there's no problem there.

I like that.

Is that too much? I don't know.

What do you think?

It's very bright.

I'm a bit lost now as which direction to go in.

It's the end of day two, and with only two places in the final,

nerves are kicking in.

What happens if we come in the morning and it's horrendous?

It's getting very late, so I think what I want to do

is just finish painting the legs and then call it a day.

It's 9:30 at night, and all the designers have gone home,

except Luke.

There we go. It's beginning to get a little bit tight, obviously,

because of the time and stuff.

We'll be OK. We'll be fine, I'm sure.

It's the last day for our amateur designers.

With a place in the final at stake,

it's an early start for everyone. They've only got a few hours left

to get their rooms dressed and ready for judges Dan and Sophie.

I'm feeling under pressure this morning.

There's still an awful lot to do.

Luke is fixing retort clamps to the wall -

more often used to hold test tubes in science labs.

Here they'll display musical instruments.

That looks good to me.

But there's no time left to make the CD unit.

Time is going to beat me.

Which is a shame because obviously it's going to get picked up on,

but there's little to nothing I can do about that.

So I'd rather have the room complete with the display. The CD wall can...

Whatever, it's done.

A few doors away, and Sarah's also feeling the pressure.

She's decided there's too much bold yellow in her scheme.

Yeah, I think sometimes you need a bit of adrenaline

and excitement to really focus you on what you need to get done.

In her garden room,

Susan's still having trouble with her wallpaper pattern.

I've cut out pieces of wallpaper to go in my drawers,

they were all taken out and put on the table and I don't know

if they've all been thrown or what the bits are,

whether I've got the right bits.

I don't think it is. Oh yes, it is!

Nope. Nope, I've not got the right bit.

I've got to start again. Oh, God! I'm not going to make it.

Across the road, Jordan's had a delivery.

Success! Absolutely phenomenal.

Our designers have had three days and £1,500 to make these

Victorian front rooms fit for their clients' briefs.

Now it will be up to Sophie and Daniel to choose which two

amateur designers have done enough to make it through to the final.

It's sort of crunch time, the stakes are so high now.

I really, really want to be there in the final.

Get it on, get it on, get it on.

I think some things are just not meant to be.

I think these lampshades,

the bases are just looking worse and worse whatever we do with them.

That's it.

First to face the judges' scrutiny is Sarah.

She designed a traditional dining room with Eastern influences.

Three days ago, the room was a little outdated

with a very plain colour scheme.

Now Sarah's transformed it into an elegant room,

with vintage table setting, and hand-dyed napkins.

The antiques and furniture sit among tranquil shades of green

found on the walls, ceiling, curtains, carpet and lampshades.

But to prove she can be risky, Sarah's added a hit of bright yellow

to her modern fireplace and upcycled chandelier.

-Oh, wow!

-It's gorgeous!

It's so elegant and luxurious.

Although, I wasn't expecting to see that as I first walked in.

It's a bit of a surprise, isn't it?

I just feel like it's so distracting.

There's so many beautiful, subtle things in this room

and all I'm seeing is a bright yellow fireplace.

I like it because it's radical.

She's picked this very strong wallpaper.

Which links in with the paint colour that's carried in over the ceiling.

Then she's got the punchy yellow from the parrots.

It's brought the whole room together and made it feel very cohesive.

-Mismatching lampshades...

-Oh, yes!

-Great!

The chandelier does look very fresh

and just lifts what is a lot of green in this room.

The question is, does that fireplace work here?

How well they have fulfilled the client's brief is a key criterion

on which the semifinalists will be judged.

This will be the first time that Philip and Sue

have seen their room since it was finished.

-What a transformation!

-Like, wow.

She's brought our furniture to life.

-So certainly the fireplace...

-Stands out.

Stands out, doesn't it?!

A Victorian room in Chinese style

maintaining the house's elegance,

she has delivered the remit perfectly.

Next is Luke's interpretation of a modern music room.

Three days ago, the owners found their front room

dark and uninviting, dominated by black shelves and red walls.

Now, Luke has created

a sophisticated space for enjoying music.

He's brightened up the walls with an off-white tone,

bespoke floating shelves illuminate antique pottery,

while musical instruments appear suspended across the walls.

The golden patterned chimney breast enhances the fireplace,

and Luke's provided practical lighting

along with a stylish designer pendant light.

But working in his biggest room to date,

Luke didn't manage to create his bespoke CD unit.

I love it.

It's a massive transformation, isn't it? This was dark and red

and the walls were closing in on you.

I'm enjoying how he's created

this shelving unit to display the porcelain.

Floating it off the walls subtly with those little lights in between.

That's rather ingenious.

