Ultimate Secrets The Great Interior Design Challenge

I'm constantly taken aback by the huge variety

of property styles in Britain,

from characterful, timber-framed cottages

to grand townhouses.

But sometimes, what's on the inside

doesn't live up to what's on the outside.

Over three series, we've seen some of the most enthusiastic

amateur interior designers in the country

show us how to do it...

-SHE GASPS

-Fantastic.

-They asked for impact.

-And you have it here.

-HE LAUGHS

-Yes!

-Wow.

..sometimes, how not to do it.

I could cry. Seriously.

MAN LAUGHS

That is a crime against design.

In this special programme,

we're showing you the ultimate rules of design room by room,

from colours in the living room...

It is definitely going to divide opinion.

..creating mood in the bedroom...

Any imperfections will show up.

..to updating the whole kitchen.

We're sanding them down now

so that the paint fixes to the doors.

As well as tips from our designers,

we'll bring you the techniques used by our judges Sophie Robinson...

There are the classic design rules, which should always be followed,

and then there's some nifty tricks on how to create the look for less.

-..and Daniel Hopwood.

-Sometimes,

the simplest ideas make the biggest difference in a design scheme.

Plus, design secrets from industry giants Oliver Heath,

Orla Kiely and Kelly Hoppen.

So, these are The Great Interior Design Challenge

trade secrets.

What our homes look like and how we live in them

has long reflected the wider world.

Through our rooms, we can see all of life played out.

Class, gender, technology, politics, family values -

they're all in there.

We've broken the home down into five key rooms,

and we'll take you through, step by step,

how to make the most of each of them,

starting with the one we use most, the living room.

Back in the day, a large house would have had several living rooms,

each with their own specific purpose.

The Elizabethans had their long galleries

where they would entertain and take a little gentle exercise.

And by the 18th and 19th centuries, we had parlours and morning rooms

and smoking rooms and billiard rooms and playrooms.

These days, though, it's almost gone round full circle.

We all entertain, watch TV

and relax in one big space all over again.

With so many demands,

the living room is not an easy room to get right.

So, when our amateurs have pulled it off,

the judges have been seriously impressed.

Like the eco home in South London,

where a cavernous, open-plan living room

was made more intimate with colour and fabric...

-Wow!

-Ooh!

-I mean, this is it, isn't it?

-Very nice.

These are the textiles pulling together all the colours,

and it feels very organic and free flow,

and it's hugely creative.

..or the Edinburgh tenement which was cluttered and drab,

but got a modern take on Victoriana.

-It's lovely.

-It's breathtaking, isn't it?

-Oh!

Fringing and embellishment. This is the story here, isn't it?

It's all the way around the room.

There have, of course, been occasions when our designers

haven't quite hit the mark

in the living room.

In a Cotswolds cottage,

this checked scheme

lacked enough variety.

He did definitely get a good deal

-on that bolt of checked fabric, didn't he?

-He did indeed.

-It is everywhere.

-Everywhere.

-And it looks rather bland.

Or the otherwise successful

Edwardian front room,

where one focal point

just didn't fit in.

If I stand like that

and look at me like that, it looks like I've got a halo.

Yeah, that's not a good image for me right now.

There are some key elements to consider

when planning your living room redesign,

starting with the colour

and going right through to what to do with the television.

We've gathered the best ideas from our designers,

and got the secret do's and don'ts from the professionals.

The first priority for the living room is colour.

Colour schemes work rather well when you use the rule of three.

The first colour makes up around 60% of your scheme.

That could be something like the walls and the floors, for example.

Then, your secondary colour is around 30%.

Think, maybe, the sofa and the curtains.

And then, finally, the last 10% is your accent colour.

This could be used on scatter cushions,

artwork and lampshades.

This way, you'll find there's a nice, harmonious balance of colour.

Now, of course, I always say rules are for breaking,

and of course you can use more than three colours,

but the key is to use them in different proportion,

otherwise they're all just fighting for attention.

Colour has helped our braver designers make a huge impact.

This medieval terrace

went from contemporary and neutral

to opulent and atmospheric.

I think it's really cool. I rather like it.

I think it's daring and it's quite fun.

Or this Edwardian living room,

where the zesty lime walls were

toned down with darker accessories.

Oh, this is really super.

The first thing that's hitting me is I just love this colour scheme.

Little touches like the fabrics and the accessories

do make it feel very unique.

If you're someone who tends to go for a neutral scheme,

then you'll need to add some energy to it,

and the way to do that is by using an accent colour.

Now, to find the right colour,

look at the colours you might wear in your nail varnish,

your jewellery or even a scarf,

but whatever you do, make sure it's bold.

In a converted school,

a bland room was uplifted using accent colours in blocks.

I think the reason why all these different blocks of colour

are working together is because they've been continued

throughout the room. So, you've got the grey wall,

but you've got a grey light over here

and a grey armchair over there,

so it isn't just blocks of colour alone.

But it's not just that -

it's the way he's uplifted that deep purple with that clever blue.

You can see it sitting down there.

But beware.

In Welwyn Garden City, a fresh and natural colour scheme

was all but ruined by a brighter tone.

It's an interesting idea, isn't it,

to use this very vibrant blue as a highlight?

I mean, check it out on this chair.

I mean, it kind of looks bonkers.

Guest judge Kelly Hoppen has a signature colour scheme

which marks out her design ethos.

When you neutralise a colour in a room, it gives you the...

It's like a stage. You can then create your life on it.

So, my design, and using taupe and neutral colours

allows the people that I design for

to really be the character in the room.

Fellow guest judge Orla Kiely agrees you should keep tones simple.

I think it's a good idea, when using colour in the home,

to stick to one family.

It's how it layers and builds.

But the idea of going from a dark tone through to a light

so that it pops is really important.

When you know what your colour scheme is,

you next need to consider the key pieces of living room furniture.

Often, we want our living rooms to feel bigger than they are,

but there are some clever visual tricks that can be played

before you start knocking down walls.

