Interior Design Masterclass - With Sophie Robinson and Daniel Hopwood

In May last year I was given a birthday treat to attend an Interior Design Masterclass with none other than Daniel Hopwood and Sophie Robinson. I missed my chance to blog about it at the time and shelved it. The current series of the Great Interior Design Challenge on BBC Two prompted me to get a wiggle on and finally write about it!

I so love #GIDC, now in its fourth series. It is a veritable feast for any fellow creatives. The inspiration, taking ideas and using them for your own, learning about new techniques, watching the contestants tackle the creative challenge. And my favourite bit is watching the process of transformation. Not just of the rooms themselves but of the contestants as they grow in their designing skills.

We moved house in June 2015 and the re-decorating/working on the house has been a slow process. So with my love of the Great Interior Design Challenge and needing ideas to get organised, I was so excited to be going on the course!

I was a little star struck to meet the presenters of one of my favourite shows (Kelly Hoppen has replaced Sophie in this current series but I've seen on Twitter she'll be back for the final! Yay!) but here I am, hanging out like we're best buds! I love Sophie's style and in past series she would often wear her signature tassel jewellery. So I had to wear my own from Joe Browns in homage to Sophie's style! She did notice and I mentioned this to her. I think I may've tried to get her to high five me with a shout of 'yeah man, tassel buddies!'. She was highly amused!

I also got to sit right next to Daniel during our lunch. I had a seat at the end of the table and he was at the head of it. It was lovely chatting away and hearing his views on various topics, not just #GIDC.

I found the course really inspiring and of course took copious notes. Daniel's expertise was on the planning and designing process as a whole. I found this most helpful as when I have ideas to decorate a room, I have a vague plan but usually just let it all come together, bit by bit. Rather than having a rigid plan with no room for manoeuvre. So it was quite refreshing to be taught a different way!

One of his tips I particularly liked was to use graph paper to plan the layout of the room and use loose pieces of paper to represent your furniture/features. That way you can move the bits of paper around until you get the look you want. Instead of drawing it all out then rubbing out, re-drawing and so on.

Above is a little sample of my notes from Daniel's talk. Sophie spoke more about colour and styling. I loved her energy and passion. There were little moments where she would puntuate her speech with a laugh of 'ha!', in her excitement of what she was showing us. I couldn't help but supress a giggle as I was swept away with her verve.

Here's another sample of my notes from Sophie's talk. One tip I picked up from Sophie after the event on her social media was regarding choosing paint for a room. To paint a large sheet of paper so you can hold it up in various parts of the room. That way you can check in different light and not get confused when you have 10 different samples painted on the walls next to each other!

The class was held in London and I cannot at all remember the venue it was held at. It was originally meant to be at The Artists' Residence Boutique hotel but they changed it at the last minute. I stayed at the hotel and it's another blog to tick off my list for a review.

At the venue for the class they had the most amazing peppermint tea! As you can see from the photo, it was made with fresh leaves. I remember the lady sitting opposite me saying she kept ordering hot drinks just for the little chocolate that went with it! As she was flagging without a bit of a sugar boost. I was definitely switching off towards the end myself. There is only so much information my little brain can take in in one day! Hence why the buttery shortbread cookies in the photo below were much welcomed in the afternoon break! I remember wrapping a few up and sneaking them in my bag to take home with me!

Another really useful part of the course was that we were able to ask for advice on any interior design dilemmas. I had been pondering about where to place fitted wardrobes in our bedroom so I was really blessed to get some help on it.
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I hope you enjoyed my experience of the class. If you want to book onto the next course, held in central London, upcoming dates are 28th January and 25th March 2017. The cost is £255. Please find below some useful links.

To book and find out more about Sophie: http://www.sophierobinson.co.uk/course/colour-course/interior-design-masterclass/
To find out more about Daniel:
https://www.danielhopwood.com/about/
One of the people I met on my class had just started a new interior design blog. Catch it here: www.thehomedesignschool.com
To see one of my own DIY projects, check out this link for my patchwork wallpaper project: http://www.justcreativejulia.co.uk/blog/patchwork-wallpaper-project