What I really love about this display here is that lovely,

rich, gold metallic wallpaper

is picked out in the horns he's hung over the mantelpiece.

Oh, but what's missing? The big CD hoop.

And instead, those rather nasty CD holders

have made their way back in. That's a shame.

For me, as a cutting edge designer, Luke's the guy.

He's thrown all the rules out of the book and I enjoy what he does.

He does it with humour and with passion

and I'm really impressed with him.

But what are these cupboards at the bottom here?

They're not looking great, I'm afraid.

-Again, they're not finished, are they?

-He's been running late.

-It didn't go to plan, did it?

-No.

Oh, wow!

Quite a change. Quite a change.

I love what he's done with the instruments.

I mean, that, we would have just not have thought of.

-It's so imaginative.

-That's so imaginative.

-It just shows vision that we haven't got.

-Precisely.

We just like a clean space, bright and airy.

That were the words on the brief and I think he's got it spot on.

Yes, it's just a shame that

he couldn't quite do the last bit that he wanted to do.

Next up is Jordon.

His aim was to design a family room with a contemporary colour scheme

and geometric patterns.

Three days ago, this front room was a terracotta coloured

dumping ground for toys.

Now Jordon has completely transformed the room, with

powder blues, turquoise and acid yellow.

He's provided practical plywood storage for toys

that doubles up as seating. The radiator cover and shelf

sit below a magnetic gallery for Alfie's art.

And finally, Jordon's centrepiece - the cutting-edge origami wall.

It's very playful, isn't it?

It definitely says family room to me on my first impression.

It's almost like he's deconstructed a play room

and turned it into something else.

I'm so glad he didn't go for the obvious nursery colours.

The primary school colours.

He's gone for actually what is a fairly sophisticated pastel scheme

actually, which has just helped calm this whole space down a bit.

There's no doubt, it's very fresh.

The window seat's great fun

and I like the idea of the drawers down in the bottom here.

It's a very practical way of storing things.

On castors so little Alfie can get in there

and dig out the toys he wants to play with.

I'm fascinated by his use of ply and the way he's played with it.

Exposing the wood, keeping it very raw,

stencilling over so you can still see the grain through it.

But I'm just finding that this radiator cover

is just one bit of ply too many.

It's one step too far, isn't it? I agree with that.

I just want to touch it.

It does feel great. It's very tactile, yeah!

Is the origami wall

the most practical choice with a young family?

Probably not, but at the same time I do feel, when you've got young kids

you're still allowed to have a groovy home and have nice things.

Blimey. Thank you.

Quite a change.

I wouldn't have thought I was in the same room, to be honest.

It is such a transformation.

He's a clever boy, isn't he? And the storage, the window seat.

To be honest, it couldn't be any better.

I was a little concerned about the...when I saw

the original brief about the wallpaper.

It's absolutely gorgeous, isn't it? I love it.

I was keen on it to start with

but I'm even more impressed now, seeing it up.

Finally, it's Susan.

She designed a vibrant,

colourful dining room influenced by an English country garden.

Just a few days ago, this unused dining table

sat in the centre of a neglected room.

Now, Susan has delivered a sunny, outdoorsy scheme

with bright floral panels, backed on to soft green walls.

She has shown how the stained glass windows

can be complemented by folding shutters,

and Susan's transformed second-hand furniture

into a vibrant focal point.

What a riot of pattern and colour.

Very uplifting. A proper adult party room, I'd say.

I love the fact she's really pushed her budget to go out

and buy this quite expensive designer wallpaper.

I think it's money well spent.

She's offset it with this very pale sage,

which, in my opinion, just calms the whole thing down a bit.

There's an element of balance there.

Certainly interior design is all about balance.

Bright, zingy wallpaper, which I adore.

The green, which is one of my favourite colours.

But putting the two together is not quite working for me.

I certainly would like to pick that cupboard,

put it under my arm and take it home with me.

I think it's just magic.

I think Susan came up with an ingenious solution

to deal with the windows, which is creating some shutters.

Especially because she's left

the stained glass windows open at the top.

So when this is closed off, the stained glass sings.

Now, one of the big challenges for Susan was how to integrate

this very traditional dark brown Victorian fireplace into her scheme.

-Has she pulled it off?

-I'm afraid not.

Just a bit of the purple colour of the cornflour or the green or

the pink or something in that

just to integrate this rather large edifice back into the room.

-That's what these were designed for, after all.

-Yeah.

Seeing this room, Sophie,

it leaves me with no doubt Susan really is the master of colour.

She can play it, she takes risks that most people would never dare

and are not able to.

Welcome to your new room, Tracy.

Wow, it's not my room! It's amazing!

The thing that smacks you in the face is obviously

the great floral patterns.

Definitely. It's exactly what I asked for so I'm really pleased.

