Although Ogundehin doesn’t enjoy sending someone home every week, the interior designer is always confident in her choice. She said she faces criticism about her decisions on social media from annoyed Interior Design Masters fans.
She said: “I have conviction in my own judgment as well, because I know there’s always people afterwards that go, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have sent them home’, and it’s like, honey, you didn’t walk into the room, you didn’t talk to them, so please don’t tell me how to do my job!
“I am always 100% over my choices, although that’s not to say that there’s been times when I’ve really deliberated! But particularly when you get towards the end and I feel like I know I’m picking hairs, do you know what I mean?”
Sending home Interior Design Masters contestant Anthony Ray was controversial last year as many viewers believed he could have won the BBC show. Ray went to great lengths to help Roisin Quinn out when they were working on a joint business space — and it cost him because he had less time on his individual part of the task. Quinn went onto win Interior Design Masters 2024.
“I always remember I loved Anthony from the last series,” she said.
“I thought he was so talented and he did some amazing rooms and then in the shops thing, he just lost his way, but he lost his way because he was such an amazing teammate in helping Roisin [Quinn] with all hers, and he took the eye off his own ball, so it was just kind of galling because you’re like, oh my God.
“It made it easier because it was clear that he should go but it made it so awful because you’re such a lovely person, you kind of ballsed up because there’s no room to do that. And there is that bit when they’re working with someone, I think that’s got to be the hardest challenges that we ever set them because we’re asking them to work together to create a cohesive scheme, but don’t forget you’re in competition! It’s gonna be between the two of you [who goes home].”
Behind the scenes of Interior Design Masters, Ogundehin shared she always speaks to the designers off camera each week after the sofa session where it is revealed who is going to be going home.
Sofa sessions
“What you’re aiming for is that the the end of the sofa session, the person that’s going knows they’re going and they understand why they’re going,” she said.
“It’s fine and I always have a chat with them afterwards as well just to make sure they’re OK because it is the end of their dream as well. They enter wanting to win and becoming a professional interior designer and leaving in the first few rounds doesn’t mean that that won’t happen. So you just want to emphasise all the bravery and the courage.”
Now starting filming the seventh series, Ogundehin said her job is “less stressful” than previous years. “I’m a bit more practiced now,” she added.
Interior Design Masters starts at 8pm, 10 April on BBC One.
link