It's a feeling of light and space that will help your living room

feel more open and airy, so you want to avoid choking it up

with lots of solid and bulky bits of furniture.

Instead, go for items that you can actually look through.

So, open shelving in favour of cupboards,

sofas that are raised up on legs,

and a glass coffee table that allows the eye to travel

all the way to the floor will really do the trick.

Designing in a calendar house,

Martin came up with the idea of cutting a table in half

and using mirrors to create a sense of space.

It's exactly as I had envisaged it.

It's created that illusion of a whole table,

and I really, really like that.

And I think, once they're dressed,

they're just going to look absolutely stunning.

This idea is genius. You know, a bit of a junk shop table,

sawn it in half, and yet, you get the full appreciation

of the whole thing cos it reflects all the way through.

Of course, the key piece in any living or sitting room

is something to sit on,

and our designers have often got creative

updating a sofa or armchair.

Lily made a clever, detachable cover from old curtains.

The idea is to velcro this on the back of the sofa,

so that they can just whisk it off and wash it.

Holly had an ingenious way of making buttons

for an elegant footstool.

I've got a two-pence piece,

and then I'm just going to stitch around the edges.

This is just a way to make it look a lot more expensive.

The most outlandish idea, though, came from Fiona.

For her gentleman's club scheme,

she attempted to revitalise a battered old armchair

by painting the fabric.

Any minute now, it's going to be burgundy.

Look at that.

Fiona used watered-down chalk paint,

which she worked into the weave of the fabric.

The chair's a massive experiment.

I don't know how the chair's going to work out.

It's quite stressful for me.

She created purple plaid side panels attached with metal tacking strips,

which stretched the fabric into place.

I'm really pleased with that.

Final touch - some wax to stop the paint from cracking.

The wax has made it all nice and supple.

You know, it feels like leather, it sounds like leather.

In fact, if I didn't know, I would say this was a leather chair.

Mwah!

Gentleman's club armchair.

But was the finish good enough to impress the judges?

This chair is amazing.

It looks like dark, aubergine leather.

What a great finish she's got on it.

I rather fancy having a whisky and soda and listening to Mahler.

Getting a cosy feel in the living room is crucial,

and key to that

are all the soft furnishings.

Some people start with the floor,

some people start with the wall.

I tend to look at fabrics first

and kind of get the feel of the softness of a room.

When you're designing, you need to ask questions,

and they can seem like incredibly stupid questions,

but are there fabrics you don't like the feel of?

Are there textures that you love?

What is the type of feeling

that you want to have when you sit on a sofa?

Once you've got all that information,

then you can go away and find fabrics that you love

and you start playing with fabrics,

putting them together to see what works.

Our designers have had some unconventional ideas

for unique soft furnishings.

Frankie made cushions from old suits...

I think, in the winter time,

you could actually just use your pockets.

I do like the cushions.

I like the idea of the suiting with pockets and...

Yeah, that's cute.

..while Christine used natural dyes for her fabrics.

Turmeric can turn quite mustardy quite easily,

so I want it to be nice and fresh.

So I'm going to take that out and wash it off, and that should be it.

Oh, and these look lovely. I think that looks great.

I'd like to have seen it higher up the curtain

-cos it's a bit lost, isn't it?

-Yeah, you won't see it down there.

But at least your curtain won't get dirty.

The shape of the modern-day living room

depended on the invention of one crucial piece of technology -

the chimney.

Once upon a time, we all ate, slept and entertained

in one gigantic hall huddled around a central fire.

The invention of the chimney, though,

allowed us to divide up that one big space

into several separate, intimate rooms,

which could then be individually heated.

Of course, today, the chimney breast is an important design feature,

acting as a focal point for the room.

Every living room needs a focal point,

but all too often, it's towards the TV,

which is such a waste of family life.

I'd urge you to get creative.

Think about using a piece of artwork,

timber wall panels or a wood-burning stove.

In our own living room, we've angled the table

so that everybody has a view towards this picture window

and the garden beyond.

Our designers have used some visual trickery to create focal points.

Lucy used silver leaf to give the impression of a chimney breast

on a flat wall.

Glued the wall with PVA.

What I'm trying to do is butt them up next to each other

so there's not too many gaps.

For me, the use of the silver on the chimney breast

is absolutely brilliant.

Luke drew attention to this chimney breast with a sunburst mural.

I wasn't sure about the purple when I was first painting it,

but now I actually think it does look really good.

However, there's one more modern focal point

that can pose a design problem - the dreaded television.

The big no-no for me is to have a TV on a white or a pale wall.

It will just stand out and look like an eyesore.

The priority is to try and conceal it.

For example, in one room,

I painted a number of shades of grey rectangles,

which helped camouflage it.

Some of our designers have had a similar idea...

Modern TVs loom and dominate a space,

but by painting the entire dark wall, it's gone.

..while others have purposely drawn attention to it.

-I sort of don't mind that TV.

-I know! Neither do I.

I can't believe it. Are we allowed to like it?

I think, in the context of the other frames...

You know, if it was just on its own, it would look a bit naff,

but because she's got the gold frames on either alcove as well,

as a collection, they work.

So, after deciding on colour, furniture,

soft furnishings and focal points,

there's still one thing to consider -

accessories.

I think you should fill a house with objects that you love

that you've gathered over the years.

It's all about being personal.

It also brings a very individual personality

that nobody can really replicate. You know, it's yours.

We've seen some ingenious accessories across the series.

Jordan made a lamp from action figures.

Lots of charity shop toys.

-Glue them all together, spray can...

-Spray.

..and you've got a real designer piece.

I'm very impressed.

Michael turned wire bins into decorative urns.

These are really cheap. They were about £1.20.

I've bent this one so it's much more of a kind of urn shape.

I'm on Blue Peter next week doing something very similar.

HE CHUCKLES

And Rachel had a simple technique

for making photos look like paintings.

