Wild Isle Style: Resourceful And Sustainable Interior Design Ideas

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And if that wasn’t keeping him busy enough, Banjo also runs a café and a shop on island and finds it the perfect way to immerse himself in the local community. Banjo’s passion for design, and his love of island life really does shine through in Designing The Hebrides, as he breathes new life into properties across the Islands,” says Steve Allen, commissioning editor for BBC Scotland. The weather is unpredictable, the locals are straight talking, the budgets are lean and you can’t just run to the shops to buy supplies - you have to be resourceful!”

Wild Isle Style: Resourceful And Sustainable Interior Design

He said: “On Interior Design Masters I used to create an imaginary character for my space, but I didn’t have to do that on the new show. These people are larger-than- life characters, you couldn’t write them.” Since taking home the crown on the BBC’s Interior Design Masters in 2022, Australian-born Banjo Beale has made his mark on interior design. Also on the agenda for the interiors pro is his book, Wild Isle Style: Resourceful, Original and Inventive Design Ideas, which is due out in October. And Banjo has a project in the pipeline for another Scottish star. We were actually in 'my' bar in Soho, with Alan and and the rest of the nine other guys [10 designers took part in the competition], and the production crew and some others. Watching it with 30 rowdy A type personalities in a Soho bar was all a bit mad for me. It wasn't like watching it in the little hotel room in London I'm normally staying in. Where are you now?Well, I would have said that the pace is slower, but I’m quite a chaotic person and anything I do tends to be a whirlwind, so I’m probably the wrong advertisement for slow living. But there is a definite pace that things move on an island, which means that you get to enjoy the smaller things. Tourism is a big thing on an island, and it just closes up in winter. It swells from around 10,000 people in summer, to 1000 or 500 people in winter. Banjo Beale Banjo’s passion for design, and his love of island life really does shine through in Designing The Hebrides, as he breathes new life into properties across the Islands. The final result sees the bothy retain its rustic feel, while being transformed into a stylish and comfortable living space. Pieces of upcycled furniture add to the authenticity, while the wooden panels that cover the lower half of the walls are painted in neutral colours to reflect the natural landscape. So winter is when we do all our craft, when we do all our weaving, we knit, and we make all our preserves. We coorie, which is a Scottish word, meaning a kind of hunkering down, like a warm hug. We light the fire and just hibernate for five months. It’s bleak though. Because it’s super dark and, cold, but there’s something really magical about it.’ Finding inspiration

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Clare Mottershead, Lead Commissioning Editor, Factual Entertainment and Events, adds: ‘Banjo’s originality, warmth and wit made him a favourite with our Interior Design Masters audience so it’s great to be able to share the next chapter of his story as he brings his infectious passion for design to his adopted Hebridean home.”Designing The Hebrides is a DSP production (a Banijay UK company) commissioned by Steve Allen for BBC Scotland and Catherine Catton, Head of Commissioning, Factual Entertainment and Events. The Executive Producers are Donna Clark and John Featherstone. The Commissioning Editor is Clare Mottershead. In this warm and characterful new series, Banjo and his friendly team of tradespeople travel across the Scottish islands using their craft skills, energy and creativity to bring Banjo’s Hebridean design dreams to life. Designing the Hebrides will air on BBC Scotland, BBC Two and BBC iPlayer later in 2023. The Isle of Mull – the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland – has been home to Banjo for over eight years with his husband Rohan, a cheesemaker, who often helps out on the show. But it’s perhaps not an ideal place to launch an interior design business? Especially when he has the world at his feet after winning Interior Design Masters. An Antipodean Hebridean, Brendan ''Banjo'' Beale grew up in central west Australia in the middle of nowhere.