BBC Interior Design Masters contestant Amy Wilson shows us round her Leeds home

The show, which is a must-see for anyone interested in interiors, features 10 talented new designers competing for a prestigious contract with a hotel business. Their tasks are a race against time and even the best-laid plans go awry, which adds to the drama and fun.

“I absolutely loved being part of the show. It has been a huge confidence boost. The other contestants were a fantastic bunch and Alan Carr was really good fun,” says Amy, who is one of three talented contestants from Yorkshire. “We were lent a van so we could collect all the items we needed for doing the projects we had been assigned and then we had to drive that down to London. Sourcing everything I wanted was not easy in lockdown but I managed.”

Amy’s interest in interior design was fuelled by buying her home in Leeds 11 years ago. She and her husband, Simon, bought the property after falling for its size, period features and tucked away location.

It is part of a Victorian mansion that is split into three large houses. “It needed some work and we also wanted to make it our own so I joined Instagram to look for inspiration. I began posting pictures of what I’d done to the house and having lots of great conversations,” says Amy, who now has almost 33,000 followers on the social media site.

After two years of running interiors’ events under the title “No House Rules” with fellow Yorkshire instagrammer Katie Woods and a confidence boost that came from taking part in the BBC show, she now has her own interior design business.

It is run from her home, which is also on the books of Yorkshire-based Lifestyle Locations, which sources properties for film and photography shoots. “I first saw this house advertised online and the attraction was instant,” says Amy, who has three children.

Since moving in, she has transformed every room and also added an extension that first served as a separate playroom. That addition has now been incorporated into the kitchen to create an enormous living space with cooking, dining and sitting areas. The Aga, left by the previous owners, is now a family favourite, though Amy initially wanted rid. It won her heart with its cosy warmth and its ability to cook scones to perfection. The oak cabinets, also installed by the last owners, were good quality too and have been retained, but Amy hired a joiner to make more to her specification and added granite work surfaces.

“The kitchen units have very simple lines and the idea is that they should last for years. I can make easy changes to the look of the room with wallpaper, paint, tiles and accessories,” she says.

The wallpaper is by Divine Savages and the lights above the island are from one of her favourite stores, Leeds-based Dowsing & Reynolds. She also splashed out on a Tom Dixon light that sits above the dining table. While the kitchen and dining area are light-filled thanks to a glazed extension, the sitting area in what was the old playroom is darker. So Amy embraced it and panelled the back wall in MDF and wood strips to add texture before painting it black.

The TV is recessed into the wall and there’s also a hidden door leading to the boot room and loo and for added fun, she had her mid-century sideboard painted black with a pink “You Rock” slogan. The sofas from the Design Quarter at Redbrick Mill, Batley, also add colour.

While the sitting area attracts “oohs and aahs”, the most commented on feature of the living kitchen is the huge column tiled with the words “Made in Yorkshire”.

“When we knocked down the wall between the playroom and the kitchen, we needed a structural column and it had to be very large because we also had to run a soil pipe from upstairs through it,” says Amy.

“I was worried about how big it looked but then I decided to make a feature of it by putting seating round the bottom and covering it with little mosaic tiles. There were a lot of suggestions about what it should say, including ‘Leeds United’, but ‘Made in Yorkshire’ seemed just right as the house was made here and the children were made here.”

The separate sitting room, also known as “the party room”, is full of fabulous historic features that the Wilsons have restored. Colour blocking the walls with Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue and a soft white works brilliantly, as does the neon sign from Light Up North featuring a Bruce Springsteen lyric “Working on a dream”. Furniture includes a metamorphic dining table that turns into a pool table and a pink sofa from Rose & Grey. “I love to support smaller independent businesses but on the high street, Homesense is my go-to place,” says Amy.

Upstairs, the Wilsons have reconfigured the first-floor space and converted the loft into two bedrooms and a bathroom. “The house had five bedrooms when we bought it but the flow was disjointed. Now, it still has five bedrooms but they are different shapes and the flow is right,” says Amy whose latest project has been a big hit in lockdown. Her barbecue hut in the garden is now the perfect retreat.

*Interior Design Masters runs every Tuesday at 8pm on BBC2. Amy Wilson Interiors, www.amywilsoninteriors.co.uk Amy’s home is on the books of Lifestyle Locations, which sources properties for photography and film shoots. www.lifestylelocations.co.uk

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