The Old and Curious Crystal Shop on BBC's Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr 2024
We're excited to share our journey as one of the chosen shops to have a facelift, courtesy of the contestants on BBC One's Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr. Our episode aired on 16th April 2024 and we had a fantastic time working with the cast and crew to showcase our shop and benefit from the opportunity to meet with the creative minds on the show.
Our brief for the contestants was:
- Crystals, fossils and minerals to take centre stage at the shop alongside sculpture, plants and jewellery
- Showcase the wide variety of products, from Tumblestones to the incredibly rare pieces such as Marston Marble
- A welcoming and functional lay out across all floors to improve the customer journey/experience
- Bold colours/sacred geometry
- Lighting as a focal point, but also to really flood the shop with light and showcase our pieces in all their natural beauty
We particularly wanted to showcase our unique and beautiful specimens. We are well-known for sourcing pieces with love, care and passion, such as this wonderful example of Chrysocolla Pseudomorph. We want to honour the beauty and wonder of everything in the store to make sure it is displayed in the most incredible and inviting manner.
We relished this exciting opportunity and thoroughly enjoyed meeting the production team, tradesmen and designers. We were excited by creating a concise and thorough design brief to really solidify what would work for the bricks and mortar shop.
As an artist, Kerr struggled to hand over the design control so it was an interesting experience for him. Ultimately, some areas of the design brief weren't met, whilst the lighting was cosy, it wasn't bright enough to really showcase the crystals. Additionally the designers chose to use artificially coloured moss extensively - whilst our ethos is to keep the shop completely natural and authentic. This felt in contradiction to Kerr's aesthetic. The sand pit, although fun and interactive for children, it wasn't great for a retail space, and would sadly damage the stock. The experience was ultimately fantastic, regardless of needing to make some changes after the event. We look forward to seeing you in store soon so you can see the changes for yourself.
Thank you to the team at Interior Design Masters for showing us the care and support that they did to ensure our experience was one to remember.
Our episode aired on Tuesday 16th April 2024 on BBC1 at 8pm.