Staffordshire’s Sophie Newlands, of Shag Interiors, to feature in upcoming series of Interior Design Masters

She’s one of our own: Staffordshire’s Sophie Newlands, of Shag Interiors, to feature in upcoming series of Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr

After six hugely successful series, Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr returns for a 7^th series on Tuesday 21^st April.

The show was added to Netflix and Amazon Prime soon after premiering on the BBC in 2019; by Series 6, it had achieved its highest-ever audience share, with over 30% share of total TV viewing in its BBC One slot.

A show with a huge domestic and international following; the perfect place for one of Staffordshire’s own to tell their story.

Enter Sophie Newlands – the founder and director of Shag Interiors.

Sophie, whose life started out in Stoke-on-Trent before taking her to London, Los Angeles and back to the county, will feature in as contestant in the upcoming series.

The film office caught up with Sophie recently to find out about her journey so far.

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Q: Do you want to tell us a bit about your business and how you launched it?

A: Yeah! So, Shag Interior actually started life as a home account on Instagram. When I moved in with my husband, I started renovating the house. I then started my Instagram page, showing pictures of what I was doing – and I sort of thought, ‘I think I’ve got something here, I think I can make a business out of this’.

I taught myself how to paint, and how to do specialist paint effects like lime wash, animal prints, things like that. Initially, I started with residential clients, mainly doing their living rooms.

I started with painting, but then it started to evolve. Fast forward now, and I only really work with businesses; I don’t offer anything residential anymore, just commercial.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: ‘More is more’ is my motto, and I have always been a maximalist. People might think that maximalism is just throwing loads of stuff in a room – and it’s not. There is method behind the madness, you know – things have to work together. There needs to be definition, things need to work together.

I like places that tell a story, and places that give me a lot of interesting things to look at. Places where you can really tell who the people are that spend their time there and why. Whether that be a resident, or a company – and its values, and who their customers are.

Q: How often do architectural considerations come up for you?

A: I am actually doing some work with an architectural practice at the moment, and they are based in a gorgeous Georgian building – which we both though was something we should really lean into, so we are kind of celebrating that within the scheme I am designing. I’ve made it so it is personal to their company – but we also have to pay respect to the building, because it’s just beautiful.

Q: Was there anything in your youth and childhood that brought this out in you, do you think?

A: Yeah! My mum is mad on interiors. She actually trained to be an interior designer but has always stayed with the NHS, where she still is. I guess I am living her dream a bit, and interiors must have entered by subconscious when I was really young.

Q: So, how did you end up as a contestant in the upcoming series of Interior Design Masters?

A: Well, I think they advertise towards the end of each series – they say applications are open, although they may have done it earlier this year. I was aware that there was an application process, and I have watched the show since it started.

I actually started an application in 2024 – but I didn’t feel ready. I didn’t submit it, as I wanted to get a year of business under my belt first so I could have a better grounding to start from. When 2025 rolled around, I was like, yes – I feel ready now. Let’s do it!

I think with our series – which I can’t talk too much about! – one of the really lovely things is we all have very strong individual styles. I think that might be something that is noticeably different about our group, you know – we all know exactly what our style is and have done from the start.

I think there’s still growth and development for all of us, but we all started with strong signature styles.

Q: Would you say the experience of being on the show has brought you new experiences and new learnings in places you may not have worked in before?

A: Yeah, 100%. I have to be very careful what I say now (!) but the places we visited will put me in a really good place going forwards and hopefully allow me to work with a whole bunch of different clients. I know it’s in the public domain that the first episode is beach huts in Dorset, and the blurb which is also in the public domain mentions that we do a hotel in a castle too. Very cool!

Q: Where do you base yourself?

A: Well, I am from Stoke originally – but I live in Cannock and work all over the country. I’ve kind of lived all over the place – I moved from Stoke to London, and then also lived in Los Angeles for a while. Then back to Staffordshire, via London again, about four years ago.

I think Staffordshire is a super creative place – somewhere like Stoke has got such creativity in it, both now and historically. Nowadays, living in Cannock, I live so close to Cannock Chase, which is just the most stunning place. I feel like you’ve got to be hard pushed to walk around the county and not be inspired by something. I just think there is so much good stuff here.

Q: What do you want from your future?

A: Well, I am now working with commercial design clients, which is what I wanted to do, one being the architect’s practice. Another one that I have just taken on is a full design of a café-bar in Las Vegas, which is mega! Very excited by that as the client wants my style everywhere, which is great. So some things are already going the want them to go – but my ultimate dream would be to design a boutique hotel.

Q: I am sure the whole county is behind you and will want to learn more about your journey. Where can we keep up with how it’s all going?

A: Well, my website has just been redone – shout out to Starbots Creative in Newcastle-under-Lyme, who have done a fantastic job of that for me.

And, of course – my Instagram, which is @shaginterior.

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Sophie was part of both Staffordshire County Council’s Women in Business pilot cohort and its Get Started and Grow Programme. Follow the click links to learn more!