1930s - Surbiton 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're asking 24 amateur designers who believe

they have got what it takes to be the next big

thing in interiors to show us how it should be done.

We'll travel across the country and through the ages

to Victorian avenues, Art Deco cul-de-sacs and Regency squares.

Each time, three would-be designers take on similar rooms in three

neighbouring homes.

I don't really hate it, but I'm not sure.

I haven't upholstered cat beds before.

This is going really well.

Across eight heats, they'll compete for a place in the quarterfinals.

Judging them are designer and president-elect

of the British Institute of Interior Design Daniel Hopwood.

The really great designers have a level of flexibility and

they can work around a client, and can yet give them a lot of style.

And interior stylist and magazine journalist Sophie Robinson.

What I'm looking for in this competition is designers

who have a high level of creativity.

Now it's their imaginations

and design skills that'll determine who'll come out on top.

This time, our three amateurs will be redesigning one living

room each in three 1930s semidetached houses in the suburbs.

Each designer will follow their homeowner's

brief in very similar rooms.

Done.

I'm so annoyed.

-What does that mean for you?

-I've got no idea.

But only one designer can win a place in the quarterfinals.

Her scheme is elegant and beautiful, but is it going to be that exciting?

Your client has got really high hopes.

You could really let her down if you don't get it finished.

They've made a decision.

Which of you three is going to go through to the next round?

54 million people in the UK live in suburbs -

that's 86% of the population.

This is Berrylands in Surbiton,

affectionately nicknamed Surburbitan,

often derided but more usually aspired to.

A hundred years ago, there was little on this land

ten miles from the capital,

but a farm, a few cottages and some open land.

But in the 1930s, between the First and the Second World Wars,

a number of social and technological factors inspired the greatest

house-building boom this country has ever seen.

In 1919, there are eight million homes in this country,

but this had shot up to 12 million 20 years later.

And Berrylands is the archetypical development.

In 1930, hundreds of new three-bed semidetached were built around four

main roads, serviced by a new train station, shops, a cinema, a lido.

This is where the hardworking family aspired to me.

This is where you could truly live a suburban dream.

These semis are still popular with families today, and three of them

are about to get an injection of style from our amateur designers.

When we bought our first house, I just sort of went a bit wild.

Our spare room was painted alternate turquoise and orange.

I think I just sort of went a bit crazy because I was like,

"Ah! I've got freedom to do what I like now."

I'm constantly styling my own home and

if I could do that for a living then I'd love it. I'd absolutely love it.

-Evening, Paula.

-Good evening.

'Me and my husband, we work an extraordinary amount of hours

'every week just to be able to keep the place going.'

When we're not working we are constantly renovating.

The customers are quite used to finding that I've painted

a wall a different colour or I've changed the pictures around.

I'm really looking forward to going down a different path.

I really think I've got a talent for interior design.

I am currently in-between homes,

but I've got my van, which is my own home comfort at the moment.

It is nice to have my own little space even if it is in a van.

So I've always been around interiors,

working in these huge homes

and seeing how, I guess, the other half live, you absorb styles and

that's how I really got a like and a love and passion for interiors.

This is my stage now to show people that

I am the new amateur designer...best.

Now our amateurs will each work with their first ever client to

transform a front room with just 48 hours spread over three days

and a budget of £1,000.

The first front room getting a redesign belongs to

South African born Bev, her husband Richard, and their two children.

At the moment, this room is hardly used at all.

What we would really like is to have a family room-cum-study.

I like some shabby chic stuff, but not too much.

I don't like things too rustic, but I like some things slightly rustic.

Yeah, we're pretty open.

Judges Sophie and Daniel need to see the room's

potential before the designer gets started.

Ooh. This is rather grand, isn't it?

Well, it's a lovely room which is suffering that common problem -

-it's been used as the dumping room, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Beautiful bay window.

-Glorious bay window.

Classically, in the 1930s when they built these semidetached

houses, they grab features from other different

periods of British architecture.

The curved bay is classic regency architecture.

But they're quite expensive to deal with, aren't they?

Well, they are, exactly.

You can get bay poles made, but that's very expensive.

This has got a plastic track, which isn't very attractive.

A nice quick idea here would be to just put a very simple board

pelmet, not a fabric pelmet, that would probably be too traditional.

For me, it's just too safe.

Yes, our designer will need to come and obviously make quite

a difference and, like you say, inject a bit more personality.

Hoping to bring her personality

and style to Bev's living room is mum-of-two Helen from Devon.

The designers have been working on their clients' briefs for a week,

but this is the first time they've met in person.

-Right, so I've just...

-BOTH LAUGH

We'll clear some of this out of the way.

During the briefing,

Daniel and Sophie will be judging how well they present their design,

forge a relationship with their client,

and adapt to their clients' needs.

The window is beautiful.

I'd love to be able to open that up a little bit,

so my idea is to move the desk and get an ottoman,

so you've got a little bit of seating but it's also storage.

It's also a slight shabby chic style without going too overboard.

