Working With Grand Designs Live!

Earlier this year, my work was spotted at my graduate show, New Designers. I got an email asking me to design a mood board for a room set for the Grand Designs Live exhibition in Birmingham!

I couldn’t contain my excitement!

The brief was to design a room set around a TV programme. Those of you who know me, know how much I love Sherlock. So, I decided to create a living room that reflects the show. One thing I really wanted to portray was the mixture of old and new, to reflect the Victorian detective in the 21st Century setting.

The colours in this design are quite daring, but I really wanted to push myself. I decided to use mustard yellow as it is such an on trend colour at the moment and it’s a colour I don’t normally use. Another huge trend at the moment is velvet, I really wanted to use a purple velvet sofa within my scheme to add luxury and drama.

My next step was to source all my products before the show started…

The Exhibition:

On Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th October, I headed up to the NEC with my Dad to put my room set together!

Here’s how the room looked when we got there:

Day 1: Our first step was to get the wallpaper up and paint the other walls. Huge credit to Dad for making a chimney breast and fireplace for me! We also put the flooring down which completely changed the feel of the space.

Day 2: This was a very chaotic day! The electricians put the ceiling light in for me. We brought all the furniture in and put everything in place, which took much longer than we had planned. The styling was quite fun though.

And here is the finished room:

Overall, I’m really pleased with how this room set came together. I think it definitely makes a bold statement and portrays my mood board nicely. I definitely think it puts a quirky twist on Sherlock but still managed to reflect the show.

List of suppliers:

• Flooring: Stamford Looselay – Karndean flooring
• Wallpaper: Woods – Cole & Son
• Paint (Purple): Amethyst Falls 3 – Dulux
• Paint (White): Moonlight – Dulux
• Sofa: Milano crushed velvet sofa, grape – Portabello
• Armchair: Kubrick armchair – Made.com
• Bookcase: Humphrey shelving unit – Made.com
• Coffee Table: Humphrey coffee table – Made.com
• Mirror: Pero mirror, brass – Swoon Editions
• Rug: Filskov woven rug – IKEA
• Console tables: Calia Console tables – John Lewis
• Yellow cushions: Gullklocka cushion covers – IKEA
• Ceiling light: Bulb cluster – Jam Jar lights
• Table lamp: Design Project No.046 – John Lewis

On Thursday, Great Interior Design Challenge judges Daniel Hopwood and Sophie Robinson, viewed all 6 room sets. They are so lovely and were very interested in my room set. Myself, and the other 5 designers then had to go on stage with Daniel and Sophie to talk about our inspiration. It was a very daunting experience but it definitely helped my confidence.

Please let me know what you think of this room design in the comments. If you are going to the show, please cast a vote for me, it would mean a lot.

You Can Get Free Gift Cards For Shopping, Searching and Discovering What’s Online at Swagbucks.com

See you again soon,

Eve x