NOCO Salon in Bristol Transformed by BBC Interior Design Masters
We always say clients arrive in a taxi and leave in a limo. That idea — of taking someone somewhere better than where they started — has been at the heart of NOCO from the beginning. So when BBC’s Interior Design Masters came calling and asked to transform our salon on Whiteladies Road, eventually saying yes felt right. Getting to that yes was the harder part.
The road to yes
We opened NOCO Hair in 2018. Within ten months, we won Best New Independent Salon in the UK at the British Hairdressing Business Awards. Ten months. It felt like the beginning of something significant.
Three months later, lockdown hit. What followed was one of the hardest periods of our business life. No revenue, an uncertain future, and a team we were determined to protect. We came through it, but it took everything we had.
The designer
Being part of the semi-final meant the standard was high. We found out we were working with Jack Kinsey, a Fine Art graduate who had produced some of the most memorable spaces in the series — a stunning 1930s beach hut for the NHS, a maximalist Scottish hotel room. We were in good hands.
Noel and Corey with Jack Kinsey at the start of the process.
The brief — and what Jack did with it
The conversation Jack had with us at the start was not dissimilar to the conversation we have with every client. He sat down and asked what we wanted the experience to feel like. What was the client journey? What did we want people to feel when they walked in?
We had one word: Scandi. That was genuinely all I knew about interior design. We wanted something clean, calm, natural. Something that felt Zen inside a bustling salon.
Jack took that brief and went somewhere more interesting. He combined the Scandinavian influence with a Japanese aesthetic and called it Japandi. Not what we were expecting. Completely right.
The result
Over two days, Jack and a team of builders and decorators transformed every part of the salon, with particular focus on the Welcome Area and the Relaxation Zone. The tradespeople were exceptional. They stayed behind for four additional days after filming to make the salon client-ready before it was TV-ready.
What they left us with: yellows, navy and burnt orange introduced throughout. Live plants bringing the space to life. Rattan lamps and a sunset-coloured mural in the welcome area. An abstract mountain effect at the entrance. And in the Relaxation Zone — a ceiling-to-wall bamboo and tree mural that transforms the wash area into something genuinely meditative.
The salon after the Japandi transformation. Left: the new colour palette throughout. Right: the welcome area with the sunset mural.
The reception and the Relaxation Zone. The bamboo ceiling mural is genuinely something to experience in person.
The judges and the reaction
The judges were Michelle Ogundehin and Mary Portas. Mary awarded Jack first place in the grand finale for a design she called upmarket and chic. The social response when the episode aired was immediate.
With Alan Carr during filming. Not a bad day at the office.
What it means now
The episode was delayed three months by the Qatar World Cup. We took a punt, sat on it, and waited. When it aired, it was everything. The salon today is essentially the same as Jack left it. We have made some small adjustments, but the core of what he created is still there every day.
More than the design, what the experience gave us was a clearer sense of what NOCO stands for. The brief Jack responded to was the same brief we give every client: tell me what you want it to feel like. He heard Scandi and made Japandi. We hear one thing and design something better. That is the job.