But obviously if we were going to get rid of the desk we'd

still need to have an option,

so I've been looking at bureaus, which you can pull down and

have the desk, but it can be shut away again at the end of the day.

Hmm.

-I'd like to replace that sofa.

-Right.

It would be a neutral colour sofa.

I've got some fabrics to make the scatter cushions in

to bring it all together.

Helen aims to create a light

and neutral base for some South African touches.

I found this wallpaper for the chimney breast.

It's actually agapanthus, which originates from South Africa.

Ultimately I'd love to keep the room very light, natural,

earthy tones with more storage.

-How does that sound?

-That sounds good.

I really liked how Helen kicked off with her presentation.

She guided us around the project very well, but her confidence

started to wane because I feel that she wasn't carrying Bev with her.

That's right. I think Helen's biggest challenge, actually,

is trying to improve what is already a very nice scheme,

and Bev's already got some very nice pieces of furniture, like that

little red sofa. She's almost changing things for the sake of it.

After a hesitant presentation,

Helen will have to work hard to get Bev on board with her design.

And the first thing is to convince her that the second hand

bureau she bought for £40 is an adequate replacement for the desk.

It's 30 inches wide...

which is just over half of the desk.

It's being delivered tonight,

-and you can see if you think it'll be all right or not...

-All right.

..before we make a decision.

A few doors down is the second living room,

the front section of an open-plan room which belongs to Julia,

husband James and their three children.

We don't really use this as the proper formal living space.

The children pelt through and throw themselves at the sofa,

but that's about it.

What we really would like is a family television room that we

can all be comfortable in, really.

I don't want the room pimped up too much.

I think like a little cocktail bar in the corner

probably wouldn't be too much use to us.

A sweet little room.

It's lovely, isn't it? Not a bad size.

There's not a lot left in this room that would say it was 1930s,

but this door does.

It's high-hipped panelling, it's at a higher level,

and you see that in a lot of 1930s houses.

It was really just because it had a nice cottage feel, mock Tudor.

In terms of our designer coming in and making this look very different,

giving it a new identity is going to be quite tricky cos Julia's

already got quite a strong and rather nice sense of style.

Taking on Julia's front room is 44-year-old,

Johnny who may have decorated many rooms, but he's never designed one.

-I have my little mood board. Let me sell you my wares.

-Great.

Oh, I like the look of this.

-You're liking that?

-Yeah, I do.

The design I'm trying to create for you is more of a contemporary...

modern feel.

It will feel like there's more space within the room.

Johnny's modernist design centres around one key feature.

I was hoping to create for you an open staggered bookcase

area in that alcove that just overlaps the chimney breast.

I was going to bring it just slightly into the entrance,

but they will be open shelves, so it's not like it's blocking up

the doorway as such cos you've still got that feel of openness.

-Oh, I love that colour.

-I've got this lovely chenille fabric here,

which I was hoping to cover part of the sofa with.

Ooh, lovely.

-I really like the look of all this, I really do.

-You do?

I'm pleased about that because that may have made my job easy.

-You can stay. We like you.

-Am I staying for dinner?

Yes, you are. You probably can move in if you do a good job.

Johnny has charmed his client, with his ideas for a contemporary

room with a crisp white and green scheme.

When he came out with that board she just fell in love with it

and it was a great board.

You saw how Julia was feeling all the chenilles. I don't know,

it was quite good, it got her really excited.

Yeah. And I loved his ideas for the fitted shelving.

It's an ambitious amount of construction though.

He might have taken up more than he can chew,

and we could end up with a mess at the end, you know?

He might not be finished.

Johnny has his client so on-side she's been inspired to go

straight out to buy a new television.

Hello, Johnny China.

And he's called to check the colour will work with his design.

Hi, Julia. How are you doing?

Are you missing me?

I think, yeah, that'll look lovely actually.

It's a bit different to everyone else having a black TV, isn't it?

I think that'll be great. See you in a bit. All right, darling, bye-bye.

I'll put it down to luck.

I don't want to say it's because I have style, even though I do.

HE LAUGHS

The third front room on the same street is owned by Celia

and John and their two girls.

The whole of our downstairs links through, so the kids love it

because they run round and round in a circle constantly,

but it feels like you are constantly tidying up.

I would love it if I could have a really adult space where

I can feel like a grown-up,

and where me and my husband can instantly relax, would be great.

Well, quite a nice, bright, fresh room, isn't it?

I know they want to separate this room off slightly and use

it as a grown-up space, so she's got a different flooring from this room.

Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it?

Cos usually, with open plan spaces,

we put the same floor throughout to create the flow,

which is what they've done here with the carpet.

They're going to have to really work hard to make sure this all

still hangs together.

The only thing I'm not very keen on is this funny little mouse

hole of a fireplace.

They would have had one of those old, heavy fireplaces, 1930s,

which would only have been about this height,

and they had those nasty mottled tiles on them.

You know, maybe in 20 years' time everyone will be putting them back,

but for the moment, no.

I have a feeling that this room screams out for quite a sleek

interior, actually.

Re-designing Celia's living room is 43-year-old pub landlady

Paula from Herefordshire.

