Wild Isle Style: Resourceful And Sustainable Interior Design Ideas

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I’ll say yes to everything and see what happens and make something of it, and then everything came true, so be careful what you wish for.” From a family-owned fish shop in Tobermory, a bothy on the remote island of Ulva to a bookshop and café on Skye, each week, Banjo and his design team embrace a unique interior design project, fulfilling the client’s brief on a limited budget and a fast turnaround. With his own interior design business on the Isle of Mull, his home with husband Ro for the last eight years, and as the frontman for the popular BBC 2 TV show Designing the Hebrides, his style has captured the hearts of many. It’s about community and connection and stopping and being really grounded. And once you’re on [the Isle of Mull], you can’t get off. You’ve got to get a ferry and it’s a logistical challenge. When you’re there everything washes away and it’s just magic.’

Banjo Beale Interview With Interior Design Masters Winner Banjo Beale

Originally from Australia, he now resides on the Isle of Mull in Scotland, where he lives with his partner and dog. What makes you happiest at home? The weather was a massive challenge for us. We were doing up a bothy as Hurricane Ian was coming in. BBC/Darlow Smithson Productions You love an interesting light fitting, don’t you? What can a strong shape do for a room or space?

In the first episode, Banjo and his team get to transform a much loved family run fish shop in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. Commissioned by his friend and fish shop manager Sally, Banjo must try and fulfill her dream to modernize her family’s traditional business. Each week, Banjo and his design team embrace a unique interior design project, fulfilling the client’s brief on a limited budget and a fast turnaround. Set against stunning Scottish landscapes and amidst the challenges of hard-to-reach locations and extreme conditions, Designing The Hebrides showcases distinctive makeovers, encapsulating Banjo’s irrepressible enthusiasm, ingenuity and design flair. No, I think I’m inspired by literature, by film, by my own imagination and by nature. When I was on Interior Design Masters, I used to create a character for all of my designs. Because it’s boring when you’re doing it for yourself, but on the island, the locals are the characters.

My Happy Home: Banjo Beale - House Beautiful

The rest is history, but what was it really like being on the show? And how scary is Michelle Ogundehin when it comes to judgment time? Banjo and the team take on the challenge of renovating a variety of Hebridean establishments, including a family-run fish shop in Tobermory, a bothy on the isolated island of Ulva, and a bookstore and café on Skye. BBC/Darlow Smithson Productions Doing two storeys of a Soho bar – some challenge! How did you even start to come up with an idea for a scheme? The publisher says: “Living on the remote island of Mull has inspired Banjo to be resourceful and inventive in his design outlook. With sustainability and budget in mind, he combines vintage finds with clever design and re-purposes the old, re-imagining it into something new.Christine Leach tells the extraordinary story of the Beatons of Pennyghael, physicians to chiefs and kings, while Sir Lachlan MacLean, chief of Clan MacLean of Duart, will be joined by Ray Canham to explore the life of his ancestor Sir Fitzroy MacLean. 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 : Goodhomes Magazine Designing the Hebrides Banjo Beale : Goodhomes Magazine

Audiences had a chance to mingle and meet the authors over a mouth-watering lunch provided by the Ulva Boathouse, and two delicious dinners at the Western Isles Hotel, which hosted events alongside An Tobar. Beale, also the star of the recent six-part BBC show “Designing the Hebrides” , as well as a judge on “Scotland’s Home of the Year”, said: “ Wild Isle Style is my roadmap for embarking on a design adventure, where we throw out the rule book and meet the colourful characters behind spaces that don’t cost the earth. Sophie Allen, senior commissioning editor, acquired world rights from Ben Clark at the Soho Agency. Wild Isle Style will publish on 12th October 2023.

Improvisation was key

The whole premise of the book is from the perspective of living on an island, embracing the materials that we have, using finite resources and only our own skills to bring them to life. So, it’s about taking that mindset into everything we do. Also on an island, you just have fun, there’s no pressure, and it’s not trying to be trendy. It’s just, it’s just a little bit of fun and tongue in cheek.’