Interior Design Masters contestants Holly and Ayisha didn’t agree with Michelle Ogundehin’s judgement of their “mermaid” client which led to them being sent home.
They discussed their Interior Design Masters experience with Yahoo UK after being sent home from the Alan Carr’s BBC show. Holly went from getting ‘standout space’, where her design was considered the best, to going home a week later.
Working as a pair, Ayisha and Holly were tasked with transforming a luxury retirement show apartment in a converted military hospital in Portsmouth together. The designers had decorated their home for an imaginary retired sailor and his mermaid wife which become a big deciding factor in them going home as Ogundehin said the idea was “flimsy”.
Holly told Yahoo UK: “We didn’t realise they’d take it all so literally and think we were being serious with all the mermaid stuff.”
Interior Design Masters was filmed last year and looking back at photographs of their room, which had a bespoke shell wallpaper and pearlised tableware, they admitted they both still “love” it. However, Holly said she was “expecting” they would go home.
She added: “We were expecting it, weren’t we, that we were going home because we didn’t finish it.”
Speaking to Yahoo UK, Holly and Ayisha look back on their Interior Design Masters experience.
Yahoo: Do you think it was the right decision to go home?
Ayisha: No. I don’t know why but I feel no. I personally feel like I would have loved to show more. I’m sure everybody feels like that when they go. I have so much left to give. It was a long time we were part of it but it still felt too soon to go. I would have liked to have got halfway. I don’t think we should have gone. We were looking at pictures of the room weren’t we Holly?
Holly: We loved it. It’s lovely.
Ayisha: We still love it. We love it.
Holly: It was too soon. It was a funny week weren’t it like? There’s a lot going on. Yeah. All seems like a blur now to be honest.
Michelle took a disliking to your client being a “mermaid”, do you think her comments were fair?
Holly: We didn’t even need a client really did we?
Ayisha: I feel like in design, you might have a concept. The client’s not going to know that we were saying it was for a mermaid. And also it was more about an unlikely love story. That was the thing. It’s nautical. We’re in Portsmouth. We’re trying to do the nautical thing, but not be too obvious. And between us, we came up with this unlikely love story: a retired sailor and a mermaid. The home was supposed to be a place where they collected all the things through their life together and they were settling down.
It wasn’t supposed to come off like that. It was supposed to be a bit ethereal and tongue in cheek, a bit playful, and there’s nothing wrong with playful elements in design. It was almost taken literally and that was a bit of a shock on the sofa, to be honest. So I was thrown off guard. I thought we were going to be talking about how we didn’t finish it. But that seemed to be the primary reason was this mermaid thing, which was not the primary thing of the design.
Holly: We know they’re [mermaids] not real guys!
Ayisha: In previous weeks, Rita had a fun client. I thought that was ok. I know that it would be serious, it was a retirement home but it was a retirement home of the future.
Holly, you went from having standout space the week before to going home. What happened?
Holly: It’s pretty mad isn’t it? I still designed a big range of cushions, did another wallpaper didn’t I? I just thought that’s luxurious. Bespoke for that apartment. All the colours.
Ayisha: Gorgeous! We didn’t have any mermaids in the space did we?
Michelle didn’t like the glitter on the ceiling.
Ayisha: Again because it wasn’t glitter. It was iridescent mica powder. It was a slight lustre if it caught you can’t even see it. It was just supposed to give a bit of depth. It wasn’t a glittery ceiling but the way something’s termed matters, doesn’t it? Glittery ceiling, mermaids! No, it was just something to catch the light. It wasn’t actually glitter.
Taking part in Interior Design Masters sounds really tough – was it?
Ayisha: The intensity was ramping up. It’s a lot to be away from your family and you’re working all the time. We did enough.
Holly: It was nice settling back down weren’t it? Back to normal life-ish.
Ayisha: It’s only a competition. It’s not that deep. Feels very serious. It becomes your primary focus. You’re thinking about it in an unhealthy way… That’s why you see people crying on TV because they’re shattered. The intensity. Being away from your family.
When your design doesn’t go well and you’re sat on the sofa, no-one is thinking about the fact that you’ve not seen your children that week. For me for example, I missed my son’s ‘meet the teachers’. He was going into reception. That’s playing in the back of your mind. There’s so much pressure. It feels so intense. You’re sacrificing to be there for this platform, starting out your career. You don’t want to come across as crap, you know what I mean?
What happens behind the scenes that we don’t get to see on camera?
Holly: We get fed really well, don’t we?
Ayisha: We’ve got a great catering team. They’re lovely. All of the production really do look after you. They’re checking on you: have you had this? Have you got that, making sure you’re alright. So they’re a really nice team. But you have to have an hour lunch break because it’s really fair. They start with a stopwatch. So you have to have an hour for lunch and you’re just sitting there dying to go back into your room cause you want to do stuff but you can’t. You’re just sat there, knowing you need to get your wallpaper up.
What was the most rewarding part of the Interior Design Masters experience, do you think?
Holly: Rewarding part? I think being able to just design what you want is pretty cool, isn’t it? Well, not exactly what you want. Just having free reign and then being given this budget, which wasn’t much, but it’s more than I’ve ever had!
Interior Design Masters airs on Thursdays on BBC One and streams on BBC iPlayer.
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