I tell you what I'll do, I'll lift this out like this.

Let's do it like this.

I'm trying to achieve somewhere a little bit

warmer in here for you, hopefully a little bit more elegant.

Nice pinks, nice greys.

That's nice and muted. That's exactly what I like.

Absolutely, yeah. It's nice, isn't it?

The biggest thing is going to be the floor.

In your brief, dark walnut floor.

So, basically, praying that when we pull the carpet up

we're going to have some floorboards down there to be able to sand

and stain. How does that sound to you?

Paula's idea for an elegant retreat is to create a modern

streamlined feel with a palate of pink lilacs combined with

rustic textures like wicker and wood.

The next part of the room would be the fireplace.

Plenty and plenty of options.

We can free float on just a mantel shelf at the top,

whether we do something out of plain timber

and clad it in and frame it all the way round.

Or we can frame it and just do a mantelpiece

out of the reclaimed timber.

The other thing was the built-in cupboard.

Would you like a straight line going across?

Would you like a higher or lower line?

From this cupboard here, same height mantelpiece

and then same height as the cupboard.

What should I do?

Should I choose a mantelpiece higher than the cupboards?

Or should I choose it the same height as the cupboards?

-I don't know...

-No, that's a fair question.

The look doesn't seem...

We're not really going... It doesn't really match at all.

-Should I have it higher or lower?

-To me, to add a bit of interest,

it might be nice to create the different levels.

It did feel a little bit unprepared.

She's got three days.

She's got to make decisions on that second and get moving with it.

I got a little bit lost what she wants to do with the cupboards.

Celia was trying to ask her questions, saying,

"You need to tell me.

"You're the designer. Should it be high? Should it be low?"

But I did really love her colour scheme. I thought that very soft,

nudey pink with the grey was really beautiful, very fresh.

She's actually got a really lovely scheme, she just didn't sell it.

The first big job Paula wants to tackle is the floor,

so she's keen to see what state the floorboards are in.

I don't know why I was expecting them that way.

If they'd laid it up from the window going into the house

it helps spread the light around the room a bit better.

Yeah, it's not perfect but it's workable.

Our designers have made a start updating the living rooms

in these three semis on this archetypical suburban street.

A street that looks the way it does thanks to a unique

set of circumstances that fuelled the 1930s building boom.

Technologies developed during the First World War spawned new

industries - aeronautics, engineering cars

and created new job opportunities.

And people who before the war might have worked in domestic

service took on new independent, more lucrative employment.

They became white collar workers,

part of the new aspiring middle classes.

The expansion and affordability of the railways meant that more

people than ever before could work in town and live on the outskirts,

giving rise to that culture of commuting, still the norm today.

At the same time, it became easier than ever before to

own your own home.

Britain may have been financially suffering after the First World War

and then the Great Depression, but banks found it easier to lend.

So, for the very first time,

even many within the working class could afford to buy their own home.

In 1930, these houses cost £775 and were marketed under the banner

"Happiness Within".

Our designers are hoping to bring their own brand of

"Happiness Within" to Berrylands.

But having only ever decorated to please herself,

Paula is finding it hard to make decisions for someone else.

Before we cut the carpet, final decision,

just wanted to get you back in.

Not to put the pressure on you. Not to put the pressure on.

Her plan was to sand and stain the floor dark brown,

but now she's giving her client other options

and suggesting click laminate.

We could have put the click flooring down and had it spotless and lovely.

-Have you got click flooring?

-No.

I can go and get click flooring.

-What does that mean for you?

-I've got no idea.

Looking at how we can trim things down,

it's going to be things like...

We can make a decision on the curtains and the blinds

because that's going to save money.

Well, if we kept the curtains and the blinds...

If we kept the blinds that you've got...

I'm boggling you even more now, aren't I? Sorry.

You're going to have to make some decisions.

Yeah, I will make some decisions, yeah.

Paula is having to re-jig her budget

and find around £200 for the laminate.

In her everyday job as a landlady, she's actually used to balancing

the books and to decorating with other people in mind.

There's a different thought process in designing a place where the

public is going to be as opposed to your own private rooms.

It can't be offensive to anybody.

It has to appeal to a broad range of people.

This pub in Herefordshire is just the latest in a long

line of renovation projects Paula and her husband have taken on.

We moved to France and we renovated an old property over there.

It was your typical live-the-dream scenario -

holes in the ceiling, holes in the roof, no toilet, no shower -

there was nothing there.

When we left there was eight bedrooms, five bathrooms,

two kitchens, three reception rooms.

I love my interior design because I find it so relaxing.

There's nothing better than stepping back and thinking,

"Yeah, I did that."

Back in Berrylands, Paula still hasn't made a final

decision about the floor.

We've gone down the route of click flooring at the moment.

We're going away from the dark walnut because the rest

of the furniture in the house she's got a light oakish colour.

So, why don't you make that decision and get it ordered?

Press that button and say, "Flooring in."

Yeah. Have you got the button?

Yeah, I have actually. It's great.

You just do that.

