Interior Design Workshop from Martin Holland and MartinMark Design

You might think that writing an interiors blog enables you to be an interior designer. Well you’d be wrong. I get messages from many people asking for help and advice, and I always try to assist where I can, but I’m clear that I’m really not an interior designer.

Whilst I’ve watched many a home makeover show on the tv, and love doing up my own home of course, I come out in a cold sweat if I’m asked for design ideas on someone else’s home. So don’t be surprised when I tell you that a few weeks ago, I attended an Interior Design Workshop for interior enthusiasts, hosted by celebrity designers MartinMark Design.

The talented duo, made up of Martin Holland, winner of the Great Interior Design Challenge (Season 2 if you’re wondering) and his partner Mark Walters, run an interior design business catering for both residential and commercial spaces, and have brought their expertise to a series of interactive workshops running in Nottingham throughout 2017.

Firstly, let me say how refreshing it is to NOT have to go to London to find something like this. I know I’m biased being Nottingham based myself, but choosing this location does enable the guys to keep their costs lower, and the price of the course reasonable too.

So let me tell you more about the day. This course is aimed at YOU, the interior design enthusiast. It’s not all high-brow and unattainable. It’s accessible, real and down to earth. So if you have an interest in interior design, have a room or two looking for a makeover and want to understand how to go about designing it effectively, this workshop is perfect.

Furthermore, if you love getting your hands dirty and putting what you learn into practice, you’ll love this. It’s very hands on. Don’t expect to spend hours listening to lectures; within the first half an hour, you’ll be measuring, drawing, gathering inspiration and creating your vision. Time is divided between concise, thoughtful and useful presentation sessions, and interactive, creative time where you get to make moodboards and draw plans relating to your own personal project.

The Venue:

Based in a converted building north of Nottingham city centre, Scene Studio is the perfect venue for this kind of workshop. Huge high ceilings, bags of natural light, and big open spaces make this a stunning location and a great space to find inspiration and discover your creativity.

The People:

You won’t know it yet, but a workshop like this is where you’re going to meet like-minded interior junkies just like you. You can spend all day lusting over colours, patterns, textures and more, debating minimalism versus maximalism, discussing whether dark walls are here to stay, and how Abigail Aherne’s faux plants are changing the way we decorate. (Well maybe I exaggerated the last point, but you get the idea). Basically, you’re going to spend the day with some great people who love the same things as you.

The Food:

Martin is a fabulous chef. In fact, I suspect he could have been on Masterchef instead of the GIDC and won that instead. So the food is pretty extraordinary. Oh and there’s champagne too.

Your Knowledge:

So what will you learn? Well I guess it depends what you know already, but for me, the workshop cemented my ideas on colour and lighting and taught me how to make a moodboard properly to bring my vision to life. It showed me that it’s ok to procrastinate over a colour scheme, but at some point you need to make a decision, and how to go about doing that. (Let’s just say there are a lot of magazines to use for inspiration).  And I learned how to make plans and do proper research before I go spending money on lights and cushions, something I’m going to do fully on the next project.

The Goodie Bag:

You’ll come away with a lot of resources including Valspar paints and brushes, Willow and Honey candles, soap, colour swatches, discounts with Sofa.com and so much more. This really is excellent value for money. Oh, and of course Martin will share lots of behind the scenes info about GIDC, and stories of how the show helped him launch this phase of his career.

The MartinMark Design Interior Design Workshop is on next on 13th May, with more dates throughout the year. Tickets are available HERE, costing £160 each.

Disclosure: I was gifted the experience but wouldn’t hesitate to pay for the ticket, and wholly recommend the day.