These are just some tourist board pictures

I've printed from the internet of this area,

and I'm just going to give them a wash of white emulsion

just to make them a bit softer.

It just makes them look more paintery than a photograph.

Working in a 1960s home, Fiona came up with a groovy trick

for making a fruit bowl out of an old record.

She heated it in the oven for just a few seconds,

taking care when handling the hot plastic.

I'm just going to pop it in this bowl,

which is the kind of size that I want,

and it'll just magically form into a shape.

Ta-dah! Delighted with it.

The small things can make a big difference in the living room.

An ethos that can be applied

when tackling a more daunting transformation.

There's one room that's the heart of every home

that literally nourishes its inhabitants - the kitchen.

In Georgian and Victorian times,

we banished it to servants' quarters,

and right up until the 1960s, it was a purely functional space

grouped around the work triangle between the fridge,

the sink and the cooker.

But these days, the kitchen's about more than just preparing food -

it's the social hub of the whole home.

I think a lot of people are absolutely terrified

about redesigning their kitchen.

First of all because it costs a lot,

but secondly, it's a complicated design to get right,

and what happens is people kind of put up with what they've got

while it's crumbling around them.

But, you know, it doesn't have to be a case of all or nothing.

You can update an existing kitchen really successfully.

I've had clients who will easily spend £100,000

on a top-of-the-range kitchen, so I have to admit,

I've been amazed by what these designers have managed to do

with such a small budget.

Our designers know the trick to transforming a kitchen for £1,000

is to work with what you've got.

Like the Victorian half house

that had great units and furniture,

but needed new colour scheme

and flooring.

What she's gone and done is played with some interesting colours

and then added a paler floor,

which has bounced the light into the room.

She's put this border on the ceiling,

which links everything together very well.

Or the calendar house kitchen

that was cluttered and busy,

but became orderly and unified.

I'm loving the blues that she's chosen.

What I do love is this stormy blue on the ceiling.

People are afraid of painting ceilings in dark colours,

but, actually, what it's done -

it's making this room feel even taller.

The design rules for a kitchen

focus around the most dominant surfaces in the room,

from cabinet doors to worktop,

as well as the all-important accessories that end up on display.

We've got all the tricks to add some style to a kitchen

without doing a total refit, starting with the units.

You might think a bespoke kitchen is out of your price range,

but you can buy off-the-peg carcasses

and get a joiner to make the door fronts,

or source your own.

Antique shutters, reclaimed wood can look really beautiful.

This way, you can be ultimately creative

and have complete control over the look of your kitchen.

If you fancy a really crisp, modern look for your kitchen doors,

think about going down to a car body workshop

where you can have them sprayed for less money than you think.

It can cost just £10 per door for a high gloss finish,

but in the Victorian half houses,

Sarah had to add a country feel to very plain kitchen doors.

Cupboards, we're going to turn those into Shaker-style cupboards...

-Oh, right.

-..make it more of a country kitchen...

-Yes.

..and paint those to bring a bit more colour into the room.

Sarah got the look by gluing an MDF frame onto door fronts,

giving the whole thing a paint job.

They're perfect.

Hoorah!

She added to the country feel by making fire-retardant curtains

to hang in front of the base units.

I've got little brass rings that I'll sew to the tops of them,

and they should slide along,

so she can slide them backwards and forwards over the cupboards

or away from the cupboards, depending on what she needs to hide.

SHE LAUGHS

Now, Sarah's transformation

was one of the best I've seen.

-What a before and after.

-Exactly.

And one of the reasons why it was so successful

is she went for a Shaker-style door, which is just a simple two-panel,

and that's the sort of thing which will never go out of date.

Sarah chose to replace her doors,

but there are ways to update your existing kitchen.

There are peel-back veneers, wood cladding, metal inserts.

I've even seen vinyl wallpaper being put into the panels,

and it's very effective.

Of course, the simplest way of updating kitchen units

is to paint them.

Working in a 1960s Span house,

Julia had a technique for painting high gloss cabinets.

We're sanding them down now,

so that the paint fixes to the doors,

and then hopefully get the first coat on tonight.

So, yeah, we're cooking with gas, but it's all good.

I'm very impressed with how she's preparing it.

She's getting a really nice key on there.

She's filled the holes left behind by the handles

-to a very high standard.

-It's a bit scary, isn't it?

It's like re-spraying a Rolls-Royce -

you can't get it wrong.

Once sanded, Julia applied a primer and a few top coats

to banish the black,

but did the judges think

she pulled off a quality finish

in the end?

-Blimey!

-SHE LAUGHS

It's a real transformation, isn't it?

I'm looking at his five cupboards.

I mean, they were black, Darth Vader gloss before,

and I can't see a drip anywhere.

I think this is a very, very professional finish,

and, actually, I'm extremely impressed.

In a Yorkshire farmhouse,

Anne gave some dated orange pine cupboards a whitewash effect

using watered-down emulsion.

I'm doing it once and then I'm going to do it all again.

You know, obviously, painted wood can chip,

so it's important we make it as sturdy as we can.

I think the treatment

of these doors is an absolute triumph.

By cleverly washing them, we've still got that lovely grain.

And she did that herself, and I think to a very high standard.

It wasn't so long ago that a kitchen didn't have fitted cabinets at all.

The fitted kitchen was invented in 1926

as a laboursaving device

to free women from being slaves to the stove.

And over the decades that followed, with the rise of convenience foods

and kitchen gadgets in the '50s and '60s,

we spent as little time as possible in this room.

Only when Britain became a foodie nation in the '80s and '90s

did we learn to embrace it as a place for entertaining

and showing off just how stylish and well-fed we were.

At around the same time,

we began hiding appliances and white goods,

something our designers have done with quirky techniques.

Like Jane in her eco house.

A few months ago, on one of the internet sites,

I saw a wallpapered fridge.

And I was talking to my husband and I said,

"Wow. How smart does that look?"