I want the floor to come by Sunday, yeah.

Now, at present, you've got this big cupboard here.

I'd like to lower it, if possible,

or maybe floating it as well and running the floor underneath it.

What I'd really like to do is float it across,

keeping this the same level.

Whether there's a break or not in-between,

-I think maybe just carry it on.

-Carry on.

Remember, it's you who's in control of this.

You're the designer and she's the client.

All this is all about confidence, for me, you know.

Whether I've got the confidence to stand there

and say, "No, actually, I think I'm right."

I think that's going to be a bit of a learning curve for me.

After a resounding endorsement from his client,

Johnny gets his builder started on his feature shelving unit.

These will be the height of the books,

so the books will just slide in there.

While he puts his decorating skills to good use.

When painting the ceiling, always stick to starting at the window,

where the natural light's coming in...

because you can see where you've painted as the light's hitting it.

As a painter and decorator, Johnny is used to following other people's

designs, but now he wants to move to the next level and create his own.

People will say, "Can you come and paint my room?"

So, I say, "Yeah, OK."

But I've always wanted to do something other

than paint the wall white.

Creativity is something I have, you either have it or you don't.

I did study for two years in interior design,

but I didn't really learn much from that because I already had it.

I'm a father of four children, which I'm not a full-time father to

any of those children, so it hasn't been easy.

If I was to win...

Well, when I win this competition...

I don't want to be too big-headed.

But it'll mean a hell of a lot to me.

It'll allow me to feel like I've achieved something

that I've been trying to do for so, so long.

Johnny has Julia fully on board with his contemporary Modernist design.

From here it will look lovely because you'll be here

and you still feel part of that room,

and you'll be able to see straight through the actual open shelf.

While, a few doors down, Helen's client Bev isn't sold on all the

colours and fabrics she's proposing for her South African-inspired room.

Only because everything is, it's cream walls

and you wanted to put in another cream sofa.

I was wondering whether we keep the terracotta sofa.

There's no reason why we can't keep it.

I mean, a lot of these fabrics,

you can still pick out, if you had scatter cushions in these

and maybe a couple of neutral ones on there, that'd still work.

Helen is confident she can make the terracotta sofa work...

..because fabrics are actually her area of expertise.

From a shed in her garden, she creates her own soft furnishings.

I'm a bit of a fabric-aholic in the fact that I see fabric

and I will buy it.

I go to vintage fairs and antique fairs all the time,

so I'm constantly seeing things that I think, "Oh, that's gorgeous.

"I love it." Not necessarily knowing where it's going to go or what

I'm going to do with it.

I'd absolutely love to style rooms for a living,

I think it'd be really exciting.

I've never thought that it could be an option

because I'm not trained in any way.

Things I'm not fond of are when everything matches.

I've just got to, I guess, stay true to myself

and do what I love doing, and if that works then brilliant.

-The bureau has just arrived.

-Right.

Each step of the way,

Helen's working with her client on key aspects of her design.

I don't feel like my design's been taken away from me

and I think we are going to achieve something that she is happy with.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure of that.

I'm hopeful of that anyway.

It's near the end of day one.

Paula's laminate has arrived

and the issue of the flooring is happily resolved.

-Lovely.

-OK, thank you.

Paula is finally finding her confidence.

Up until now I've only ever done it for my rooms

and so it is quite scary...but I think I'm getting there.

I think I'm getting there with my confidence a little bit more.

Tomorrow's another day.

Hopefully it'll be as plain sailing as it has been.

After lots of ideas chopping and changing

and varying levels of confidence, day two is

when our designers' plans have got to take shape.

Paula has started the day with a clear plan of how

she wants her builder to construct the single low level shelf

that's central to her modern-yet-elegant design.

-Where do you want it to finish?

-OK.

I think somewhere sort of around here. What measurement is that?

-140.

-Sounds good to me, yeah?

And then that allows for things like drops for curtains.

Is that all right, yeah? Wonderful. Thanks, Steve.

A few doors along, Helen needs to pin her clients down on essential

aspects of her South African design,

including the fabric for the cushions.

-Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no, no.

-Brilliant.

-We would like to use the bureau...

-OK.

-..but we would like to have the desk as well.

-Right.

I think we can do that. We need to, sort of, get going.

Further down the road,

the basic frame for Johnny's complicated shelving unit is made,

so he and his builder

now need to work out the dimensions of all the staggered compartments.

Follow that line around to just about here.

It's a risky design for a suburban semi

and Johnny needs to make sure he gets it right.

We've got to try and not make this look too uneven.

This is actually a really unusual design, isn't it?

To keep everything asymmetric.

Quite often, when you've got a chimney breast, people do

the same thing either side - keep the symmetry in the room.

But you're kind of mixing that all up a bit.

Well, I try to change the space with that design.

I'm curious about how that's going to work in the corner where

you've taken the shelf beyond the opening, but I like the idea.

I'm with you on that one, too.

MDF goes together very quickly,

but getting the finished edges nicely done.

And because this is a very clean, crisp look,

the paint finish has got to be pukka, hasn't it?

