Week, erm, Five of Fifty Two

The "Great" Interior Design Challenge As if Great British Allotment Challenge to Bake Off a MasterChef with The loud Voice throw...

The "Great" Interior Design Challenge

As if Great British Allotment Challenge to Bake Off a MasterChef with The loud Voice throwing clay in a Pottery throwdown wasn't enough those kind people at the BBC have brought back the Great Interior Design Challenge for a 3rd series.

There's one thing to commend this returning series and, sadly, it's not the interior design; they consistently pick interesting places in which to release the combatants. From a point of view of showing just how interesting, varied and full of "flava" our island architecture is the series is deserving of the "Great" attribution.

Monday, we watched, we took a diplomatic/optimistic/pragmatic (*stic) view but by the 2nd reveal we were having "issues". Our plucky contestants, equipped with 1 x handyman, 1 x decorator and 1 x 1000 English pounds had presented their mood boards, decided that eye level drawers would the the new thing, Scandi style = white with, well, more white and that despite the clear sophistication of an 11 year old client circles, a selfie booth and cute animals were definitely the right thing.

There was an (in)famous D.I.Y. program back in the 90's called Changing Rooms. Hosted by the most appropriately named Carol Smilie before she was replaced by nouveau fop Laurence Lewellyn -Bowen this show was responsible for a global upswing in the sale of staple guns and the spreading of a vicious rumour that most interior design = "themed" as in theatrically themed.

Wanted for crimes against interiors? Nouveau Fop (but entertaining none the less)

Why mention this throwback? Well this is about the quality of "execution", you can have off the wall ideas, you can cover the furniture and homeowners in astro-turf and get brave with a mixed media painting using nothing but materials sourced from a Chinese takeaway if you do it well.

Challenging ideas, bad ideas, nightmare inducing ideas all can be polished when or if executed with confidence and quality. Conversely take even the best design and use the 1000 monkeys you had previously hoped would write a new Shakespeare novel and ask them to execute it and it will be, err, rubbish.

These guys have 996 friends, right now they could be painting your living room...

Circles that weren't circular, "up-cycled" table featuring tree-trunk decoupage and the aforementioned eye level drawer (think about it) were just some of the issues. One contestant was heard to profess that fatigue had caused her to forget her obsession with clean painting lines - fortunately it was not made clear whether the fatigue had set in during the competition or some years ago.

We were treated to lights suspended from a timber beam using stick on hooks - because lets face it all those cracks, dust are just a perfect key. One fabric obsessed contestant (who later went on to win this heat) upholstered (in the very loosest of sense) a cupboard with an eye for quality you'd get from the 2 of the Stygian Witches for whom it was not their turn for a good day.

There was also a clear issue with research; if a client asks us for a neolithic feel with modern Italian accents juxtaposed with Atoni Gaudi inspired surface finishes you can be confident we'd at least fire up Google before throwing together a mood board.

"It'll take some getting used to but I think they captured it (my nightmare)"

Again our courageous winner takes the prize in the He Knows No Google Fu by conjuring up an interesting "interpretation" of Steampunk.

Steampunk - note no cobalt blue or dias de les muertos fabric skulls! 

You can be sure we'll be watching till the (bitter) end and we're hoping the quality takes an upswing but if you take away anything from the program, at least so far, please make it; do research the brief and if you can't execute something well don't keep on and compromise.

Grand Designs Australia

To pick the mood up somewhat and remind ourselves that not everything needs to be reality TV challenge/<x> off or throwdown we caught up with a recent Grand Designs Australia episode.

This one featured a photographer who, in what is perhaps the very definition of epic downsizing, built a new home on the footprint previously assigned to his garage. This had some "warning" signs at the start, a liberal sprinkling of the eco word, seasoning in the form of a handful of the word green and lots of other Gaia Hypothesis suggestive phrases but in true GD Aus form what we actually got was a bit of a special treat.

We'd strongly recommend watching this one, it shows what can be done with the smallest of small plots (a recurring challenge in most large urban centers), how you can minimise your impact, lighten your footprint and leave a legacy for the children whilst enjoying great design.

Probably not for all and certainly a small space, resolutely for one or maybe two, the result was a triumph and a great way of avoiding ongoing gym subscriptions when you have 4 stories and no lift.

Obi-wan kenobi

We'd hazard a guess that most people hearing Obi will be thinking, depending on their age, of either Alec Guiness or Ewan McGregor. For those of a more, shall we say global disposition, images of far eastern culture may come to mind and here we solve the mystery of why a Jedi is making a guest appearance.

The other Obi, not a good wall-hanging or table runner but quite useful in a fight

In Japan where traditional dress is the kimono (for both men and woman) the garment is typically adorned with a wide sash/belt called an Obi. These can be very long, how long? how about 4meters, and that's not a typo, 400cm, 4000mm - however you look at it that's a long belt in a country famed for the smallness of their "frames".

400cm by 30cm... We need a bigger monitor

They are frequently made of silk, some feature complex patterns, some embroidery, some have gold or silver threads. Some are patterned throughout their entire length and some only for part of their length.

We mention them here as one is shortly to feature in an interesting project where we'll be "re-purposing" a full 4m one and displaying it against a lacquered wall finish.

What we would say is; take an hour or so to browse eBay, confine your search to Obi and your from location to Japan and peruse. There's an enormous range of price, quality, size, colour, age but we suspect you'd conjure up a few uses - how about an unusual table runner or using parts of one to make a bag, used horizontally on a wall it could be an interesting feature or use a geometric/graphically patterned one on a modern sideboard.

Sockets

They're done, finally, a full write up with our standard sprinkling of pictures and warts 'n' all gallery will be here this week. It's been a difficult birth but worth all the pain(s) and we hope you agree.

5 ready to go

This Week's Obsession - Artfinder.co.uk

Artfinder - keep us away from this place, we're cautious of even creating a link to it here should it weave it's mysterious magic upon innocent readers. We've all been lured in at various times over the last couple of years but a resurgence in interest due to a new portfolio project work has seen us revisiting the site and "losing" time.

If you're feeling brave, have a good grasp on your wallet (virtual or otherwise) click here to enter the Artfinder time vortex.

• [message]
• Week What of What? You What? I mean, pardon?
• These posts give us a chance to recap on the last week at Bokoshoko and give you a glimpse of what's happening. Many of our projects take time to come to fruition or our customers would prefer we did not share so these posts also show we're not just sitting around!