We wouldn't paint our fridge cos it doesn't need painting,

but there must be so many people out there who've got ugly fridges

and they don't know what to do with them.

Yeah, I'm really pleased with it.

After the units, the next logical step

is to plan what goes on top of them - the worktop.

A word on worktops.

There are three ways to go - top, middle and bottom.

Invest in the best and you're looking at real stone,

stainless steel or a bespoke material like Corian.

At the lower end of the market,

you have your faux-finish laminate worktops,

and the good news is these come in masses of designs and finishes

and are far better than they used to be.

My tip is to go for a straight edge rather than rolled,

and a really fat lip will help that worktop

look far more expensive and designer.

Kimberly had a clever way

of giving an inexpensive laminate work surface more style.

The builder's done a fantastic job of cutting these all to size,

and using the excess worktop to create a fold-down,

which is a really, really modern touch in a kitchen at the moment.

Kimberly came up with a really neat little design detail

with her worktop by continuing it all the way to the floor,

and it's a trick that a lot of high-end kitchen designers use,

and thereby made her very dated kitchen look rather up-to-date.

One of my bugbears in kitchens are white, shiny surfaces

because they only ever seem to get dirty.

So, I always specify matte, textured surfaces,

be it wood, stone or this - crushed, recycled glass.

It's much more stress-free

because it does so well to conceal the marks of family living.

If tackling units and worktops is a step too far,

then creating a look with accessories

could be just as impactful.

Give your kitchen some personality.

Hang a striking piece of artwork, hang a dazzling chandelier -

even mix up the style of handles.

Just a little bit of the unexpected can go a long way

to add some character to what is otherwise a very functional room.

Working in a B&B kitchen,

Talie wanted to add personality with her lighting.

I'm actually going to make you a light fitting out of whisks.

-Oh, wow. It looks fantastic.

-Yeah?

-Thank you very much.

-Good.

-You've done a great job.

I'm just wiring up the lights,

and a certified electrician will check that my wiring is OK.

This absolutely has to have an earth because it's in a metal casement.

And then...

Then we have...

..one light fitting.

Talie's whisk pendants were hung from a block of reclaimed wood

suspended from the ceiling.

I love it. I'm so excited.

Yay! Fantastic.

The quirky touches didn't stop there.

Talie also made her planters from cheese graters

and used utensils to hang utensils.

I was really impressed with how

Talie managed to get a little bit

of humour in her kitchen design.

She used everyday kitchen utensils

-in an unexpected way.

-Yeah, weren't they fun?

But if you're going to add a bit of verve into a kitchen,

you've got to have the scale right,

and those whisks were just a little bit too small in that big space.

Making decorative kitchen accessories from practical items

is a recurring theme for our designers,

like Anne's plate transfers.

You wouldn't put them in the dishwasher

and have your tea off them, but they're...it's decorative.

I just thought it would be a nice idea,

seeing as I'm doing a kitchen.

Even marmalade has become a light fitting,

backlit and, thankfully, in jars.

Look behind you, Dan. She's created a really nice display here,

and I actually really love these marmalade jars.

So, giving an old kitchen a new lease of life

may not be as complicated as you think.

But in other rooms, you really can start from scratch

to get the mood right.

Through here is perhaps the most formal space

in the entire home these days.

That is, if we have one at all.

The dining room has come a long way from its medieval origins

when it was a great hall filled with gigantic trestle tables,

seating dozens at a time.

These days, it's much smaller and more intimate in scale,

but the basic elements remain -

a central table for food

and seats around it for conversation.

We've just lost the gigantic pig's head in the middle

and the flaming torches on the walls.

The biggest change to dining rooms since medieval times

is how they have often become parts of other rooms -

an added complication when designing them.

But this hasn't fazed our designers,

like in the Scottish castle where the dining area

was little more than a table

in the corner of a room,

but became an eye-catching,

stylish set-up.

She thinks about absolutely everything,

including setting the table.

Yeah, this is a nice setting, isn't it?

We've got slate and pewter and cut glass.

And she's painted all the furniture.

In a Victorian London townhouse,

the open-plan diner went from

pretty plain to impactful,

with bold, off-black walls.

She's come in with this really dark pot of paint.

But what's great about painting a room dark

is if you've got a lot of disparate things -

you know, just a collection of stuff that everybody has -

the dark sets it off really nice and just pulls everything together,

as it has done in this room.

There has been some room for improvement, though,

like the Arts and Crafts house

with a bohemian scheme

that was more confused

than eclectic.

-What is that? What is that?!

-Do you not like that mirror?

It's just nothing's going.

So, this is our step-by-step guide on what to look out for

when updating a dining room, from colour and functionality

right down to the table and chairs themselves.

First things first,

the all-important colour and patterns.

I love designing a dining room

cos you can just go that little bit wilder

because it's such a social space

and you can really make it bold and exciting -

certainly a lot more than you can do with the rest of the house.

Yeah, I think, because it is an energetic space,

you can really ramp up the colour,

which is one reason why red's so popular.

It really creates drama and a nice, intimate atmosphere.

Across the series, our designers have often taken

the opportunity

to let loose a little,

like the stately home apartment that

got a more atmospheric red scheme.

This room is so big, so grand,

it's got a huge window letting in loads of light.

You don't need to be afraid of colour in a room like this -

you can take it everywhere.

Or the Victorian house

that was given a bold look

with panels of wallpaper.

I love the fact she's really pushed

her budget to go out and buy this quite expensive designer wallpaper,

and 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.

Wallpaper is a popular choice for dining rooms,

but picking the right one will change the crucial mood.

Metallic wallpapers work particularly well.

They look dazzling by day, but then, at night,

where you've got low lighting,

they create a very indulgent atmosphere.

If you are going to go for patterned wallpaper,

I would urge you to put it all the way around the room.

That way, it feels really dramatic.

In her Victorian dining room,

Sarah wanted to create impact with wallpaper

while also drawing on historic references.

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.

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

-Oh, lovely.

