Cambridge-based designer to appear in upcoming episode of BBC series Interior Design Masters

Cambridge-based interior designer Buse Gurbuz is to appear in an upcoming episode of the BBC series Interior Design Masters.

With a background in architectural design, Buse, who is of Turkish origin, has a masters in architecture from University College London.

She worked for an interactive art company that created large light installation in public spaces and later for a well-known set designer. Then in 2019, just before the pandemic, she decided to try her hand at interior design and was instantly smitten.

Buse’s first project was the three-storey Cambridge Spark offices by Cambridge railway station and she now has her own company called STUDIOBUSE (formerly Hex Interior).

She said: “I applied for the show about a year ago now. The application does take quite a long time, but we started filming for four months over the summer. I am one of the contestants and I think I did quite a lot of interesting work on it.”

The episode in which Buse appears is set to be televised next week. For those who may be unfamiliar with the programme, which is hosted by comedian Alan Carr, Buse explained: “There’s 10 contestants and every week somebody gets eliminated, and each contestant has their own style.

“So me, I would describe my style as ‘moody mid-century’; I use quite bright colours but I try to add a lot of warmth to spaces. I clad a lot of the walls with wood and I try to bring a lot of wood tones into spaces – that’s really what I did on the show.

“I also dabbled in concrete casting, which ended up being quite a funny situation – it went wrong a little bit.”

She continued: “Every week they give you a different brief, you design a specific space every week. One week, for example, they’ll give you a studio flat in central London, the next week we

go to Edinburgh and we design a hotel there.

“We have two weeks to collect all the materials, source all the things – we have a very tight budget and we’re basically put on site together within two weeks and they film it.”

For anyone intending to watch the programme, Buse doesn’t want to give too much away regarding how she got on. “The only thing I can say is that this season has been quite different than the previous ones,” she said, “because with Interior Design Masters they brought amateurs into the show, and with season four they have brought in people with a little bit more knowledge of interior design. They are kind of upgrading a little bit this season.”

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Buse is a long-time fan of the show, which was originally hosted by Fearne Cotton when it began in 2019. To find out how Buse got on, tune into Interior Design Masters on BBC1 on Tuesday,

March 7, at 8pm.

Visit her Instagram page at @behindbuse and her website at studiobuse.com.