r/InteriorDesignMasters

Every season there's a room that looks absolutely stunning, then the judges point out that it completely ignored what the client asked for.

A lot of people seem to focus on which room they'd personally want, but surely the competition is about solving the client's problem, not just creating the prettiest space.

Has the best room ever deserved to lose because it missed the brief?

Every season there's at least one designer I don't really notice at first. Then they produce one room that suddenly makes me understand exactly what they're trying to do. Has anyone else had a contestant completely win them over with a single challenge?

After watching every series from 2 to 7, I'm starting to think Interior Design Masters isn't just a design competition.

It's a time management competition disguised as a design competition.

Contestants rarely talk about lacking ideas. They talk about lacking time. In Series 4, Monika admits, "I do struggle a little bit with... the time management," before later confessing, "I am very stressed that I will run out of time." She survives, adapts and eventually wins the series.

Series 6 tells a similar story. John's biggest weakness isn't creativity—it's trying to do too much. Along the way he admits, "I'm worried that we're not going to get it all done." Alan even jokes, "Can we talk about your time management problem?" By the final, Michelle sums up his journey perfectly: "One of the biggest lessons that John's had to learn is time management." He goes on to become Interior Design Master.

What's interesting is that Michelle rarely criticises time management directly. Instead she talks about unfinished execution, missing atmosphere, rooms that haven't quite come together, or ideas that have been compromised. They're all different symptoms of the same problem: the clock won.

The contestants who do best seem to learn one crucial lesson. They stop trying to do everything. They edit their ideas, prioritise what really matters and leave themselves enough time for the finishing touches.

Because on Interior Design Masters, a brilliant idea only counts if you can finish it.

It feels like being talented at interior design and being good at Interior Design Masters aren't always the same thing. Deadlines, budgets and client briefs can completely change the outcome. Has there been a contestant who you thought was genuinely brilliant but just couldn't adapt to the competition?

Every series has that one challenge where the gap between the best and worst transformations is so wide it makes for genuinely compelling television. Series 7 felt more confident than previous ones overall, the range of perspectives on space was noticeably wider this time round which made the eliminations harder to call week to week. Some episodes I genuinely had no idea who was going home until the last minute. Which challenge do you think separated the best contestants from the rest most clearly this series?