'I built my mate a fake bar at uni - now I'm designing his real one'

A woman who built a fake bar for her university friends 12 years ago is now redesigning their real bar after winning the BBC show Interior Design Masters.

Roisin Quinn, 33, met Tom Wilson and Alex Medlicott at Liverpool John Moores University when they were drama students and built a fake pub for Tom's final project.

Now 12 years on, Roisin, who grew up on the Isle of Man but now lives in Wirral, has reunited with Tom and Alex to redesign their bar - Arts Bar on Hope Street in Liverpool.

"It's a full circle moment," Roisin said. "It's super special and it's about creatives flourishing. I want the bar to reflect that."

Roisin moved to Liverpool to attend Liverpool John Moores University in 2011, where she signed up to a construction module.

As part of this class, she was tasked with creating The Feathers bar for Tom's final project along with two other friends.

"I was completely in my element," said Roisin, who admits she knew she had a creative side but did not know where to channel it at the time.

After leaving university, Roisin went traveling before she started working for a travel company.

But in 2020 she found herself drawn back to creative projects, beginning with the renovation of her own home.

She later undertook a much larger project, redesigning her parents' home, and realised she would like to pursue a career in interior design.

After being rejected from her top choice of university to study the subject, Roisin applied for Interior Design Masters and went on to win the show.

Roisin, Tom and Alex had lost touch over the years but met up again at a drama reunion.

The meet-up moved on to the Arts Bar with talk turning to her recent success on Interior Design Masters.

"I had just been on the show and people were asking me about it," she said.

"Tom had followed my journey on the show and had messaged me about it and he was so supportive.

"We were in the bar and I was looking around thinking 'I'd do this and I'd do that' and he said if 'we're ever doing anything Roisin we'd love to have you involved'."

Then in June, she got the call from Tom to see if she would be able to redesign the space.

"Without looking at my diary or calendar I said 'yes'," she said.

Tom, 34, and Alex, 33, both drama students at the university, said they initially needed someone to design a bar setting for their play at the time.

Roisin's "bold, playful and colourful" designs attracted the pair when designing their real life bar, Tom said.

"She's taken us out of our comfort zone in some respects, but also she's gone and given us ideas that we would never come up with ourselves."

Alex said the designer had added "the magic sprinkles"

The bar will close at the end of the month to start the redesign with plans to reopen three months later.

Roisin said it was a full circle moment to be working on another bar design 12 years later.

"We have changed so much but then you can see our old uni selves back together as well in the same breath," she said.

"There's 12 years that have passed, we have all done so much and different things and we're a lot older looking now.

"It just feels right and it's lovely they're trusting me with this."

In her post about the redesign on Instagram, Roisin summed the project up: "I built my mates a fake bar at uni… and 12 years later, I'm redesigning their real on."

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