Best Interior Design TV Shows to Watch Before Decorating Your House

We all love watching TV, that’s a given. After all, what would we do without it? There are a lot of TV programmes that you can benefit from and Interior Design shows are some of them! Without all those ‘Home Makeover’ and ‘Escape to the Country’ programmes, we’d wouldn’t get half of the home inspiration that we desire or even need!

In this guide, we’re going to tell you some of our favourite Interior Design TV shows. So, that you can get extra tips, advice, and ideas on designing or decorating your home!

Doing exactly what it says in its title, Amazing Interiors takes you around the world to showcase different design projects. Netflix’s 12-part series Amazing Interiors reveals some of the world’s most remarkable interiors hiding behind unremarkable exteriors.

From houseboats on the River Thames that incorporate stunning Scandinavian design touches, to an Italian apartment where space is maximised with clever storage ideas, this show covers a huge variation in interior design. Netflix’s first original home improvement show unveils some incredible hidden gems. This is done by stepping inside the homes of people who have completely transformed their spaces, reflecting their passions and personal aesthetics. Be prepared not to like every single episode, but to appreciate the interesting and innovative instead.

Award-winning architect, Piers Taylor and property enthusiast Caroline Quentin set out to explore extraordinary homes in this amazing series broadcast on the BBC. Visiting remarkable homes built in the mountains, forests, coasts and even underground locations around the world. With the full series available to view on Netflix, this is a great show for appreciating the architectural creativity.

Throughout the series we meet a multitude of architects and owners who have taken on the challenge of building unconventional homes in demanding locations. For instance, a home built deep underground or a luxury apartment built on the side of a cliff! Presenting a true wow factor this show is the perfect watch for those who appreciate amazing architecture.

Property Brothers is a wildly popular home makeover TV show and it is celebrating its 13th season on HGTV. Featuring the enterprising and entertaining Scott Brothers (Drew and Jonathan), the duo uses their expertise as a realtor and a contractor, they have been helping families renovate, sell, and purchase houses.

Jonathan and Drew Scott have helped many clients buy and renovate properties. Now they are on a mission to turn families’ ordinary houses into their lifelong dream homes in the new series, Property Brothers: Forever Home. In their latest show, the Scott twins work with couples who are settled in their home but need their expertise to make it perfect.

We all know that HGTV is a network dedicated solely for home and garden, and it is doing really well with just this. As a result of this, you’ll notice other heavy hitters in the television biz are starting to cash in on the home makeover craze. Netflix is quickly becoming a hub for home decorating shows and Queer Eye is definitely a fan favourite. The Queer Eye reboot on Netflix is about making people over – inside and out – and one aspect of these transformations is the home renovation.

The best Queer Eye home makeovers manage to capture the unique spirit of each episode’s homeowner, while making the space both functional and visually stunning. In some cases, it’s a tall order, but the show’s resident interior designer Bobby Berk makes it all look remarkably easy.

For the Fab Five, a full lifestyle transformation includes:

1. Grooming
2. Style and Fashion
3. Culture and Lifestyle
4. Cooking and Nutrition
5. Design

We all love a good overhaul, and lead interior designer, Bobby Berk delivers great design every time!

First airing in 2014, each series of ‘The Great Interior Design Challenge‘ aims to find “Britain’s best amateur interior designers.” It is effectively a competition to find unpolished design talent. In each episode, a new location is introduced and this location usually contains a distinctive form of architecture. It also focuses on a few participants at a time and follows them throughout the episode.

These participants, or contestants, have 2 different challenges. The main challenge is often to redesign a room in the style that the client has briefed them with. They are given £1,000 to do whatever they must with the area they have been allocated and must give it a make-over. They have 3 days. There is then usually an additional task that is smaller. This normally consists of the upscaling of an old item.

This show is good to watch if you’re redesigning your home as there are plenty of things you can get ideas from!

Premiering in 2011, The Apartment is the biggest design competition around! Hosted by the multi-talented Jamie Durie, with a panel of well-renowned judges including American interior design guru Genevieve Gorder and British homestyle icon Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. Currently airing on Netflix.

Throughout the series we watch teams of amateur designers fight to win the grand prize of a luxury apartment in Kuala Lumpur. In other words they are in to win the home of their dreams! Each week the teams design and decorate a room with strict time and budget constraints, to see which of the contestants can go from amateur to amazing.

