For the UK interior design industry, London acts like a black hole sucking in product, education and designers to the exclusion of everywhere else. Little wonder you might think when, with a population of 9.3 million people, it is more than three times the size of its nearest rival city, Manchester.

But is this how it should be and is this situation inevitable? Talented and professional interior designers are constantly completing challenging, world-class, complex projects all over the country!

We are joined by Fiona Watkins of Fiona Watkins Design, Cath McCubbin founder of Design Central UK and Kate Hatherell of The Interior Designer’s Hub to explore if interior design is too London-centric.

This episode was recorded in front of a live audience of interior designers at Design Central North West, Capesthorne Hall in Cheshire.

Thanks to our series supporters, Havwoods, the prevailing name in beautiful wood flooring. 

In this episode, we preview Decorex 2023, Europe’s leading event for interior design professionals, which opens its doors at Olympia London on Sunday 8th October running until Wednesday 11th October.

We hear from four of the key figures involved in this year's event.   

Listen to Sam Fisher, Event Director at Decorex, alongside Brian Woulfe of Designed by Woulfe, Mark Tremlett of Naturalmat and Laurence Katz of Elemental Studio as they explain what to look out for at Decorex 2023. 

Thanks to our series supporter, Havwoods the prevailing name in beautiful wood flooring.

The Interior Design Business is a media partner of Decorex 2023. 

We all want dream projects that will earn us the accolades of our peers and attract new clients. But what makes an award-winning project? What makes it special and worth the significant investment in money, time and effort that it takes to prepare a winning award entry?

Find out in our latest episode with Lisa Keates from Keates Interiors as she talks us through her award-winning project from the Northern Design Awards 2022. 

Thanks to our series supporter, Havwoods the prevailing name in beautiful wood flooring.

If ‘a picture paints a thousand words’, then surely an interior can tell a thousand stories?

Our most beloved interior spaces are grounded in a time and place and speak eloquently of the lives of the people who have inhabited them either now or in the past.

But what is the magic essence that makes these much-loved places so special? And how can interior designers recreate this magic in their work?  

To shed light on these questions, we're joined by consummate storytellers Inge Moore and Nathan Hutchins, co-founders and creative directors of global interior design studio, Muza Lab.

This episode was recorded at the London home of Inge Moore. Thanks to Havwoods, the prevailing name in beautiful wood flooring for their support. 

The Interior Design Business is a Wildwood Plus production.  

Interior designers are a bit like ‘piggy in the middle’. They must be adept at managing client relationships while also managing their supply chains in order to finish on time and deliver the best possible projects.

So, how can designers find and retain professional and reliable suppliers? How can they ensure they get early warning when things are going wrong? And is it possible to build a dream supplier team that will last forever?

To help us answer these important questions and more, we are joined today by Ed O’Donnell from Angel O’Donnell and BIID Register Interior Designer, Naomi Astley Clarke.

Recorded in front of a live audience at the Andrew Martin showroom on Tottenham Court Road in London. Thanks to Havwoods, the prevailing name in beautiful wood flooring for their support. 

The Interior Design Business is a Wildwood Plus production.  

Many people would love to have a career in interior design. To get there, some take the conventional route of obtaining an interior design qualification straight out of school and then gain experience within an established design practice before branching out on their own, but many also set up businesses later in life and enjoy a satisfying career having already had a career in another field.

Do late-design bloomers have any advantages over their younger rivals? And is it possible to be a good designer without a design qualification?

We are joined today by three designers from very different backgrounds to discuss this topic - Charlotte Dawson from Chestnut Interiors, Stephen Tozer from Boaz Interiors and Susie Rumbold, creative director of Tessuto Interiors and a Past President of the British Institute of Interior Design.

Recorded in front of a live audience at Design Central South West in Blagdon, Somerset. Thanks to Havwoods, the prevailing name in beautiful wood flooring. 

The Interior Design Business is a Wildwood Plus production.  

Sustainability is defined as ‘the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level’.

But, given the environmental damage we have already inflicted on our planet, is it sufficient to maintain the status quo at our current degraded level?

In other words, is it enough to merely cause no further damage or should we be setting our sights higher with long-term goals to restore the environmental quality of our home to pre-industrial levels?

Mel Meale from Steer Design and Simon Myatt from Havwoods share ideas with Jeff and Susie in an episode recorded in front of a live audience at the recent Design Central South West event held at Blagdon in Somerset. 

Thanks to Havwoods the prevailing name in beautiful wood flooring. 

The Interior Design Business is a Wildwood production. 

Buying the services of an interior designer is unlike any other purchase. The client knows they have a project and a set of requirements, they have a budget figure in mind, they know when they want the project to end, and they may know what they like, but beyond that they have no idea what the finished product will be.

For most people that is a truly daunting prospect. The answer,of course, is to get help from a professional. But where can you go to find this wonderful person who truly gets you and will be able to give you the perfect product? And, once you think you have found them how can you be certain that they can deliver?

Jackie Fisken from Ampersand Interiors, John Amabile from John Amabile Design and Nicky Emlick from N M Design joined co-hosts Jeff Hayward and Susie Rumbold to share their views in a lively discussion recorded in front of a live audience at the splendid sofa.com showroom in Glasgow.  

Thanks to our series supporter, Havwoods.  

In this episode, we explore ways that designers can sustain and grow their businesses by working smarter not harder in the company of Freeman Studio's, Mathew Freeman, the President of the British Institute of Interior Design and Anna Burles, Creative Director and Founder of Run For The Hills.  

It seems the only way designers and architects can achieve the quality results that their clients expect is to produce drawings and other information in such detail that there is no room for misinterpretation on site and that nothing could possibly ever go wrong.

But was this always the case? Or has something fundamentally shifted? And if so, how can designers do less and still achieve the perfect product for their clients?

This episode was recorded at the Havwoods showroom in Clerkenwell. Havwoods, the prevailing name in wood flooring is a supporter of the series.  

The Interior Design Business is a Wildwood Plus production.  

Most people walk through the world with their eyes closed, not seeing the beauty or noticing the details that surround them, but this is certainly not true of interior designers.

But how can they ensure their work never gets stale? Where should they go to look for fresh inspiration and how do they recognise it when they see it?

For this episode, we are lucky enough to be joined by internationally acclaimed designer, Katharine Pooley, to find out how she uses travel as an inspiration and how it translates into her work.

The Interior Design Business is supported by Havwoods, the prevailing name in beautiful wood flooring. 

We are a Wildwood production.