The Great Interior Design Challenge

Season Four of BBC2’s Great Interior Design Challenge kicked off last night and I shall be watching this series with particular interest. After spending four weeks this time last year shouting at my TV set “that’s awful – I can do better than that” I decided to put my money where my mouth is and spent a couple of weeks last spring putting together my application to take part in the competition…

Taking part in something like this is totally outside my comfort zone but I realised that if successful, it could be life changing.

I wanted to stand out amongst the crowd so I decided to submit my presentation in the form of a magazine. My Victorian terrace home is pretty small and taking photographs that do the interior justice is challenging to say the least so I designed mood boards for each sample room that incorporated different elements of my style.

Although I completed the standard application form, I also transferred my responses into my ‘magazine’ including information about my personal influences, ‘soft’ skills and two sister businesses Chalky Chic and Pip Art.

I sent off my precious submission by recorded delivery and was really excited when 24 hours later I got a voicemail to ring the production company. Of course I rang back as soon as I could only to find that the offices were closed for the bank holiday so I had an agonising few days waiting to speak to them.

I’d made the first cull and then it was just a case of waiting to see if I’d been selected to take part in the show.

I guess by now you have realised that I didn’t make it through to the final shortlist and watching the first episode yesterday I’m not sure I would have coped with the public scrutiny or the judges criticism. However, I really enjoyed putting my application together and I don’t regret the time I devoted to it.

As I said at the start, it will be very interesting to see just who did make the final cut. I will try to not judge the contestants too harshly or feel too bitter that ‘it should have been me’!