The Great Interior Design Challenge

The properties have been really great this series and I am hard pushed to choose a favourite.

I doubt Frankie could have known about the lights. Do you think they have access to the properties before hand? I get the impression they don't.

I agree with Teegan about the designers I might let loose in my house. I might let Anne in too.

I hope Sarah wins now that Frankie has gone. His room was pretty awful last night tbh.

Thanks for the info on Anne, Wilma. I must look out that episode. I've probably seen it before but another look would be interesting.

Lucy is driving me nuts with her groaning.

It'll be a close call, I think.

I thought I'd seen most episodes of Grand Designs, but I hadn't seen the one with Anne. Maybe I missed that series, so I might watch another episode and see.

Lucy seems to scrape through, rarely the best, but not the worst either. Definitely a close call tonight.

Have we seen the bit from the trailer for this week where Sarah points to her chin and says to the camera "See this? This is not a happy face."? I don't think we have.

Anne's house is Grand Designs Revisited Series 3 ep3 and it is available online.

Good excuse for a lazy afternoon then.

I'm watching ep 2 - seen ep1 before.

Thanks Wilma; I really enjoyed watching that and saw Anne in a completely different light [although it was a bit strange seeing her so many years ago as a young Kate Bush'ish person, not the rather eccentric older lady in this series. The house they created was wonderful, although I do have problems when I see sunken baths [can never work out how people get in and out of them]. I'm beginning to think that this series[and probably previous series] is more about strongpersonalities than design skills. I feel that I've seen Sarah before .

I thought that about the sunken bath! Anne did do a mini impression of Kate Bush on TGIDC, so I reckon that's where her style comes from.

Don't know about Sarah, but Lucy has been doing up properties (inside and out) for over 15 years and is now writing a column for her local paper.

I enjoyed watching it as well, Wilma. They did a lovely job of that conversion. Blending North African colour with our paler pallette was expertly done and really worked.

I wonder if they still live there?

I don't think they do. According to her LinkedIn page I think she lives in Newcastle now (I swear I'm not her stalker! ) and runs her own successful publishing company called Shoo Fly Publishing in Sunderland. She's a very busy and versatile woman because she's also published at least 3 children's books.

Anne posted a message on Facebook earlier today

Just saying hello and thanking everyone involved in the show for a whole series of memorable experiences and for lots of lovely comments! Felt I went out on a bit of a damp squib design wise (but that was fair enough). However I did put my heart into the brief and managed to replace every stick of furniture for the owners .. and their beloved dog's collar in the pebbles under the glass in the hearth moved them to tears, so I don't feel I let anyone down. I have had lovely e-mails from all of the clients since the end of the show... which is what it is all about. Pleased that the double 'throw' curtains inspired a member of the crew to go away and make her own! If you are thinking about having a go.. then go for it!X

Gosh this is a bit dramatic! I feel so sorry for Sarah. And I love Lucy's designs! Can't cope!

Really pleased with the result.

Sarah was streets ahead of Lucy in the final, despite the papered ceiling over the bed which was just naff. That 'cheese plant' light fitting was fabulous as was the way she 're-purposed' the chandelier.

Sarah was streets ahead of Lucy in the final, despite the papered ceiling over the bed which was just naff. That 'cheese plant' light fitting was fabulous as was the way she 're-purposed' the chandelier.

Sarah was streets ahead of Lucy in the final, despite the papered ceiling over the bed which was just naff. That 'cheese plant' light fitting was fabulous as was the way she 're-purposed' the chandelier.

Well, I didn't like Sarah or her designs at all. Her client was almost in tears over her ideas on colour and it isn't the first time a client hasn't liked what she's done. Remember the bottle green ceiling in a tiny ante room? She had to repaint that too.
She doesn't give a fig about what the client wants and gets quite miffed if they're brave enough to say they don't like something. It's all about her and her designs. The bright orange room yesterday, the black tape over mustard paint the day before. Truly horrible.
Having said that I didn't think Lucy should win either, she's too fussy and overdone.
Not a good series at all for me. I'm sure others will disagree.