Exactly. It has to be.

Julia, your client, has got really high hopes.

She's not interfering,

but you could really let her down if you don't finish.

Johnny's modernist shelving unit might not fit with the safe suburban stereotype,

but it is actually in keeping with

the era in which these houses were built.

In the '30s, some architects were busy creating clean-lined modernist

buildings, but these homes were designed by builders themselves,

builders who knew what sold.

To cater for the restrained tastes of the suburban masses meant

harking back to old English style, with pseudo Tudor,

or Tudorbethan features.

All the semis on this street have their own

little pseudo-bethan twist.

This one's got the classic Tudorbethan fake beams

mixed in with replicas of the original leaded panes to give it

that really Tudor feel, all combined though with that most modern

of features, a built-in garage, although this garage is too small

now for the average huge family car, so they keep the bikes in it.

Now this one is plastered in pebbledash.

Pebbledash gets a bit of a bad wrap, but I rather like it, and it's

got a long and very venerable history in British architecture.

The Romans used it, we had it back again in the medieval times,

and it came back with a vengeance in the late 19th century,

with arts and crafts architects, after a spot of rusticity.

HE MUMBLES

At the halfway point, Helen has all the decisions

she needs about furniture and furnishings.

-Nice, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Quite soft actually.

-It is actually, isn't it?

-It almost feels like fabric almost.

And at last she can start to inject some of her ideas

for South African-inspired tones into the room.

The task that Helen's got with Bev is she's got to re-invent

an existing look, if you like, and give it her original twist.

Most people with their houses have got stuff already,

really quite decent things, so you don't start from nothing.

But what do you do to make the room feel that bit different?

Helen needs to play to her strengths, you know,

she's somebody who's passionate about textiles.

This is an opportunity for her to really show what she can do

and give Bev something that she would never get out of a catalogue.

The wallpaper wasn't cheap at £54 for one roll,

so rather than throwing away what's left over,

she's using it to customise some £2 box files.

I've traced out the sides and the front and the back

and I'm just going to use wallpaper paste and glue it on.

Doesn't look too bad.

Choosing to work with his client's existing furniture,

Johnny is going to repair and recover the three seat sofa.

He's sent the original loose cover to a seamstress to be copied.

One of the arms is broken so he unpicks the stitching,

removes the broken board and replaces it with a piece of MDF.

A perfect fit.

The foam padding is simply stuck back in place using gaffer tape.

You won't notice once that's back up.

The kids will be able to jump on this all day long now. Solid.

Oh, wonderful.

Johnny's new cover has been made from green chenille fabric.

He bought 14 metres for the bargain price of £70.

The base will be covered in one shade of green,

and the seat cushions in another - creating a two-tone look

-in keeping with his modernist design.

-Snug.

I hope Julia will be as pleased as I am. I'm sure she will.

That is really nice fabric

and also it's my favourite colour, which is green.

Just down the road, Helen is painting the second-hand ottoman

she bought for £30 in duck egg blue

and giving the bureau a new identity with chalk paint -

a short cut way to paint waxed or varnished furniture.

Hopefully it's more chic and less shabby.

As a good friend of the other homeowners,

Bev has some gossip about the competition.

Julia was saying that Johnny had been a bit too laid back.

Ah, right. OK.

And that he was spending all the time outside smoking and chatting.

When I woke up and went into the room,

it just looked very much like a building site

and I was thinking, the clock's ticking.

Despite being bowled over by his design,

-Julia needs a little reassurance.

-We're more or less on target,

the huge working is obviously the shelving.

-But we're going to stay calm.

-Breathe. It's going to be fine.

-It will be.

-I've still got confidence in you.

-I'm glad you do.

-Now you can crack on.

-Cheers.

Further up the road,

Paula's anxieties seem to have all but evaporated.

And the key to her new-found calm? Knitting.

I've never seen anybody who's got just under three days

to do a room over knitting their own cushions. I really commend you.

Well, yeah. It is a bit of stress therapy as well.

If you knit a row, knit a row and knit a row,

that's called garter stitch, which is what I'm doing here.

And then you can just hold up your cushion pad, I guess,

and work out how you're doing and how much further you need to go.

If I can't get it looking neat and tidy, I can cut this,

take some stuffing out,

stitch it back down and make the cushion fit the cover.

And then the opening, what are you using?

I've got some lovely toggles here, nice wooden ones.

-Just use some wool to create a loop, sew that on and...

-Bob's your uncle.

So I've got a bit of a cheat's way of doing this,

you can use old jumpers, can't you?

So it might be something that you don't wear any more.

Put it on a really hot wash, plenty of washing powder,

so it shrinks and what that does is felt it,

which means you can cut the wool without it fraying

-and then just stitch it up on a sewing machine.

-Brilliant idea.

I have to admit, it's lovely seeing you so relaxed

but how are you feeling generally?

It's been head-spinningly awful in parts of it,

but other parts of it I've really enjoyed it.

It's nice just to take ten minutes out just to get your head clear.

-There's an awful lot to do.