I'd like to do the whole room.

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

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

-Yeah.

And if the wallpaper wasn't bold enough...

That is the difference between this room

being a dull, boring, hotel suite

into a fantastic dining room.

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

Sarah used the yellow on her chandelier

and her modern fireplace surround.

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

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

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

So, did the judges think she'd stuck

on the right side of that line?

-Ooh.

-Oh, wow!

-It's gorgeous.

She's picked this very strong wallpaper,

which links in with the paint colour,

which is then carried in over the ceiling,

and then she's got the punchy yellow from the parrots.

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

If a dining area isn't a room in its own right,

then crucial to consider

is how you zone it.

In any open-plan space,

you're going to need to demarcate the dining area.

There are lots of ways you could do this -

a bold block of colour on one wall,

a nice, striking pendant light hung nice and low,

or something as effective as a bright, bold rug

positioned underneath the table.

In his converted-school, open-plan reception room,

Luke used an oversized fabric canvas to zone the dining area.

You can't just get a huge one piece of material

for the whole canvas, so it'll have to be in two bits.

It's critical that he gets the tension even all the way round.

What he needs to do is visualise the Union flag,

and begin by stretching the fabric vertically

and then horizontally and then opposite diagonals.

That way, he'll get a really nice, even tension all the way round.

I don't want to completely get rid of all the creases,

so even though I'm going over it, there's still some coming through,

and I think it's quite nice cos it gives it a bit of depth

and just gives it a little bit more character.

Including the frame, Luke's canvas wall

cost him just a little over £50.

A clever idea,

but did the judges think

it gave a more expensive feel?

That blue canvas,

I personally think that is one of the cleverest ideas I've seen.

I think, cos we've got this very sculptural light fitting

set in front of it, it makes it look really interesting.

Actually, that's why the light looks so good -

it's set off by the blue colour.

Whether your dining area is tucked in a corner

or a grand room in its own right,

there's one piece of furniture it's sure to have -

a dining set.

The most important thing in a dining room is obviously the table.

Not only can you make the room fantastic,

you can also play around with how you lay your table

cos, ultimately, the dining room is a space

that you can recreate themes and fantasies all the time.

I do like a round or even an oval dining table

because they're much more sociable -

everybody gets to talk to each other.

But you don't have to replace your own dining table.

Just get a larger piece cut out of MDF in the right shape,

paint it and put it on top.

Some of our designers have given old tables a new lease of life.

Susan used a simple paint technique to give a chequered effect...

Trying to block this table off in blocks,

rather like a chessboard,

just to make it a bit more interesting.

Just by using the brushstrokes, you know, in different directions.

..while others designed a bespoke table

entirely from scratch.

I bet you're dying to have a touch of that dining table, aren't you?

This is gorgeous, isn't it? What a triumph.

This was, I think, a tenner for the wood,

and then she's had the legs made by a local blacksmith.

£60 for the set of four.

And to have your legs handmade by somebody - by a blacksmith -

you know, that makes it something quite special.

Whatever the table is made from, it needs to be enduring.

Aged and natural materials have a wonderful patina.

They've been round the block,

so they're much more able to deal with

the stresses and strains of family life.

This table originally had a cheap, yellow pine surface like that,

but what I did was to scorch it with a blowtorch,

rubbed it down with a wire brush, put some beeswax on it,

and you get this wonderful, warm texture and grain

that not even my children can destroy.

I think one of the best dining tables we've ever seen, though,

was Martin's in the final. Do you remember?

It was made up of parquet,

and it just had the right edge for that room.

In a calendar house, Martin used £75 reclaimed parquet floor tiles

for his tabletop, but things didn't start well.

So, I ordered the parquet floor, and the finish of it,

as it was advertised, was immaculate.

Unfortunately, what's arrived isn't quite in the same condition.

It's going to take a fair few hours to get them done,

but it'll be worth it.

I think it'll be...yeah, a labour of love.

It's got some real character to it, hasn't it?

The tiles were then glued to an existing table,

edged with timber, and sanded down.

I think, for a family, it's great

because it looks like an old scrub kitchen table

that's had a few knocks already.

Maybe a bit difficult to wipe down when the kids are here

with all the crumbs going in the cracks.

Martin's table was a hit

in the casual surrounds of the kitchen/diner,

but such informality would have been frowned upon 150 years ago.

The Victorians would not have countenanced a table

without a tablecloth right the way down to the floor.

A bare table leg, like these,

would have been as scandalous as a lady revealing their ankle.

A bare tabletop would have given them a fit of the vapours.

Formality is less important these days than creating atmosphere,

and key to getting this right

-is mood lighting.

-I think,

because a dining room is used a lot more at night-time,

you can be a little bit more dramatic.

The most crucial part of it is lighting,

and for me, having low-level lighting

is so integral to a dining table

cos when you're looking across at people,

you've kind of got that low-level lighting,

and it makes it so much more intimate.

What's crucial is to create an atmosphere around a dining table

so that when you have people round for dinner,

the rest of the room recedes.

Candelabras are a great centrepiece in a dining room.

But warning - you don't want to place it

so that your guests have to look around it

in order to talk to each other.

For her Georgian townhouse, Sarah wanted an industrial feel,

so went shopping down an industrial estate.

Basically, I've got some copper piping,

and what I would like to do is feed some wires through

and have three bulbs on each side.

I'm sure this'll work.

How hard can it be to make a bespoke industrial light

on a tight budget?

Copper piping costs around £3 a metre,

but she also had to fork out 70 for an electrician to put it together.

The builders put some holes in here for the flex,

but I think what would be really handy

is to try and feed just one line of wire all the way round.

-OK.

-Does that sound like you might be able to do that tonight?

Yeah, I'll take it home.

Sarah was pretty pleased with the result.

Nice work, boys.

But were the judges as impressed?

You know, for design details, it totally is top marks, isn't it?

I'm just seeing all her quirky little ideas,

like this lighting that she came up with on a shoestring.

