Guilty pleasure or credible interior design show? Either way, viewing figures for Interior Design Masters suggest it is compulsive television for 1.8 million of us. The fifth series of the BBC One show, hosted by interiors expert Michelle Ogundehin and comedian Alan Carr, has just finished and, after eight weeks of challenges, crowned 30-year-old Roisin Quinn as its 2024 winner. 

‘Three weeks before I started filming I quit my job as a travel adviser in Liverpool. I’d always thought I had something creative in me – I just didn’t know how to express it,’ Quinn says.

She’d spent her early years in Ireland, moving, aged nine, to the Isle of Man with her parents, Michelle and Tommy, and siblings Danielle, Declan and Imelda. After a degree in drama and a spell travelling that led to work in the industry, styling her wedding in late 2022 got her involved in interiors.

‘It made me realise that I really wanted to pursue a more creative path. After the wedding, people said I should go into event styling, but I knew interiors was more for me. My parents’ new house was the missing piece of the puzzle.’

Michelle and Tommy had recently built Primrose Lodge, a five-bedroom family home on the Isle of Man’s Ramsey coast. They had consulted a couple of designers, but the decorating schemes they had put together weren’t hitting the spot, so the house remained bland and unfinished.

Roisin in the entrance hall, which features Summer Flowers mosaic tiles, £436.80 a sq m, bisazza.com. The stair runner is from local company osborns.im. The panelling is painted in Dark Brunswick Green, £57.50 for 2.5 litres, littlegreene.com

‘I thought I could do better,’ says Quinn. ‘It required a big budget and Mum and Dad had saved hard all their lives and wanted to create something special for their retirement. We were on the same page in terms of style, so they took a leap of faith and trusted me with everything.’ The images in this article reveal the colourful results.

In early 2023, Quinn applied for a course at Manchester Metropolitan University. Despite the experience she’d had decorating her parents’ home, her application was turned down. Rather than give up, instead she applied to be a contestant on Interior Design Masters. 

The selection process, which began in April 2023, included four rounds of interviews and a screen test with the producers in London. ‘I didn’t feel that confident, but had to keep telling myself that if I got through to the next round, they must have liked what they’d seen.’

A week later Quinn received the call to say she was joining the show. Sadly, the elation of being selected did not last long as, shortly after, her father Tommy was diagnosed with cancer. This was devastating news for the family.

‘I felt a lot of guilt for joining the show,’ says Quinn, ‘as I knew I would be away filming so much. I kept thinking I should be at home, focusing on my dad. But once filming started I think it helped. It was brilliant to be able to call Dad in the hospital and say that I was through to the next week,’ she says.

The show began with ten contestants (the least successful designer being eliminated each week), all facing the challenge of transforming a range of commercial spaces across the UK, with a limited budget and help from a small band of tradespeople. Quinn delighted the judges with her bold designs, from revamping a nun’s cell in Norfolk into a B&B to working over Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Wembley Arena dressing room.

Her ability to inject colour, pattern and personality into everything she created saw her declared the winner (last Tuesday). ‘I was handed a glass of champagne but was in such shock I couldn’t stop shaking. Alan Carr had to retrieve the glass before I spilt it!

‘It sounds so weird to say, but 2023 was the best and worst year of my life,’ she says. ‘It was so interesting to learn the two extremes can coincide. I kept feeling I cannot possibly be this happy while all of this other stuff is going on.’

Her dad is doing well and she has a contract with La Redoute for an exclusive homeware and wallpaper collection, as well as plans to launch her own design studio, while working on projects for boutique hotels, restaurants and bars. So the future for Quinn is looking as bright and joyful as the rooms she artfully creates.

Visit primrosestudio.co.uk and follow Roisin on Instagram @roisinquinn