You’ve almost definitely heard of Rochelle Humes (née Wiseman), but from where? There are a number of possible answers thanks to her various high-profile careers – to which the self-proclaimed “professional multitasker” has now added interior design.

Rochelle cut her celebrity teeth with S Club Juniors, the S Club 7 spin-off, in 2001. After that, she was one-fifth of girl group The Saturdays, who scored 13 top 10 hits between 2008 and 2013. These days she’s a regular on radio and telly, seen on various reality shows as well as presenting This Morning, The Xtra Factor and BBC’s The Hit List. She’s married to Marvin from JLS – the couple have three children — and she’s the voice of the trumpet that pops out of the ground in Teletubbies. Got all that?
 

And this week her new show, Interior Designer In The Making, begins on W. The debut series consists of ten episodes, each featuring a couple who need some help sprucing up their home. They’ve got a budget and a vision, but need some inspiration, guidance and expertise to make it a reality.

Rochelle is joined by her friend and mentor, Sally O’Connor, to back her up with some pro design tips. In the first episode, Rob and Amie want to revamp their tired bungalow on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. After imparting her interior design wisdom with help from Sally, Rochelle will visit the couple again in a few weeks to see if her advice has stuck.

Before you start stripping wallpaper or choosing paint swatches, here’s everything you need to know about Rochelle Humes: Interior Designing In The Making…

Rochelle is a passionate, but not professional, interior designer

She’s taken a course at college, but she’s always had a keen eye for detail and has been feng shui-ing since she was little, as seen on her Instagram page @HomeHumes. “When I was a kid, I would change my bedroom around continuously,” she explains. “When I got a bit older and I started thinking about what I wanted to do, interior design was always high on the list. I’d say it was an instant passion and it’s just something that I’ll always enjoy. I’ll never get bored of it!”

Designing for other people can be tricky

Somehow, despite her busy life as a multitalented singer-presenter-entrepreneur, Rochelle has done up five of her own properties. However, nailing the design of other peoples’ homes can present a whole host of new challenges.

“I think there was a lot more pressure when doing up properties on the show, because I was obviously playing with other people’s money, and constantly managing expectations,” she says. “I didn’t know what they would expect from me for the end result. It’s just so subjective – one design idea might look one way to one person, but it might be delivered completely differently by another. It’s a real job to get to know someone and their tastes.

“My main challenge was working with couples, as you try to please everybody. You almost end up becoming a marriage counsellor! It’s a case of getting them to compromise, which I found quite interesting.

“There were some cases where the husband would say, “We’re doing it ourselves,” then the wife would say, “No, this is how much budget we have.” I’ve learnt that it’s a real people-person job.”

To get in the mood, Rochelle uses the mood box

The mood box is Rochelle’s immersive design tool. “It’s essentially a real tactile box for them to try swatches and fabrics or maybe wall coverings and rugs and so on and so forth. They can have a good feel and see what they look like in the space,” she explains.

“When you’re painting a room, tones can be really important. You can say grey, but it could be a blue-grey, or a warm grey. It’s good to put paint swatches in too, as it’s basically like one big shopping list for them. They will take the box with them when they start shopping for the carpet, the paint… A lot of the clients actually found that the mood box was like their bible and became really reliant on it.”

Rochelle has learnt a few tricks of the trade

“You always need to set yourself more time than you think and, as is the case on a lot of occasions, budgets can easily overrun, but you can be more resourceful than you think,” she says. “You can upcycle and there are so many different ways of giving a space a facelift without having to commit to a brand new kitchen.

“There are so many little tricks now. For example, you can get worktop wraps, where you might get an older worktop and now you can give it a marble look. There are lots of cost-effective ways, so if you are bothered about an aesthetic of a place and you don’t have a big budget, there are little easy ways of updating it.”

When is W’s Rochelle Humes: Interior Designer In The Making on TV?

Rochelle Humes: Interior Designer In The Making airs on W/HD (CH 125/211) on Mondays at 8pm, with the first episode screening on Monday 13 June. It is also available for 30 days in Catch Up > Channels > W.

The ten-part series will subsequently air every week until Monday 15th August.