Absolutely brilliant.

It's really important that your light

works in scale with your dining table.

But if in doubt, I always say, "The bigger, the better."

If you've got a small, round table,

then one central pendant is going to be the way to go,

but if you've got a longer dining table,

you can start creating a row of lights.

Odd numbers always work best,

so think about three or five pendants

all situated in a row.

I created a double height affect above the dining table

by fitting, above it, a panel made of MDF

with a mirrored laminate glued to it and some LED backlighting.

The result is very effective, but also quite affordable.

So, for the perfect dining room,

creating impact and atmosphere will make a big impression on guests.

But upstairs, things could be a little more personal,

these days at least.

Nowhere are social changes more obvious

than in where and how we sleep.

The idea of privacy in the bedroom

has only been around for about 100 years.

Before then, we'd have shared the room,

and even the bed, with family members,

friends and even strangers.

Then, it was just a functional space,

a place in which to rest

rather than the retreat from the world that it's become these days.

The bedroom can be a surprisingly tricky room to get right,

but some of our designers have blown us away.

Like a small, medieval bedroom

that went from cluttered and dark...

..to bright and inviting.

First impressions in a bedroom,

I always think, are so important.

And hooray, a well-dressed bed.

And a modern attic room that went from characterless and bland...

-..to sleek and minimal.

-Wow! And the angles

are not just there for decoration -

they're cleverly zoning this space.

It's easy to get the details wrong, though,

like the thatched cottage

country scheme

with an incongruous cardboard light.

Is that a light fitting or is it just a cardboard box

-hanging from the ceiling?

-You don't love that?

-No.

Well, not in this room, I think.

REALLY not in this room, but, really, not anywhere.

-Look at it.

-OK.

-SHE LAUGHS

To make sure you get your most personal room right,

we've got the ultimate guide,

from the best colours to use through to bedding and cushions.

And, again, the first thing to get right is the colour.

The power of colour can be really utilised

when it comes to decorating the bedroom

because it can help you create the right mood.

Now, most people want that to be something that's calm and relaxing,

and I think skin-toned colours do that really well.

So, think of soft nudes, taupes, pale minks - that kind of thing.

For an Edwardian bedroom,

the dark-wood wardrobes

were ditched for soft shades.

Alison wanted something

that felt soft and tranquil and calming,

-and this colour scheme definitely achieves that, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

In a 1930s modernist building,

one stark bedroom was softened

with linen and taupe fabrics as a neutral backdrop.

I just think, you know, my first impressions are,

"What lovely, clean lines."

You know, it's very sort of pared back

and very minimally styled.

And the fabrics are just little hints of them -

they're not too much of them.

What you wouldn't want to do is use something like a strong yellow -

that's far too energising and uplifting.

But somehow,

that yellow just keeps creeping in.

It's a big interior design rule -

never have yellow in the bedroom

because it makes you look sallow.

It's not just your walls that can carry colour, though.

I think it's really interesting to consider your ceiling

for a print or for colour.

It's a space we never really think about.

They tend to be white, but, actually, it could be really fun.

Second to colour, the next thing to consider is the bed itself -

what style it is

and where to put it.

It sounds really obvious,

but the bed is the focal point of the bedroom.

The style of the bed,

the bedding and the headboard sets the tone of the room.

Get that right and the rest of the room will follow.

So, framing your bed is key.

Symmetry is important.

You need a light and a bedside table on either side,

but they don't have to be matching.

A little bit of variety will add some personality.

A simple way of framing a bed is by laying a rug underneath

which is about two feet wider than the bed itself.

As we spend so much time in bed,

it's vital to consider not just what the bed looks like,

but what you're looking at when you're in it.

One of the mistakes I see over and over again

is people just focus on where the bed is positioned.

But think about it. When you're lying in bed,

you also want to have an enticing view to look at.

That might be a window, but failing that,

a collection of pictures can really do the job.

Neglecting this space

is something our designers can be a little prone to.

They've put the pictures over the bed head so you'll never see them.

When you sit in bed, you're looking at a blank white wall.

That's about it.

If you look behind me, it's all really quite plain.

And he hasn't brought any of the colour up onto the walls,

and that would have been the place to do it.

He hasn't really thought about that at all.

It looks like the Bismarck, doesn't it?

Lighting is next on the priority list in the bedroom.

Lighting in bedrooms can, in fact, be quite tricky

because it serves multi functions - cosy and romantic at night,

but bright enough to get dressed in the morning.

Eye-level lighting is much more flattering than overhead,

so make sure you've got a good mix of both in the bedroom.

My general rule is to have four lights.

Now, that sounds quite a lot, but it helps create an atmosphere.

Our designers have created lights from all sorts of different objects.

Neil made his from a roll of wire.

I wonder if it could look vaguely atomic.

-HE HUMS

-I do like those.

Kelly used empty jam jars.

The jam jar chandelier is going to be five different jam jars.

They're all the same size,

but they're going to be mounted at different-length wires.

Working in a thatched cottage, Rob went lighting crazy,

making one bedside lamp out of a stack of books...

Right, OK. Great. There you have it.

And the bulb obviously just going to sit into the top of there.

..another out of a vintage vase...

Got this from a local charity shop.

OK, so, when that's nice and tight,

that should just sit round about there like that.

..and a bamboo fruit bowl as a lampshade.

But did the judges like the effect

in his bohemian scheme?

These lights look very intriguing. All rather clever and quite quirky.

Clever, quirky and what makes it interesting is nothing's matching -

they're all different from each other.

You don't need to have matching bedside lights -

it's just a bit too twee.

Storage is one area not to neglect

if there's any chance of creating a calm

and relaxing atmosphere in the bedroom.

It makes common sense

that the less clutter that you have in your bedroom

will mean it's much more calming

and give you a chance of having a better night's sleep.

I suggest that you dedicate at least 10% to 20% of the room to storage.

