Cassie's Interior Design Masters Journal - Episode Two // Hotels
So I made it through to week two! I feel like I’m starting to understand this whole process of filming a TV show a little more. I am less nervous as I now know what to expect and the people are becoming much more familiar. Now we are off to Bournemouth!
It’s straight to the hotel and we have a quick turn around until we get filming. I drive to site which again feels like a bit of a safe zone. This time I’m teamed with Terian and Frank, we got off to a slightly shaky start when discussing our ideas so I was a bit nervous about what the atmosphere would be like when we arrived. When we first get to Bournemouth it still feels a little like the two separate teams from the first week, but it gets a bit better after the team drive in.
Last week we had it thrown on us that it was a chocolate themed hotel!? Themes are not my thing and I rack my brains all week for things we could add as a team that are chocolate based. I really can’t think of anything that isn’t total crap, but I suppose I was missing the point there a little bit. It’s just not what I would do so I kind of ignored the whole chocolate thing. Lesson 1 - it will get pointed out if you kind of skirt around the idea that it is supposed to have a milk chocolate theme.
We had a week to plan this one and in hindsight I now realise I started in the wrong place. The brief said to add our own style as they wanted each room to be different. I started the whole design based on these two amazing antique fringed curtain pelmets I found. I love them, I knew not everyone would. They are over the top and more than a bit theatrical. I should have started with the specific room and what the space needed to function better. I did think of these things and tried to address them but my excitement was around the textiles I had sourced
Working in the hotel was firstly very hot and very busy! The rooms were small and with crew and trades people in the room things could get very tight. I swear on site there was around a hundred people (that could be a slight exaggeration).
The first day was super hot and carrying in all of our stuff I got a bit stressed out as it was all going a bit slowly and I just wanted to push on. We had an evening where a lot of the crew and trades all went to the beach and had fish and chips and a few beers. This was one of my favourite memories. Bournemouth looked amazing and it became very evident all of a sudden that this experience, although had moments of a summer jolly was a big enterprise that involved so many people. From production crew, design team, trades etc and was the product of a lot of hardwork and many friends were made along the way.
I got to work with Will the carpenter for the second time and Leigh doing the decorating. Once you are in your room they are the only people you really see and get to chat to as there is just so much to do. We had a great time in our slightly warm little room and Will did a grand job of making my drawings into reality. Any time you want to chat to another member of your team or see anyone else’s room you are pretty much always being filmed, as obviously the don’t want to miss anything. However by episode 2 I now realised these small conversations take quite a lot of time, so sometimes I would quickly try and sneak in to other peoples rooms if I just want to borrow something. There is definelty moments where all you can think about is finishing your room on time and the whole making a TV show part in your head seems to come second.
It is obvious we wouldn’t be here if the TV show wasn’t being made. Once I got this mentality in my head I started to understand what bits may be interesting to film. I was also getting very comfortable having random chats with Fearne about my love of slightly ramshackle antique lace, she is a total pro and such a warm person that you couldn’t help but feel at ease with her.
So here are a lot of photos of Terian. I want to do alittle ode to this amazing woman. We had a great week in Bournemouth and I found out not only is she lovely, has an unhealthy obsession for a fleece, she is also one of the most hilarious people I have ever met. She is so quick witted and her observational humour just gets me all the time. Her instagram stories are a total must watch !! I’m writing this before I have seen the show but I am sure there will be some classic comedic moments from Terian in there, but if you are left wanting more do watch the videos over on her Instagram. The day a rogue cat followed her home I watched so many times and just could not stop laughing.
There were 20 minutes left and a lot of little bits left to sort and I go into Terians room to help her. She is putting up her pictures. I do make the slight suggestion that maybe there is enough time to actually put them inline with the bed and not on the massive wonk. Worried about the time, she made the decision to leave them as they are. This photo really does crack me up as it is something Michelle picked up on and we laughed about loads afterwards. In the real world of course all these kind of things wouldn’t happen but the time pressure is huge and there really isn’t time to stand back and take a look or even change your mind on anything.
I really enjoyed finding the pieces for this room, I especially loved the paintings, the textiles and that pelmet!! I think thats what made me so happy at the time with the final outcome. However I look back now and can see a lot of mistakes I made in this room including all the things Michelle told me.
My Main Mistakes
Lamp and accessories - I had the perfect antique lamp coming for the desk /dressing table, however it didn’t arrive in time. All of the new possible replacement I could find locally, were just no where near as good. However I think now getting a new lamp that wasn’t perfect would have made that whole other side of the room look better and less unfinished. I also could have done with a few more paintings for the other side too and should have just got a few pieces that were not antiques and that would have been better than having nothing.
I felt at the time if I just painted the room I wasn’t doing enough so added the extra deeper pink and the anaglypta wallpaper. I was just going to far. The peach colour by itself without the second colour would have been better.
It is a hotel and I did originally think about cleaning the fabric around the pelmet, it was all supposed to be hooked and clipped up so it could be easily removed for cleaning. I bought all the fixings to do it but just got a bit carried away with all the fabrics. Michelle was so right what I had done was so much more suitable for a residential home rather than a hotel.
I didn’t buy any new bedding as we knew they had existing white bedding and to be honest in a hotel that is what I would expect. Buying a fresh set even would have made the whole bed crisper as well as all the styling techniques as extra pillows, putting two duvets in etc ( that I picked up from Frank) would have made a lot of difference to the bed.
Being on the sofa was actually weirdly enjoyable. It was the first chance of getting any feedback and although it may not have gone that well for me I felt quite confident when I was sat there. However it was so hot we kept having to have filming breaks. It is as tense as it looks but to be honest I did feel relaxed, I was mostly just excited to chat to Jade Jagger and Michelle about interiors. When we weren’t filming Jade was wandering around bare foot and came and had a chat with us all she was very encouraging and just seemed very cool.
I’m not sure what its going to be like to watch back. I felt at the time like I was a bit of an emotional statue. I think partly because I hadn’t really drawn on my competitive spirit yet and was still very much enjoying the whole experience. I was last to speak and as it was so hot and so emotional I did just want it all to be over for me as well as everyone in that room so I remember not really saying very much to try and save myself.
I think I was calm, I hope I looked calm, I probably didn’t at all. There were a lot of tears from everyone else at the “sofa moment” I can often be a bit of a cryer just not in this situation. You wack me in front of Queer Eye and I’m balling for the whole show.
I was really sad to see Trish leave as she was so much fun to be around and always managed to make you realise that what we were doing was not a normal everyday occurrence. With more people leaving I started to realise how much fun I was having and how much I didn’t want to leave.
If you would like to see my inspirations and ideas for the Hotels week please click through here to my Pinterest page.