-And a lot of cushions to make too.

There are, I'll be happy with one.

Also turning her attention to cushion-making is Helen.

These are a crucial part of her South African-inspired design,

and key to getting her own sense of style into the scheme.

-I'm so annoyed.

-But there's a problem.

I forgot my lead.

I forgot my sewing machine lead and I left it at home.

And I purposely brought my sewing machine

so that I could use my sewing machine to make these cushions

that I really want to make for Bev.

OK, it's a bit different.

She's got her hands on another much more basic machine

but is hoping the leads will work with her own.

I'm going to just plug it in and see if the peddle works.

It's actually coming on.

-If I...oh!

-MACHINE CREAKS

SHE LAUGHS

I've got to make all the cushion covers on this!

Helen wants her cushions

to add a touch of handmade individuality to the room.

There may be a current fashion for hand-madeness,

but in the 1930s, despite their Tudor-bethan exteriors,

these houses were all about modern conveniences, or mod-cons.

When they went up, these houses were the embodiment of the ideal home.

Building on cheaper land meant that you could be far more

generous in size than the cramped homes in town.

Estates almost exactly like this one were repeated from Glasgow

to Manchester to Cardiff, inhabited by the new commuting middle classes.

Inside was everything you could possibly want from a modern home -

electricity, an indoor loo, a sense of space and light

and generous garden.

And it was this generosity of space that meant that later generations,

like our homeowners, had plenty of scope to extend

and create fashionable open plan living spaces.

Paula's brief is to redefine the front room to create an elegant

grown up retreat, and key to that is the brand-new laminate floor.

Having the floor get put down just feels brilliant.

It's starting to look how I envisaged it looking this morning.

I had a picture in my head

and was praying we were going to get there and I think we are.

I think Paula's scheme is elegant and beautiful

-but is it going to be that exciting?

-Well, actually I think it is,

because she's doing something that's very sleek and modern,

and also rustic and charming.

I've never really seen those two put together,

and that fusion could really work.

One of Helen's bespoke cushions will have a fabric word sewn,

or appliqued, onto the front.

I'm actually using a South African word which means good or great.

Helen has traced the letters onto double-sided adhesive webbing

used to stick fabric to fabric, which costs £3.50 a metre.

The letters are ironed onto felt, cut out,

and then ironed again so they stick in place.

What this does is then it keeps it all in place when you're sewing.

It's just going to take ten times longer than it should.

It's near the end of day two, and Johnny's shelves are built.

Before they can secure them in place he's adding some LED lights.

These come on a 15-metre strip and cost £53.

The lighting will be hidden behind the unit

and comes with a remote control to change the colour.

I'm going to grab it from here.

Go on, I've got to come to you.

-It's against the wall here, you need to go over.

-Yes, we're in.

That was a bit sweaty.

They may be built, but getting a good finish on these MDF shelves

will be no mean feat - every surface will need several coats of paint

and Johnny is starting to feel the pressure.

Maybe I should have put three shelves up in the alcove

and dealt with it like that

but I wanted to design something that is not the norm.

I'm more creative than that.

I don't know if my design is going to stack up against my competitors,

I've got no idea what they're doing, but to be truthful,

as long as Celia and John are happy with it, I'm happy.

I still haven't done my cushions and I don't have any light.

I stand as much chance as the other two of winning,

hopefully more, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Today's the day the final designs will be completed

and seen by the homeowner.

What they think of their rooms will help the judges determine

who will go through to the next round.

It's a picture rail so it should go up that way.

Helen is making headway

and has put floating shelves either side of the chimney breast,

and is facing them with a piece of picture rail moulding.

-Yeah, that does look nice.

-It does look nice, doesn't it?

-That echoes the top.

-Of course, yeah, it does.

Despite forking out for flooring, Paula has managed to find

enough money for new voile curtains to enhance the existing blinds.

That'll do, have you got the pole? I'll get down.

Being a landlady, I've got to make decisions constantly.

Staff decisions, budget decisions, menu decisions.

Now the landlady's definitely back, she's half in charge, I think.

With just a few hours left, Johnny is still painting the shelves,

and hasn't paid much attention to the rest of the room.

The success of this design is based around the book shelf

because it is the main feature in this room,

so obviously it needs to be finished off to a good standard,

so getting hot and flustered at the moment, trying to get things done.

Since the three front rooms our designers are working in

are slightly different, the judges want to get an equal measure

of the designer's creativity,

so they've given them each an identical vase.

Paula is adding a rustic twist.

What I'd like to do is just to wrap some wool round it.

Helen is completely transforming it.

It's a light fitting that's advertised as putting

in the top of a wine bottle, so it's making a wine bottle into a lamp.

Hopefully it's going to keep that in place.

I ain't got time to worry about the vase, seriously.

And Johnny is literally just throwing something together.

Let's try. Yeah, that's nice.

Done.

Time is running out for our designers.

I daren't say I'm on track to finish but we'll see.

Johnny's confidence has vanished.

It's dawned on him that the shelves simply won't be finished,

at least not to the standard he was aiming for.

