Last week I was given the opportunity by the fantastic Sophie Robinson to assist on styling the room sets for The Ideal Home Magazine‘s room sets, for the Ideal Home Show Exhibition.
I am sure you all know that Sophie is a judge on #GIDC and I can assure that she is just as lovely in real life, as she is on The Great Interior Design Challenge.
At every opportunity she is mucking in helping, over-seeing the styling and problem solving, when and as, multiple problems arise! She assures me she really does have piles of clutter all around her house, just like us normal people. But I’m not letting her ruin my daydream.
The brief was directed by the many sponsors; Dulux, Quick step flooring, and many others. The colour focus was on earthy colours.
Upon arrival I met my talented team who included, Lynne Lambourne from Love Nellie, Jane Beale, (not the Eastenders one!) and Rosie Jenkins. Kate McPhee, is Sophie’s right hand lady and is SUPERBLY organised. She had spreadsheets of where everything was going, and a photographic memory so we could just show her random objects, and she immediately knew which rooms they were for…skill indeed!
We also had a few of the builders from the #GIDC, Wayne Perrey, Stuart Plant, and Steve.
The rooms had been painted and we had the glamourous job of unpacking the (100+) boxes full of goodies to style the rooms. This was great fun, each box containing a new treasure, and felt a bit like Christmas.
Upon emptying out the boxes, the styling could commence, which was obviously directed by Sophie. I honestly thought I wouldn’t actually to do any actual styling, but Sophie was incredibly generous, and allowed me to art direct a set of plates on a wall.
Now I know this doesn’t sound like alot…but the fact she gave me free reign to hang the fantastic plates from Tordis Kayma at Art Rookie was a big deal to me. The pressure! Hang them in the wrong place, not how Sophie thought….eeek… But I arranged them in an off centre pattern and was pleased with the result.
Had I been in charge of the whole shebang, I don’t think I could have let someone else have free reign to hang plates, in my room schemes! Sophie hats off to you…
My favourite room was the Slate and leaf dining room, which had a very Abigail Ahern feel to it. Abigail is queen of darkness in interiors, and has just released her own range of fake ferns. Sophie used Bloom for her fake ferns, they were very good fakes, and a huge variety to choose from.
I loved the way Sophie had designed this room with the lime green door to add drama. The shelving, was a massive success, displaying a variety of beautiful ornaments. I also loved the fern prints on the wall.
My second favourite room was the bedroom. The paint effect was meant to be an ombre paint effect, but as you can see here, it didn’t go quite to plan. However, Sophie just came up with another idea, which I loved even more. Really modern and brave. It made the room a highlight for me. I loved the copper blush paint. Not a colour I normally like, but I loved it in here, with this effect.
On the last day, we were all busy working when we heard a loud crack and smash sound….The shower screen had completely shattered…I would have completely flipped out, but Sophie remained calm, and couriered a new screen down from Hull! Well done team Victoria Plumb!
Anyway, the experience was amazing, I loved meeting the editorial team, who were all dead nice, and put on a lovely spread of brioche bacon rolls with bubbles, for us and the sponsors. Truly felt like I was living the dream, even though I was tea and lunch girl for the week. It was, all in all, a right old laugh. Cheers Sophie.
The Ideal Home Show is on until Monday 6th April 2015.