Sunny interior designer Sophie Robinson has been dubbed the “Queen of Colors,” decorating homes with vibrant paneling and riotous patterns. So what was she doing in Dream Home Makeover with Sophie Robinson (Channel 5) You paint a black room? Not just the walls, but the ceiling as well?
It was the home of Kirsty and Martin, and an enormous former assembly hall in their converted school building. Wearing a leopard-print dress in sky blue and red, Robinson burst out and announced her idea. It’s fair to say that Kirsty and Martin didn’t seem convinced. “black?” Kirsty said. “black?” Martin said. “black?” Home viewers said.
I was transported to the ’90s, where the local bar in the delicious West Hampstead was, inexplicably, a Transylvanian-style dive with blackened walls and table coffins. I ran away from the building on my first visit when the owner tried to introduce me to an albino snake.
Anyway, the black color looked terrible, and it looked terrible when it was first applied to the walls. But the end result wasn’t too bad – well, as well as the room could have been when it had a full-size snooker table from Martin.
She preferred the job that Robinson did in the house of Arabella and Mark the Georgian. Floral floral wallpaper is paired with a blue geometric rug and shelves to house Arabella’s collection of taxidermy and animal skulls. The relationship between Arabella and Mark will be good in BBC Two Couples Therapy. Mark meekly ventured: “I would describe my taste as natural.” “What’s normal taste? Humble? Is that what you’re saying? Mischievous?” She asked Arabella, before she squandered everything she drank out of a jar of jam.
Robinson is a welcome presence on the TV house-changing scene, and he exudes dynamism. She knows her stuff, and fills the show with helpful advice (there are also plenty of photos of other homes listed as inspiration). She’s been blessed with big budgets here – Arabella and Mark set out £25,000 for the sitting room and hallway, with wallpaper at £240 a roll – but on next week’s show she’ll decorate a bedroom for £500. I finished the show wishing Robinson could take control of my house, a feeling I’ve never felt when watching the changing rooms.
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