Anything less runs the danger of having piles of clothes,

shoes and other paraphernalia.

Now, I have very few full-length dresses,

so what I've done is have two rails,

and that way, I can get twice as many clothes

in the same amount of space.

Considering there's a lot of furniture required in a bedroom,

it's a good idea to conceal as much of it as you can.

For example, keeping the wardrobes flush,

the same colour as the wall, and not having any handles.

I've got a little example here.

Under-bed storage can be a bit of a nightmare.

Lots of clumsy drawers that actually aren't very easy to use.

I think you're better off putting your storage elsewhere

and choosing a bedstead where you can actually see under the bed.

That way, the room will feel airier and even appear bigger.

After the larger issues of colour scheme,

bed and storage are resolved,

finer details can be considered, like the headboard.

When choosing a headboard for your bedroom,

there's a real opportunity to create impact and be really creative.

I've seen anything used from scaffold planks...

Even an antique mirror can look really effective.

But my biggest piece of advice is to go large.

Nothing looks more luxurious

than an oversized, upholstered headboard.

This is my take on a romantic, reclaimed-timber, four-poster bed.

That's it. Simple.

In some 1930s apartments in Ealing,

Jack's homeowners had attempted a headboard

using a reclaimed door,

but he felt the scale wasn't quite right.

One thing I'm really excited to do

-is take the existing door you've got...

-Yeah.

-Headboard.

-The headboard. Apologies.

-THEY LAUGH

..add in a second door and create a much larger headboard.

Something that's much more grand. Take it back to the wood.

First, Jack stripped back the paint on the existing door.

Luckily, with the look I'm going for,

it doesn't have to be perfect.

Next, he wanted to make a new door he'd bought for around £40

look as old as the original.

-Not an easy task.

-Oh, yeah.

And his technique was somewhat maverick.

-JACK LAUGHS

-It's actually fine

because it'll just fit back in.

-It will.

-HE LAUGHS

Completing the ageing effect a bit more gingerly,

Jack then attached the two doors using strips of MDF

before staining the whole thing.

It doesn't have to be perfect. I don't want it to be even.

Final touch - some garden brackets he bought for £15

to hang lights from.

All that remained was to see

if Jack had pulled off his grand scale headboard.

For me, the success of that brilliant headboard that he designed

positioned just in the right place

so it really hit you as you walked into the room.

It's the scale of it that made it so effective.

He went really, really extra large.

And it was his attention to detail.

He aged those panels

and gave them a patina so successfully

that they looked authentic.

Almost an extension of the headboard,

bedside tables are next on our list.

A bedside table is a practical piece of furniture

that should be big enough to hold a table lamp,

glass of water and a book.

But it's also an opportunity

to create a really nice and pleasing display.

So, style up your bedside tables

to really frame the bed for maximum impact.

Why not go for something a little bit quirky?

Rather than going for something that's shop-bought,

use an old suitcase or a stepladder or even a chair.

Our designers have seen potential bedside tables

in all kinds of places - a tea tray cut in half,

a milk crate, and even a lobster pot wrapped with rope

have all been repurposed.

Working in a brutalist high-rise,

Kimberly hoped to make her own industrial table tops,

but using a quick-drying concrete

meant she had only one chance to get it right.

-You've got about 15 minutes to work this, haven't you?

-If that, yeah.

I think we just...

-Oh, cool.

-Hopefully, it should fill...

Once dry, it was the moment of truth.

I'm really nervous about these concrete tops.

I really, really want them to work.

Ta-dah!

I'm really pleased, and I love the bubbles.

They add to the texture and the roughness of them.

Those wonderful concrete bedside tables are bang on-trend.

What's more, it was really relevant

to that building that she was designing within.

It's not easy stuff to work with. I think she did very well, actually.

Last but not least, there's the bed dressing.

It's easy to change,

and so a simple way of keeping your design scheme varied.

The bed is a big expanse of fabric,

so whatever you choose for your bed cover,

you have to choose well,

and I always tend to go for neutrals and then add colours on

by putting runners and bands.

But if you want something incredibly grand,

you would have a bed cover that goes down onto the floor

and it will make the bed look much bigger.

Decent bedding has long been a prized family possession.

We've been using feathers in our bedding for centuries.

In Victorian times, servants were often allowed

to keep the feathers that they plucked from poultry

as a kind of bonus.

Save up enough of those feathers and you could make yourself a mattress.

We British, though, didn't really embrace feathers on top of us,

ie the duvet, till about 50 years ago.

I remember sleeping round at my gran's

pinned down under starchy sheets and scratchy blankets.

Now we've embraced the duvet, it's made life much more comfortable.

If only we could get to it past all these cushions

we insist on putting on top.

Cushions are a great way to make a bedroom

feel more interesting and more inviting,

and one temptation is to pile them high.

However, when it comes to getting into bed at night,

all those cushions on the floor, I grant you,

can feel really irritating, which is why, a lot of the time,

we'd just go for two signature cushions in front of each pillow.

Looks a bit mean, so I think you've got to go really big -

60cm square in a really strong fabric.

And what's more, they're great for sitting up in bed,

reading a book or drinking a cup of tea.

For an Edwardian home in North London,

Sarah took bed dressing up a notch,

using a special paint roller to stencil her own linen.

This is our wall colour. It's a lead colour.

What I want to do is just thin it down

till it's single cream consistency, and then I'm going to use it

to put the pattern onto the linen that I've dyed.

Not perfect, but we're after a kind of washed out, slightly faded look,

and I think we're going to get there with that.

So, if the bedroom is all about indulgence, calmness and mood,

the last room we're looking at is far more humorous and energetic.

Perhaps the most recent addition to the average home

is a designated space just for the little ones.

Having an entire room just for the children

was a luxury that few people could afford

right up until the 19th century,

and it's only really been in the last 30 or 40 years

that we've been able to have a room for each child,

just like I did when I was growing up.

I didn't know how lucky I was.