In the fourth season of the show a celebrity edition was run including famous models, singers, actors and chefs who competed to win grand prize of $100,000 to donate to their chosen charity. Unlike the usual series, the celebrities competed individually rather than as a team.

To sum up, if you love interior design and a bit of friendly competition this could be the show for you!

‘Amazing Spaces‘ first aired in 2012 and is presented by George Clarke. It consists of Clarke visiting different places to meet new people. These people then turn unconventional things, such as old boats into incredible places to live! Clarke even tries making a few of his own amazing spaces.

Clarke has been a regular feature on Interior Design based TV since 2004. Some well-known shows include Dream Home Abroad, The Great British Property Scandal, George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces and Old House New Home. It’s safe to say that he knows his stuff when it comes to interior design!

This show is perfect for people watching at home as these spaces often have a particular emphasis on the creative use of small spaces. In addition, this makes it ideal for those who need to maximise space consumption in their homes to gather ideas from. There have even been episodes in which sheds have featured, so there can be plenty to learn!

Genevieve Gorder, a world-famous interior designer, alongside real estate guru Peter Lorimer present Netflix’s Stay Here. An American reality TV series with dramatic home improvements to help rental owners turn their properties into profit. Together they travel the globe transforming 1-star disappointment to a 5-star stay, combining Genevieve’s love for interior and Peter’s business know-how.

Each episode is dedicated to fully transforming a single property from the inside out, with makeovers ranging from country cottages to boat houses.

Linda Barker presents “The Home Game” – a daytime series that sees homeowners renovating a property in order to make the most profit. This competitive TV show flips the classic makeover format on its head by fast forwarding to the bit people look forward to – the transformation and the price.

There are four stories per episode, with makeovers ranging from garden overhauls to high-end kitchen extensions. At the beginning an episode, viewers will see how much each house is worth. Also, what the teams budget is. as well as the reasons they’re overhauling their houses

At the end of each programme,  Linda will reveal how much they’ve spent and exactly how much their house is worth now. The competitor that has made the most profit will be crowned the winner too! This show is useful as it presents viewers with cheaper alternatives as the competitors must work on a budget.

Inside out homes is also an interior design TV show. The traditional home is changing as the boundaries between house and garden blur. Now architect Zac Monro, engineer Monty Ravenscroft and gardener Rosie Bines use imagination, technology and ingenuity to tear down the walls of seven houses across Britain. Creating homes and outside spaces that unlock the potential of living inside and out like never before.

Now in its 19th year, Grand Designs is one of Channel 4’s biggest returnable factual series about home interiors. It has grown into a global phenomenon, selling in over 100 territories as well as selling books, a monthly magazine, architectural awards and a biannual exhibition, Grand Designs Live.

Episodes usually follow a certain format, with variations depending on the progress of the build. At the start of an episode, the presenter McCloud meets the clients who are partaking the project. They visit the site of the project and also discuss the plans for the building. A computer visualisation of the intended project is shown. Once the groundwork has begun, McCloud visits the site periodically, and they follow the build progress, noting any changes, delays or problems.

The presenter visits again once the architecture is made watertight, and the first and second fixes have commenced. After making a final visit to the site in its finished or near-finished state, a tour of the house is then given. McCloud also brings the episode to a close summarising the house, its construction, and his opinions.

Sometimes, a house is unfinished before filming is complete so it will often be revisited in a later episode. In more recent series, McCloud revisits past unfinished builds once they have been completed and may even stay overnight!

Help! My House is Falling Down is a show on Channel hosted by Sarah Beeny. Sarah and a team of experts travel around Britain looking for homes that need to be repaired. The show gives advice on what constitutes a minor or major repair. Using the knowledge of Chartered Structural Engineer Simon Pitchers. Also, following the work done on the client’s homes.

DIY SOS is a BBC DIY TV series presented by Nick Knowles, Lowri Turner, Kate McIntyre and Brigid Calderhead. The series’ first broadcast was in 1999 and ran through to 2010. This was before changing into its current “Big Build” format, that is also presented by Knowles. To date, at least 205 episodes of SOS and The Big Build have been broadcast, while another show – Garden SOS – aired for one series in 2003.

Similarly, the original show consisted of the main project, and a smaller project usually headed by Lowri Turner. However, Turner left so a number of other presenters were used for the smaller segments. There was a viewer call-in vote format in which viewers would vote for one of three families to be addressed in the following programme.