I love the colours.

Have you seen what's behind me?

Yeah. SHE LAUGHS

I'm not sure if it will stay in here, but I do like it in here.

Now the judges have to decide which two amateur designers have

done enough to make it through to the final.

The room was definitely a trial this time.

'It's been more colours than a rainbow.'

I think I've had to hold my nerve to get it to the end.

'I've pushed it. I had an ambitious design.

I can walk away from this

and know that I've given it my every single ounce of effort.

'Now that it's all finished, it looks so beautiful.'

I just hope it's enough to get me through to the final.

'I would love to go through to the next round

'for my children as much as anything else.'

You never know, do you?

So, judges, semifinals - we've upped the ante.

How did our designers respond?

I think the challenge for them here has been that the rooms are so big.

I think they've had to be extra resourceful to really create

a very cohesive and impressive room scheme.

Let's start with Sarah. You wanted her to prove her versatility.

Did she do that?

Absolutely. She's been really good

at making that cheap and cheerful look before

look exquisite and make it work.

Now she had a very grand room.

The beauty of it, though, was that she showed she can do rather grand

formal design and yet still add a little edge to it too.

She went for this neon yellow pop.

I loved it on the chandelier. I thought it was excellent.

Personally, I felt she went a step too far with the fireplace.

And maybe that's her naivety.

She doesn't quite know when to go for it and when to hold back.

And Luke? Did he up his game?

Luke is a man of invention and it's very exciting to see what he does.

The elevation behind the piano with the pictures just looked

absolutely exquisite.

And also, he transformed a rather sort of basic fireplace

into something rather interesting.

His lighting was absolutely spot-on. He knows how to display great

use of colour, but there are a few things on his presentation that

didn't make it to the final design, and that's just a desperate shame.

Now, Jordan. You can never miss a design by Jordan.

What a transformation.

I needed to look at that room a couple of times to be convinced

that it's actually really quite serious interior design.

He played with colour in a way that I've never expected to see before.

I was really impressed with how Jordan handled the brief.

He very cleverly thought of the practical solutions

and some excellent storage.

But then he went and did a sort of radiator cover in plywood too

and it just all looked a bit clumsy.

How about Susan? How did she do?

Susan again showed us that she can experiment and play with

colour like nobody else can and that room just popped with it.

Susan's got a great vision for the bigger picture.

Colour, wallpaper, big items of furniture.

But actually in a room that size you need to go a little bit further

with the accessories and actually really pulling the scheme together.

It's getting serious now. It's the semifinal and you two are looking

for designers, not with potential, but ones who can deliver.

Absolutely. We've got to take this decision very seriously

because we possibly could change the course of these people's careers.

Designers, all four of you have done so well to get here.

But it's the semifinals. It's getting serious now.

Before we tell you the decision, I just wanted to thank all of you

because it's been such a wonderful journey.

I think all of you have shown us

so much, kept us very inspired and interested by what you're doing.

It's time for the finals. Two of you are going to be going through

and these two have made a very, very difficult decision.

The designers going through to the finals are...

Jordan...

and Sarah.

-Thank you. Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

It all happens really quickly and it's so bizarre.

You're almost not... It's like an out-of-body experience.

-You like it, then?

-Fantastic.

-Yeah.

-Thank you very much.

-Really, really impressed.

I put Jordon through because not only have I discovered

he's extremely adaptable to practical demands,

but on top of that he's still able to maintain an exquisite style.

That doesn't feel real, does it? Oh, my word.

I feel completely surreal. That hasn't sunk in at all yet.

I'm speechless.

-Do you like it?

-Oh, it's wonderful!

She's got a great originality, she's very artistic

and she puts a very quirky twist on everything

and yet has beautiful sense of taste and design.

Blimey. Well done. And commiserations, you two.

'Not happy, cos I didn't win.'

The judges, for whatever reasons, thought I didn't make it so, I mean,

that's...that's life.

-Well done, Susan.

-Commiserations.

I really have enjoyed it, definitely.

I need to have some sleep now.

We've got to the stage where you've got two people

who are exquisitely good designers.

They're the best amongst the best.

I am so excited about the final

and I think it's going to be a very close match.

Oh, my God! So much more. I can do so much more.

Oh, it'd be fantastic to win, wouldn't it?

By the end of the 19th century, British homes like these

were celebrated everywhere as world leaders in house design

for the way they combined arts and crafts beauty

with modern functionality -

a spirit definitely captured by our semi-finalist designers to a T.

Next time, it's the final and the stakes have been raised.

The architecture and the period

might be a bit of a challenge.

The worst bit is the bit with the door in.

He's got a green cloth that I don't want, that's the problem.

And the winner of the Great Interior Design Challenge is...