It was semi-final week on Interior Design Masters, and the three remaining contestants were tasked with transforming two hospitality boxes each at Brighton & Hove Albion’s football ground.
One box was designed for a corporate client, while the other was created for a team player to share with family and friends.
Head judge Michelle Ogundehin was joined by guest judge Shane Brady, renowned for designing high-end hotels and hospitality spaces, including the Savoy and Mandarin Oriental in London.
'For me,' Shane warned, 'premium hospitality is all about feeling and emotion, but it’s also about premium materials that really resonate.'
With just two days and a budget of £4,000 to complete both spaces, the challenge proved to be a tough test for the remaining designers.
Artist, papier-mâché devotee and football coach Emmely Elgersma, 35, from Stoke Newington in north London, created a bold blue and white fan-zone, but the judges felt it was not elevated enough for striker Danny Welbeck.
What to Read Next
Michelle also struggled with Emmely’s chocolate-brown ‘gentleman’s club’ scheme for a building maintenance company’s corporate box.
Ultimately, it was the full-time whistle for Emmely, who became the latest designer to leave the competition. Her exit means Lia and Sophie will go head-to-head in next week’s final.
You totally embraced the gentlemen’s club vibe for your corporate box – can you still look at brown?
E.E: I think brown is going to be in vogue, it already is. When Michelle said, ‘I don’t understand the brown’, I was like, ‘just give it a couple of years, it’s getting popular now, isn’t it?’.
Because I’d been using so much bright colours, I wanted to try something different.
Michelle said perhaps you could have brought in another colour, like racing green. Would that have worked?
E. E: No, that impact of the vintage football with the brown, the cream on the ceiling… the view outside with the seats and stuff, I was like, it doesn’t need to be fussy.
Shane said, 'I don’t want to see any blue and white stripes or mascots.' But there you were with your mascot and your blue and white…
E.E: He doesn’t like football though, does he? I thought I’m absolutely screwed with this one, let’s just have fun with it.
Danny Welbeck has done amazing since I’ve done his box! I know how important it is for players to feel at ease when they’re playing. I just wanted to make a box that was perfect for his children and his family. I wanted it to be fun and playful. I thought, 'I’m not giving you Soho House, you’ve got three kids who need to be entertained when the football’s on.'
How did you win Michelle round to papier-mâché?
E.E: I think [with Michelle] it’s that thing of I did everything else she said, it was just like ‘let her do this’ – it’s like if you tidy your bedroom, you can watch TV.
Papier-mâché is my signature style. I want people at home to feel like they can do art from anything. I really wanted to inspire people not just with design but with art, and it being cheap and accessible. There’s that element of stubbornness in me, having been an artist my whole life. I was like, if Michelle didn’t like it I wasn’t bothered, because art is so subjective. I still wanted to encourage people to do it.
Even on the street, someone said 'are you papier-mâché girl?' I do ceramics, I do painting, I do drawing. I’m just addicted to papier-mâché.
Tell us one thing that goes on behind the scenes that viewers don’t know about…
E.E: There’s been a couple of them where we’d have a few drinks at the Premier Inn and everyone’s hungover in the morning. The ones that are my favourite are when the trades are with you and we all hang out together. It gets sometimes quite boozy. I think that’s the fun thing.
It’s amazing that I’ve got a whole new friendship group. It’s like you’re on tour, you’re away from everyone, your loved ones, and you have to make this family.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve found yourself doing?
E.E: Getting into the semi-final. I thought I was going in week one. They’ve always got the creative contestant that goes in week two or whatever because they don’t listen. When I was on the sofa in week one, I was like here we go, I’m gone.
I’d never done carpentry, taught myself SketchUp, spatial design, architecture.
What does interior design mean to you?
E.E: I guess the space you occupy is very important in terms of colours and mood. The thing is, interior design can be quite pretentious and that was my thing to make it less pretentious – if I can do it, you can do it.
Time to manifest... Tell us, where do you hope to be this time next year?
E.E: I’m off to Japan on Sunday to renovate an office. I used to be a residency coordinator for a video games company and they heard I’d been doing interior design. They said, 'we’ve got this office space and would you like to do it,' so I’m off for two weeks.
But next year, I don’t know, probably a bigger house, out of the bedroom, I guess maybe a flat or space to myself. Doing more projects, more collaborations, keep learning, finding the fun in life, keep creating and do more papier-mâché.
• Follow Emmely on Instagram
