Join Me in Bristol: Two Ways to Learn Interior Design with Hannah Redden from January

From January, I’m changing how I teach.

Rather than everything living in one place, I’ll be alternating where I teach each term. January will see me down by the Harbourside at Design West, and in February I’ll be back in the warm, creative buzz of The Bristol Folk House. Then we’ll flip again the following term, and so on.

It’s still me, still colour-obsessed, still banging the drum for homes with soul, not showrooms, but the two courses each have their own personality. One is a little more “architect’s notebook and strong framework”, the other is “studio table covered in pens, printouts and tea”.

Both are designed to help you see your home differently and feel more confident making decisions.

Interior Design Foundations at Design West

A structured, big-picture deep dive

Let’s start on the Harbourside.

Interior Design Foundations at Design West runs over six evenings in their beautiful space on Narrow Quay. It has a slightly more architectural feel, not in a scary, you-must-know-CAD way, but in the sense that we really step back and look at how a room works before we start faffing about with cushions.

We begin by getting clear on what you actually need from your room. You’ll write a simple brief for one space in your home and we use that as our anchor. From there, we look at how the room functions: where you walk, where you pause, where natural light falls, how the space feels in the evening versus the morning. I show lots of visual examples and we pull them apart together: why this layout feels calm, why that one looks gorgeous on Instagram but would drive you mad in real life, how balance, rhythm and proportion quietly shape how we experience a room.

Colour has a big role to play too. We talk about how it behaves in real light, not just in perfect, filtered images – and what happens when you shift the backdrop, deepen the tones or change the contrast level. We layer that with lighting: where you might want a soft wash of ambient light, where you need something more focused, and how to avoid the classic “one bright downlight in the middle and hope for the best” approach. By the time we hit materials and finishes, you’re starting to see how all of these pieces talk to each other: flooring, worktops, fabrics, paint, tiles, all chosen with your real life and real budget in mind.

Across the six weeks, everything loops back to that one room you’ve chosen. Session by session, you build up a clear concept: a Style Manifesto that describes how you want it to feel, a colour palette that behaves in both daylight and lamplight, a to-scale layout that actually fits your furniture and leaves space to move, a lighting plan that makes sense, and a realistic shortlist of materials and finishes. By the end, you’re holding a compact concept pack – the kind of thing you can hand to a builder, use to brief trades, or just follow yourself, step by step, without having to re-think everything every Sunday night.

If you like structure, enjoy understanding the “why” behind things, and love the idea of spending a few winter evenings by the water with a notebook and a clear plan emerging, Design West will feel like a very good fit.

Lighting and Lumens

Palettes and patterns

Interior Design – Transform Your Space at The Bristol Folk House

A small, hands-on studio course

Then, in February, the energy shifts.

The Folk House course, Interior Design – Transform Your Space, is more like being in a working studio. The groups are smaller, the tables are usually covered in sketches, samples and printouts, and I’m on my feet for most of the session, moving from person to person, looking at real rooms and real dilemmas.

We always start with your home as it is. You choose a room, or sometimes a wider “zone” of the house, and we write a simple, honest brief for that space together: how you use it now, what’s frustrating you, and how you’d like it to feel instead. From there, we start gathering and editing inspiration. People arrive with Pinterest boards, magazine tear-outs, photos from trips, screenshots of lamps they love, and we begin to sift through what actually belongs in your story and what’s just visual noise.

Colour theory is the next layer, but very much translated for everyday spaces. We talk about how to gently shift a room with colour rather than shock it, how to balance softer tonal schemes with one or two bolder moves, and how to stop chasing trends that don’t match your house or your personality. You’ll create an initial mood board that captures the feeling and direction of your room, and suddenly the random images on your phone start to form something coherent.

As the weeks go on, we dig deeper into the seven principles of interior design, but instead of keeping it abstract, we lay tracing paper over your images and sketch directly on top. We look at why certain rooms feel restful, why others feel cluttered or flat, and we use that understanding to refine your own ideas. There’s usually a point where someone realises, “Oh, I always love asymmetry,” or, “I keep being drawn to warm, cosy spaces but I’ve been painting everything grey.” Those little lightbulb moments are where it gets fun.

Once the overall direction is clear, we get practical with floor plans and furniture layout. You measure your room, we draw it out, and we play with different arrangements until the flow feels right. This is where we solve the “sofa jammed in a corner” problem, the “no plug sockets where we actually sit” issue, and the “we can’t both work at the dining table without wanting to kill each other” conundrum. We talk about how lighting can support all of that – where task lighting is helpful, where you might want softer pools of light, and how to make a room feel inviting at night without needing a full rewire.

Towards the end of the course, we pull it all together into a more in-depth concept board. By this point you’ll usually have a clearer sense of which pieces you want to keep, what needs to go, and what you might want to invest in next. We look at realistic shopping lists, where to save and where to spend, and how to layer in finishing touches so the room feels intentional and personal rather than over-styled.

The vibe at the Folk House is very supportive and human. People share ideas, cheer each other on, and quite often confess the slightly embarrassing bits (“I bought this rug in a sale and now I hate it but it was expensive, help!”). My job is to walk around, listen, and gently nudge you towards choices that feel like you, not like a generic showroom.

If you’re someone who learns best with pen and paper, needs a bit of accountability, or just wants a safe, friendly space to untangle a million ideas, the Folk House course is a lovely, low-pressure way to do that.

So which one do you choose?

If you’re the kind of person who loves a framework, enjoys getting under the skin of why things work, and feels excited by the idea of developing a very clear, well-thought-through concept for one room, then Design West will probably be your natural starting point. It gives you a strong backbone of knowledge you can use on future projects as well.

If, on the other hand, you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’ve got an existing home full of “almost right” decisions, and you’d really like someone to sit next to you and say, “Right, show me the pictures and let’s sort this out,” then the Folk House will feel like slipping into a creative studio environment: warm, human and very practical.

And quite honestly, many people will do both at different stages. You might start with Foundations at Design West to build your confidence and develop a really solid concept for your space. Then, a term or two later, you might join the Folk House course to get hands-on help turning that concept into a lived reality: choosing specific pieces, tackling awkward corners, and staying on track when the internet tries to tempt you off in a hundred directions.

How this sits alongside my studio work

This alternating set-up isn’t just about logistics; it’s part of how I see my role as a designer in Bristol.

Not everyone wants or needs full interior design services, but most people do want to feel more at home in their home. These courses give you a way to access professional thinking and support in a more affordable, sustainable way. They’re also a stepping stone: some people take what they’ve learned and happily go off and implement everything themselves. Others come back and say, “I’ve done as much as I can on my own – can we book a Clarity Session and look at this room in detail?” Both are valid, and both are kind of the point.

For me, it’s about sharing the tools, not guarding them. I want more Bristol homes to feel lived-in and personal, less like they’ve been copied straight from a catalogue. Whether we’re sitting in a Harbourside classroom talking about proportion and rhythm, or huddled over a floor plan in the Folk House with coloured pens, the aim is the same: to help you create a home that feels like you.

What to do next

If your brain is already whirring with ideas and you fancy joining in, you can check Design West’s website for the next Interior Design Foundations dates, and the Bristol Folk House listings for upcoming runs of Interior Design – Transform Your Space. Each organisation handles its own bookings, so all the practical details – dates, prices, how to sign up – will be listed there.

And if you’re not quite sure which course would suit you best, you can always drop me an email and tell me a bit about your home, your project and how you like to learn. I’m very happy to point you in the right direction.

Hopefully I’ll see you soon, either down by the water with a notebook, or at the Folk House with a table full of samples and a head full of ideas.