AFTER becoming the runner-up in the latest Great Interior Design Challenge, Colchester’s Lucy Tiffney definitely wants to make design her life.

Up until appearing in the hit BBC 2 show, Lucy had only designed, in her own words, ‘surfaces’ but now has the confidence to transform the largest of interior spaces.

She smiles: “I would say that’s the biggest thing this has given me, confidence. The confidence that I can design these big rooms and make them look good.”

And Lucy certainly did that in the six tasks she was given as part of the Great Interior Design Challenge, the final of which was screened last week.

“I have learnt so much doing the programme,” Lucy continues. “The judges may look pretty serious on the telly but behind the scenes both Daniel (Hopwood) and Sophie (Robinson) were incredibly supportive. They are both amazing people and their opinions meant so much to me.

“Then to have one of my heroes, Orla Kiely, judge my work in the semi-final. Well that was the icing on the cake for me.”

Lucy had the design adventure of her life last year when the programme was recorded over five months from April to August at various locations around the country, from a seaside cottage in Devon to a stately home in Sussex.

She explains: “Before the shooting of each task they would send me a design brief and I would have seven days to design a room, buy all the material for a thousand pounds, and then get it delivered to my house here in Colchester.

“Two days before the producers would then tell me where the location was and so I would drive to the hotel with all the material but it wasn’t until the night before I would actually find out where the house was.

“I kind of liked all the secrecy while it was being filmed. It was just afterwards when I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about what had happened. Not even that I was going to be on the show. That was pretty hard. So in some respects I’m glad it’s all over and I can finally talk about it.”

Born and brought up in Maldon, Lucy’s interest in art began at Thurstable School where the teachers let her and her friends use the art rooms at lunchtime.

After leaving she went to the Colchester Institute to take an art foundation course before going to Manchester Poly where she got a ‘first’ in textiles.

Moving to London she took a studio manager’s job working for a rug designer.

“I was only supposed to stay for five years,” she laughs, “and I ended up there for 18. I worked four days a week for the designer and on my day off would do all kinds of freelance work designing my own rugs.

“Eventually I left the studio and set up my own company with a guy who designed sofas, which I did for five years.”

With two young children, Lucy decided to move back to Essex, this time to Colchester, where she’s been for the last nine years.

She admits: “It was a slow settling in process but after a while I discovered some old friends and then I got a job at the Colchester Institute teaching textiles two or three days a week thanks to one of my ex-tutors.”

Now Lucy, who has designed for such celebrity clients as Ruby Wax and journalist and writer Drusilla Beyfus, is concentrating on her own business, which has been given a real boost thanks to the show.

Lucy adds: “I had applied for the show the year before because I thought it looked like fun but I didn’t even get a letter back.

“this time around I just happened to see an advert for it on-line somewhere and noticed it was the closing date that evening. So I got my old application, brushed it up a bit and sent it off.

“The very next morning they called me up and asked me to fill in a design brief which I did and it really went from there.”

From 4,000 applicants to 16 contestants, and then eventually making the final, Lucy can rightly be very proud of her achievements.

“You got used to the camera very quickly,” she reveals, “mainly because you were working so hard to get the work done. You didn’t have time to think about the fact you were on a television show.

“But I loved every minute of it. Just the designing of the rooms to be honest but also meeting the clients and seeing their reactions when they saw what I had done. That was pretty special.

“I suppose if I had to pick one room it would be the Scandinavian Folk Room and of course that box bed. I’ve had quite a few requests for that already.”

• To see more of Lucy’s work go on-line at www.lucytiffney.com