In hindsight, I wouldn't have been so ambitious.

I really didn't calculate the time.

I feel I am letting myself down in this

because I wanted to showcase what I'm good at and I know I'm good at.

And he's realising how much is at stake.

I want to make a few people proud, you know, my boys.

But I've got to do this, I've got to do it.

I want to make my kids proud of me, that's all.

Johnny knows he needs more than just shelves to show off his talent.

He has some eleventh-hour inspiration

-for a piece of handmade furniture.

-Coffee table.

Helen has left her most complicated cushion until last.

It's got loads of little holes which are going to be

the patches on the giraffe's skin.

I'll try and do it as neatly as possible

with really shaky hands and not much time left.

Why did I build that shelf?

I've got 35 minutes. 39 minutes.

OK, what I'll do is I need to get the cushions in these covers,

I need to... Oh, my God. We're not going to have time,

we actually aren't going to have time.

The amateur designers have had 48 hours spread over three days

and £1,000 to transform the living spaces

in three 1930s suburban semis.

I want it lower, lower, that's good.

Maybe if I swap...that one.

Down, down, Johnny.

It's supposed to flow with the shelving.

It will be up to Sophie and Daniel to decide which of them

deserves a place in the quarterfinal.

That's too big.

SHE SIGHS

First to be judged is Helen's South African-inspired design.

Three days ago this room had good furniture

and a coordinated scheme but had become an unloved dumping ground.

Helen worked hard to get Bev on board,

and has transformed it into a bright,

multi-functional room with earthy tones.

She's put floating shelves either side of the fireplace

to raise the eye-line and make more of the alcoves,

and used bold agapanthus wallpaper on the chimney breast.

For additional work space and storage she's up-cycled

some second-hand furniture for a touch of shabby chic.

And she used her needlework skills to liven up the existing sofas

with some bespoke cushions.

I think it's great.

This sofa, it looks lovely sitting in that bay window.

That's really given it a sense of purpose now.

There's a cushion over there with a giraffe on it, it's gorgeous.

I was a bit confused originally, that she'd chosen such a wide

range of fabric, but I like it.

She's got a great eye for design and craft and fabrics.

When Helen produced that rather nasty secretaire I just hated it.

Looking over there with its new handles, painted up, it looks great.

Remember when you said about you've got to keep the level high

in this room, cos the standard of furniture is really good.

Well, that has reached that standard.

That is brilliant. She's turned a simple vase into a lamp.

She definitely gets ten out of ten from me,

just for sheer ingenuity.

Helen kept client Bev involved throughout,

but this will be the first time she's seen the finished room.

Come in, come in. Make yourself at home!

-Close the door.

-It is beautiful.

Oh, I love it.

I really, really do love it.

-Oh, I'm going to get tearful, sorry!

-THEY LAUGH

-I can't get tearful.

-You can, it's an emotional thing.

Oh, look! And she's put "lekker" on it!

That's a South African word. Oh, that's lovely.

There's lots of patterns and colours going on,

isn't there, but they all seem to connect.

Yes. It blends and it's still got a warmth to it.

I think she's done it beautifully. I really do.

Next to be judged is Johnny's modernist design.

Three days ago this sitting room was a tasteful

but neglected room that served no real function.

Johnny has removed the shelves

and reshaped the space with an ingenious asymmetric design.

His main focus was the staggered shelving unit

with hidden LED lighting.

But he also managed to repair and reupholster the existing sofa

in two tones of luxurious chenille fabric,

build a floating shelf for Julia's brand-new television,

make a bespoke coffee table from some found bits of wood,

and added two modern light fittings.

He's articulated this room into the corner, so he's off balanced it,

so it almost stretches the room a little bit, doesn't it?

And I like this configuration here as well,

he's pulled the two rooms together by just having this little shelf.

It's ingenious. I would never have thought of that.

It actually feels a lot softer

and feminine in here than I was prepared for.

Love the colour on the sofa, how he's done a two-tone sofa as well.

And I just love the way he's dressed it with purple accent cushions.

You've actually got the layering of all three colours on there,

it's made it really appealing.

I'm looking at the vase at the top,

little bit of Jackson Pollock about...

It's a bit of Johnny Rock'n'Roll isn't it?

I'm beginning to see a little bit of LED twinkle going...

Oh, now that's beautiful.

And that's going to look amazing at night, isn't it?

But I'm concerned about project management skills.

You look in this direction, it's working

but you've just got to turn round here and it's incomplete.

So Julia, welcome to your new front room.

-So, come in. Let it sink in.

-Oh, my goodness.

Wow. Wow.

Where's my old house?

This is the most striking difference, isn't it?

This massive construction, what do you make of that?

I love it, I absolutely love it.

The sofa! Oh, my goodness!

That lovely fabric, and that's very sweet.

My goodness! I hadn't even seen that!

That is very nice. Really good.

So does it live up to what he told you in his presentation?

It does, he's given us a family room that's really actually a bit funky.

Last to be judged is Paula's design.

Three days ago this room was a plain and worn-out living space

with little identity or style.