It wasn't a great final in terms of the makeovers, but it was exciting at the start when Sarah got a shock from her client and then the 2 day completion deadline.

I loved Lucy's cloud wallpaper and what she did with the chest of drawers, but not much else. Sarah clearly got carried away with trying to make her interpretation of the brief impressive for the judges in the final, but she just ignored what the client asked for, and more than ever before too. I liked the bedroom, including wallpaper on the ceiling. The palm leaf light fitting was fabulous and I liked everything except the horrible animal print. The dining room was her best room though, just gorgeous.

The final showed the difference in talent between them. Lucy is very much of the Changing Rooms standard, whereas Sarah has a great eye for style and could turn professional. She probably learned a lot from the final and hopefully she'll not try to impose her ideas on a client to that degree again. She was her own worst enemy during the series and came over as a bit stroppy, but I did feel sorry for her at the start of the final.

I suspect all I will remember about this series is Sarah's hideous orange room. I Will miss the show next week.

Despite not liking very much in the series, I loved watching it, hoping for ideas for The Hovel ! I wonder what will come on instead, maybe The Painting Challenge - now that was inspiring last time ! I, too , stalked the lovely Anne and wondered about her life now - what are the kids doing , are her and her rather gorgeous husband still together , does she still live in the house she wanted to grow old in ? I wish she'd come on here and tell us or be given a show of her own . I thought she was a delight !

I liked Sarah's wallpaper over the bed. Overall I much preferred her designs to Lucy's but I didn't really like all that orange.

As usual, when the series finishes I want to start painting everything but, as I ended up making my hands really sore last week with all the decorating we did up north, I made a point of leaving all of my brushes and chalk paint there so I couldn't paint anything at home. I hate the idea of wallpaper on a ceiling [would hate to be the person taking it off when it's no longer fashionable]. As with Big Brother etc I'm sure there's a lot of editing in the programme to make it more edgy. And I feel that giving someone a deadline to complete a room is totally unfair, when they don't seem to have enough time to do a proper job anyway [this ISN'T Changing Rooms ]. I, too, am captivated by Anne who sounds like such an interesting person. The series hasn't been as good as previous ones, but I've still loved every minute of it and am not sure what I'll do at 7 o'clock tonight...

I found last night's programme bitty, it was probably me as I watched it late on replay, but it seemed to jump from one thing to another quite quickly.
Eventually I grasped what each room was about. I liked Lucy's bedroom the best.

The other rooms seemed rather confusing to my taste.

Tegan do you wear non latex disposable gloves when you decorate? I lather up my hands with cream before I put them on.

x

No, I stupidly didn't J. Given that I get a rash if I wash my hands using washing up liquid just once it was pretty stupid of me but I was so into my painting I thought I was getting away with it. Annoyingly on the day we left I found some disposable latex gloves in the utility room cupboard that the previous owners had left. I felt the whole series was one of people trying to desperately come up with something new and interesting just for the sake of it, not because it would look good. I couldn't see what was so wonderful about Sarah's dining room; it just seemed bitty to me. The one thing I did like was the table lamp that she'd made [or altered?]. I don't think the series [unlike previous ones]has given me any good ideas to use myself. Something I have discovered recently are the pretend candles that you can put in plastic containers and hang from a shelf or ceiling.

Tegan - what with the time pressure and some of the 'style' I think it has become far too close to Changing Rooms. It would be interesting to go back to some of the homes in a few months (like in 'How Clean is Your House?') and see how the owners have altered them.
That wall hanging with mutilated cuddly toys has to go! Apart from any (many?!) other considerations it's a dust catcher!

...I've never read it but it kept reminding me of Stephen King's 'Pet Sematary' ....

The wall hanging would be the first to go. The problem with Lucy is her creative bits lot great on the mood board, but just home made in reality. Her client liked the lamp shade on the mood board, but it didn't show she would make it from a bit of sheet tin she found at home and would show wires all over it. As for putting it outside the chandelier??? Truly naff and very Changing Rooms and that's how I would describe her basic style.