Last night’s Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr proved to be the last appearance for a Croydon-born contestant who had wowed the judges in previous episodes. By STEVEN DOWNES
Arbitrary decision: Briony Ace had been a leading contender on the Alan Carr-fronted design show until last night’s episode
Sometimes, even when you lose, you win.
Briony Ace’s phone has been ringing off the hook since she first appeared on the latest series of Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr (the inclusion of the last three words in the title, it seems, is of some great importance to the producers at the BBC).
Her elimination from the TV contest in last night’s quarter-final seems unlikely to hinder the progress of her fledgling design business.
Ace was born and brought up in Croydon, attending the BRIT School, although those key details seemed to be kept a closely guarded secret from viewers, at least until the previous episode, when the contestants were revamping corporate hostility boxes at Twickenham, and comedian Carr used the opportunity to have a pop at Ace’s Croydon roots (remember: he’s from Northampton, and they had a council that went bankrupt long before ours… ).
During the series, Ace twice won “top space” (or whatever the show calls it), but that was not enough to guarantee her a place in the last two shows after Mary Portas cast her eyes over her shared redesign of a women’s clothing and handmade jewellery boutique on one of fashionable Rye’s cobbled streets. Rita went through, Briony didn’t. It seemed a particularly tough, and arbitrary, choice.
A load of old balls: Briony Ace aced it on two episodes of the show, at Battersea Dogs’ Home and in the corporate hospitality areas at Twickenham
On the BBC’s website, 36-year-old Ace is described as being a “homewears retailer” from Surrey, which is only partly correct. Ace and her young family do live in Surrey now, but after 20 years in retail with her life partner, Ace has taken the plunge into interior design full-time now.
“I’m born and bred Croydon, grew up there and was there for a good, oh, 20 or 25 years,” Ace says when talking to Inside Croydon this week on strict condition of “no plot spoilers” before last night’s programme was broadcast. So sorry if you were planning on watching the episode on catch-up…
“Very much a Croydon girl.”
She says that she applied to appear on the programme after taking on a few private design commissions for friends and family. “I’ve been very lucky that since Interior Design Masters, without even being announced on the show, I was just getting regular work.
“So I’ve been really, really lucky.”
This latest series was recorded between June and October last year, with contestants usually getting about a week to prepare their designs for each task, before the rushed, breathless two-day shoot with decorators and chippies on site.
Ace had, well… aced it at Battersea Dogs’ Home with her doggie wallpaper, and later at Twickenham, where she grabbed the judges’ attention with a load of old balls.
Asked to name her favourite project, Ace is unable to choose one immediately. “I loved so many elements from each of my spaces. I just don’t know…
“Episode One, at Lake Windermere in the youth hostel felt so special, because it was the first time, I think, and being surrounded by so many like-minded creatives. Just having the opportunity, because I’m a superfan of the show. So to be on it is just phenomenal.
“Week One felt really special for that, and I loved what I did, like with the door and the up-cycles and that.
“But I honestly loved every week. I loved all of them. I can’t choose. That would be like choosing between your children, and I can’t do it.”
She says that the trickiest week was Week Two, when the contestants were tasked to turn a set of shipping containers on an industrial estate into elegant, comfortable work spaces.
“I think I kind of realised that I’d got it a bit wrong and couldn’t pull it together quick enough. I did a beautiful reclaimed glass door wall as a partition, but I didn’t show my design style enough.”
Ace has nothing but praise for the various celebrity judges brought in to endorse the views of chief judge Michelle Ogundehin, saying that they all offered help and advice off-camera. The shop makeover – a regular, testing task in each series – is tougher than most because, as Ace says, “it is real life and real humans that we were designing for this time”.
Design master: Briony Ace used the BBC programme to show off her design style
There’s no hint that this Croydon Ace was in any way demoralised by the experience. “Actually, we all smashed it. I look at the space now, the space that Rita and I produced as a team, it felt amazing and it looked amazing.”
The amount of beige paint used throughout the store may have cost Ace her place in the series, though Portas’s biggest complaint about the finished shop was over the choice of colour for partition curtains (the designers had opted for black).
“I think it probably was really hard for Michelle and Mary to tell who did what space actually, it was that cohesive, which I think actually was right for this scheme. It just, it looked so beautiful,” Ace said, hardly sounding downhearted.
“I think there could have been, maybe in my space, that little bit of something extra, that little bit of sparkle somewhere.
“But that’s the nature of the show. Someone had to go.
“When you get down to the last four, it is almost completely arbitrary.” So the carefully reconfigured, more discreet changing rooms, the bra-fitting area, the special cabinets for the hand-made jewelry, and the table and “consulting” area for the jewelry-maker, all designed by Ace and built inside two days, seemed to by-pass the judges’ considerations.
Ace’s time on the programme was spent juggling the life of a mother – she has sons aged six and four – her continuing business commitments and the one-week rush to pull together designs for the show’s builds. “It was a crazy time trying to do it all, but so much fun.”
As well as being a fan of the programme, Ace is a confirmed
Chatty man: Alan Carr was a delight to work with says Ace
member of the Alan Carr Appreciate Society. “Every moment with Alan Carr is the best moment, I tell you,” she tells me. “He is an utter delight.”
Ace is rather hoping that, bursting out from her 14,000 Instagram followers, one of her next gigs might be for Carr himself.
“I would love to design a room for my new pal Alan Carr and Amanda Holden for their renovation series,” she says. Carr’s interest in interior design appears to have flourished since his appearance on this programme, and his latest TV venture reclaiming abandoned homes in the Mediterranean with the Britain’s Got Talent judge.
“They always get their hands on the most gorgeous bare bones of properties and use amazing local suppliers and trades to bring life back into a home and village that will be well-used, well-loved and bring so much joy,” Ace says.
“They also seem to fit in regular snack and drink breaks, normally involving sunshine, which seems a bit more relaxing than the two-day turnaround I’ve become accustomed to.”
Potential customers of Croydon’s Briony Ace, please take note.
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Most of Croydon is great it’s just the town centre , West Croydon and Thornton Hearh which give it a terrible reputation worldwide (note Iron Man 3 reference). Croydon Council aren’t doing much help to any of those areas , such as removing public benches outside M&S North End for instance. …..so things can only get worse.
Perry’s only answer seems to be to remove things, cut or axe them.