After finding her feet, Paula has created an elegant,

grown-up retreat.

She redefined the space with an oak laminate floor,

and soft lilac on the walls.

She replaced the bulky cupboard

and created a contemporary feel with a single low sleek shelf that

runs the length of the room and is in proportion with the fireplace.

And she's used her knitting skills to add some rustic textures

to soften the modern edge.

This fulfils the brief, doesn't it?

Elegant, adult space.

I think Paula's been quite canny in picking out a pinky lilac colour,

that helps it feel quite calm.

This unit works so well, and it's just sinuous.

It's curving around the room, it takes your eye through.

Because that shelf is forming a little bit like a mantle,

that hole in the wall makes a little bit more sense, doesn't it?

-Yes.

-And the floor.

-The floor's great.

That is a really big change in here and actually,

it doesn't look too bad against the existing cream carpet.

And that's the customised vase,

where she's added some wool.

I like the fact that it works with the rest of the pieces.

That knitted cushion is wonderful,

I want to see a whole sofa full of them.

Come on Paula, we want more of you, not less!

-Come on in then, Celia.

-Wow!

-Bit different?

-Oh, my goodness!

-It's a bit different isn't it?

That's amazing, I love the fact that she's knitted, look!

She knitted them!

Does it feel like an adult space? Does it feel like your space?

It really feels... It just feels like you can rest.

We'll just go, "Oh, the day is behind us."

It's now up to Sophie and Daniel

to decide who has impressed them the most.

All the designers can do is wait.

I don't think stress levels enabled me to do any better in that room

but I'm most proud of just actually getting it finished on time

and I just hope the judges like it.

I'd love to go all the way into the final, you know.

I'm not your average painter and decorator,

there's more to me than just that.

Oh, it's been brilliant. I want to do it again!

So judges, how did our designers do in suburbia?

Well, it's not been without its dramas, that's for sure.

All our designers have found it a particularly challenging process.

-Did Paula get her act together after her presentation?

-Yeah, she did.

She's created a beautiful interior which the client loves

and I have to say, I rather liked it too.

She's actually going to put a colour on the walls!

It was clean, it was crisp and it was also very grown-up.

I like the fact that she was blending both rustic

and streamlined together.

It was a fusion of two different styles and she pulled it off.

How did Johnny do? Well, he had great ambitions, didn't he?

Exactly, it was very exciting what he was doing.

It was very innovative.

what we see very typically is chimney breast,

matching store cupboards and floating shelves above.

And I've never really seen anybody go completely asymmetric on it.

It challenged lots of questions about how to deal with a room

that is integrated with another and yet not. Loved it.

Helen.

Yeah, out of all the designers she didn't have to build or

design any bespoke furniture, she took the walls from a

soft yellow to a soft cream,

so that's not a very large transformation.

But it did look absolutely beautiful.

Her cushions are really lovely,

she's put an interesting blend of different fabrics together,

and that is something Bev wouldn't have done herself.

We've got a very middle-of-the-road design,

but actually for the right reasons.

She's moved that client one step further to having something which is

more individualistic than she had, so she's handled it really well.

So, a tricky one this time for you two.

So, designers, I hope you've enjoyed your adventure in '30s suburbia,

you've all worked incredibly hard.

It's been great, absolutely great, real experience.

I have to say, Daniel and I have particularly loved seeing

the transformations you've created for all three families,

who all absolutely love what you've done for them.

Well, these two have deliberated long and hard, haven't you?

But they've made a decision.

Which of you three is going to go through to the next round?

And that designer...is Johnny.

-What?

-Well done.

-What? Really?

-Fantastic.

-Well done, darling.

-Oh, that's brilliant!

Honestly, I didn't expect that, I really didn't.

That's amazing!

Secretly you do want to win, but there is a

great sense of relief that I don't actually have to do it all again.

-Do you like it?

-I absolutely love it.

I'm so happy with my room, and I'm just over the moon

that Bev loves it.

I really want a very large glass of wine

and a good night's sleep.

Aw, cool!

I'm shocked.

-I like these.

-Wow!

-I love it, thank you.

-Do you really?

-Thank you so much.

-I've got a tear in me eye now.

We chose Johnny because we felt that he had the raw talent,

and he actually really redesigned the space in that home.

Lovely meeting you girls.

'When Johnny does his next room, I want to see a completed room.'

He's got lots of potential, but if he doesn't manage that process

then he's not going to go anywhere.

It means a lot, it really does mean a lot.

I want to pull it off, I want to get into the final and, erm...

..you know...that's it.

It's easy to dismiss suburban architecture for a lack

of sophistication, but the fact is we won't build homes like this

for such generosity of space and so well, for some time to come.

In the '30s these were dream homes, and they still are today,

especially now our designers have added their sophisticated touches.

They remain perfect for the modern family -

close to the city, but a world away.

Next time, Grand Regency homes.

They're designed to pull a lot of light in with those

big bay windows, and yet we've been safe with beige.

But Regency dimensions mean a huge task.

Panic-stricken a little bit, it's not what I needed right now.