We’ve come to the end of this and I’m so excited because this is the episode where the contestants finally design a space.
I’ll be reviewing Episode 10 and the Finale as one big episode for continuty’s sake.
The episode opens with a quick recap of the entire season. Then the contestants head to Bo Concept , an international furniture and home goods brand with a store in Lagos. They retail contemporary pieces with modern influence. As a side note I found one of their Nigerian catalogues when I was thrifting for design magazines a few weeks ago. They have a good selection of pieces and their store is still up and running.
The contestants tour the store, while Titi speaks to them about things to consider when selecting furniture. They look at swatches and comment on their preferences.
Next up the contestants are taken to Do-11 designs a “Made in Nigeria” furniture design store owned by Mrs Ifeyinwa Ighodalo. They took a quick tour of the space before they were informed that they were allowed to bring an evicted contestant back to help them out with their final task.
Ife choses Ummi to help her out with the task and Tayo chooses Shem. A living and dining area with white blank walls. The contestants are taken to a the space that they will be designing. Titi tells them that the guest judge and client is well travelled, an international model and a lover of dogs. She reveals that this client is Agbani Darego, the Nigerian Miss World Winner.
Agbani is shown speaking about her personal taste. However the contestants aren’t present. I hope they get the memo. We aren’t shown the contestant’s shopping experience at Bo Concept and Do 11 designs. We just see them haul furniture in to the space.
Unfortunately the contestants weren’t allowed to paint, but it seems like they could put wall paper which Ife did. They didn’t get any drapes or window coverings either. I believe they were given less than 12 hours to decorate as there wasn’t anything structural being done, just furniture placement.
Here are their spaces
IFE’S SPACE
TAYO’S SPACE
Soon after, it was time to judge. Tayo’s space was a bit sparse. He decided to go with a monochrome palette with pops of lemon yellow. He made some smart choices; interpreting the brief to mean that Agbani would want a relaxed color scheme because of her glamorous life, he also presented sketches and other concept development documents that showed that he thought deeply about his choices. However, I felt like it could have been done better. Some of the furniture peices didn’t tie up with the rest, the art piece wasn’t hung up and still had some of the packaging left on it and for me the yellow felt like an exclamation mark in the space. There wasn’t much to tie it in with other colors.
Agbani seemed to like it seeing that it tied in with her earlier stated design style.
Ife on the other hand let a painting of a Cuban woman smoking a cigar inspire the space. She also thought deeply about her decisions; she considered that Agbani would entertain and that she would like a private reading nook. The lay out was better and the judges noticed that. Unfortunately, the space had one too many accessories. There were also 2 lamps that didn’t tie in with the rest of the space. I also didn’t really like some color choices. But I did like Ife’s space more; it was warmer and had a more finished look.
It was time to announce the winner. Apparently Agbani was the sole judge of this task and her winner was Tayo. He won the sponsored course at Decor and Rainbow in England.
And that’s it. The end of Interiors by Design. I searched for the top two contestants on Instagram and I found them. Tayo runs a design firm called Tyme Studios and Ife runs a firm called Studio Aid.
We’ve come to the end of my review of Interiors by Design. I have a few final thoughts.
First, I hope everyone involved is proud of what they achieved. I do understand that being the first with limited resources means having to make tough choices about the quality of content.
I also think the show should be renewed for another season with more funding so the designers can tackle spaces for most of the competition. The tasks of this season largely failed to show viewers the contestants’ styles and design approaches. Providing a bigger prize and doing better marketing will help the competition find designers with a certain level of skill. This will eliminate this classroom-examination format that was used.
Oh and Titi Fowora has amazing style, her outfits were amazing throughout. The last thing is the show needs a new host. Please.
And that’s it for my review of Interiors by Design, Nigeria’s first Design Reality television show. Here’s a link to watch the show.
My final rating of the entire show is 2/5.
Have you got to watch it? Do you have any thoughts? Let me know!
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