Our designers have felt pretty lucky when working for younger clients,

giving them a chance to relive their youth.

I'm just imagining I'm a nine-year-old girl.

I'm just trying to get an idea of how it might look

by putting myself at that level,

which is a bit hard when I'm not the same height as a seven-year-old.

Probably somewhere round about there.

If I can be something close.

Kelly!

Oh, wow. It's going to be amazing.

It may be fun, but designing for a growing child

whose tastes are constantly changing can be challenging.

Many of our designers, though, have impressed.

Like in the Georgian townhouse

where a plain and simple nine-year-old's bedroom

became cool yet timeless.

Oh! So funky, isn't it?

What I particularly love about it

is the way the green goes over that old Georgian mouldings

and the sash window with the window film

and just makes this space look so modern.

Or the thatched cottage bedroom

where a teenage den

went from boyish and bland

to a futuristic fantasy.

This room's got great impact,

hasn't it?

We've got this magical, backlit bed, which looks like it's floating.

But some mistakes have been made, like the oast house bedroom,

where dinosaur handles weren't safe for a four-year-old boy.

Little tots with spiky beaks and tails at eye level...

That is...that's not a good idea.

Safety is paramount in a child's bedroom,

but it is a room where design rules can be broken.

We've gathered together some of the more outlandish ideas

to give you inspiration, starting with picking a theme.

It's a great idea to really tap in to whatever your kid's into,

be it boats, dinosaurs, fairies or princesses.

But allow them to unleash their own creativity on this one.

You can be the style police in the other rooms in the house.

Across the series, we've seen all sorts of themes,

from a self-built home

that became a magical woodland...

I think this looks super.

Really fun treehouse feel.

This is the tree trunk, isn't it, with the branches coming out?

..to the oast house room

with a sporty football theme.

I'm just thinking,

"Would I have loved this when I was a little boy?"

-And my answer is yes.

-SHE LAUGHS

In a timber-framed house in East Sussex,

Rob's Batman-themed room went down particularly well.

Look at that Batmobile!

I want my bed to be like that.

-Your bed is going to be like that.

-Yeah! Awesome!

The centrepiece to Rob's room was a Batbed,

made by cladding a shop-bought frame with MDF.

-How's the back looking with the fins?

-Smashing.

Yes! Bring it in. All right.

Rob also created a bespoke light from an old tin...

So, I just need to clean it up.

If I can just trim this up and make it nice and smooth

then we shouldn't have any issues with, you know, scratching

and cutting and things like that.

..complete with a cut-out bat to cast a shadow.

That looks pretty good. Yeah, I'm quite happy with that.

He even created hidden superhero storage

behind a picture frame.

Move it in like that and then it will release,

and you can open the picture frame and get to what's behind it.

All superheroes have their own little secret compartments,

and I think he should have one as well.

He went all out to impressive his seven-year-old client.

Wowzers!

-It's the most coolest bed I've ever seen in my life.

-There you go.

-Double thumbs up for Rob.

-Oh, yeah!

-HE LAUGHS

But were the judges as easy to please?

Oh, what a little den, eh?

-It's a Batcave and it's just what they asked for.

-Yeah.

-And that's a secret cupboard where grown-ups can't get in.

-Oh, yeah.

-And voila. Keep all your secret bits and bobs in there.

-Perfect.

A fun-packed scheme may be a priority for our kids today,

but it's definitely not always been like that.

The Victorians liked hygiene.

Metal bed frames were easy to clean. Carpets were a no-no.

Much better to have a rug that you could beat every week.

And you could have any colour, so long as it was white

for a bright and airy room - crucial for a child's development.

Back in the day, children from the very wealthiest families

had not just one bedroom, but two bedrooms, or nurseries -

a day nursery where they studied and played,

and then a night nursery, where they slept.

These were often positioned right at the top of the house

because they said that's where the air circulated better,

but we know the real reason -

it was as far away from the parents as possible.

It's not like that any more, though,

and these days, kids' bedrooms are all about fun.

And key to that are the accessories.

Gimmicks are go in a kid's room, and it should be fun.

Designing a kid's room is all about having fun with the design,

from the soft furnishings to the lighting to the drawer handles.

Even the bed itself is an opportunity

to be really creative and original.

We've seen a lot of inventive gimmicks,

including Holly's selfie photo area.

I'm going to have a picture frame hanging down from the ceiling,

and it's going to be kind of like a selfie booth.

That's where the chalkboard speech bubble is going -

on the wall behind, so that she can change the captions.

That's part of the selfie area.

-Oh, you look so gorgeous.

-SHE LAUGHS

But Daniel fell for a built-in, toy-car racing ramp.

I'd love one of these. Have you seen it?

Working for a four-year-old client,

Kelly wanted to have some fun with her lighting.

-Because this fabulous blue made me think of the sky...

-Yeah.

..I thought, "Oh, what about a cloud light?"

So, it will be based on a paper lampshade,

but then I'll build up onto that...

-OK.

-..so it's like a big, fluffy cloud.

-OK, yeah.

So, I'm just using a normal paper lantern,

and now what I'm doing is sticking this quilt batting onto it

to get the basic shape.

Then I'm going to stick this fluffy cloud stuff afterwards.

But I'm not covering up the bottom of the lampshade.

There's holes for ventilation, so I'm not covering those up.

By using a paper lampshade,

Kelly could create her whole light for less than £30.

-Oh, wow.

-Ta-dah!

-That looks good.

-It's definitely a cloud, isn't it?

This is an ingenious idea,

and it also softens down a pendant light,

which are usually really depressing.

Yeah, and I know it's on a dimmer, so I bet it's really effective.

The ideas our designers have come up with over the years

show that if you let your imagination run wild

and follow some simple design rules,

it doesn't have to be expensive to redesign your whole home.

It just goes to show that there's no better canvas

on which to express who we are or who we'd like to be.

Styles and trends come and go,

but when it comes to the British love affair with interior design,

it's safe to say we're going steady.