All language subtitles for Amazing.Interiors.S01E11

Normal is a relative term,

and what is normal for some people
is not normal for others.

It is the thing that puts a smile
on my face, it's a train.

The outside is very unremarkable.

Oh, Jayne, this is incredible.

I want to create something
on the interior that's different.

To reproduce something like this
in my home would be absolutely fantastic.

My husband Chris and I
first came to Suffolk.

About 30 years ago.

We designed the house on
the interior to be based on a beach house.

We wanted it all painted white
and we wanted it to be very calming.

We was married for 41 years.

But my husband died in 2014.

It did mean
that I've come to the house less.

Because I've had to step into
Chris's shoes and take over the business.

But I do hope
to be spending more time here.

My life is completely empty
without Chris.

I want it to feel
like Chris is here.

I want to create something
on the interior that's vibrant.

And that's what Chris was all about.

I head up God's Own Junkyard.

We are a studio full of neon signs,

Signs from film sets
that we've done,

Signs from icon destinations
throughout London.

We've probably go 2,000 signs
in here.

We've had loads and loads of celebs
buy neon artworks from us.

Kate Moss, Johnny Depp,
Elton John.

Chris came into the business in 1971.

I joined the business
in the late '70s.

And worked with Chris ever since.

They called him the Godfather of Neon,

The King of Neon.

So whenever I come in here,
the first thing I feel,

always, since losing Chris

is that the glow is his glow.

And it's shining down on me

and I feel warm and comforted.

So I'm going to transform
my three-bedroom home.

Into a neon extravaganza.

My plan is to take some of the most
precious signs from my London studio.

And decorate my house.

The focal point is gonna be
a unique neon artwork.

In the sitting room.

I'm gonna use
different materials and textures.

So that we not only have
a professionally-made neon sign,

But also reclaimed wood panels,

Colorful LEDs,

And Perspex light boxes,

The whole shebang.

I want something that would really
mean something to me,

that would incorporate
Chris's life as well.

I really need to get
this piece done.

By the third anniversary
of Chris's passing.

So I planned this party,

and I want everybody to walk in
and go, "Wow."

Right.

We have a blank piece of paper.

There'll be a touch from all of us,
something in there from everybody.

Working from what we know,
Dad and his work,

his colors, his style...

his amazing ability
to produce fantastic neons.

What are we gonna do?

Something Dad said to me,

"Hey, Lin, this is the strangest life
I've ever known."

Typical.

- Yeah, and it... Yeah, that is.
- Typical.

Can I just put this to you,
as a starting point?

It's fantastic to work with the
boys, produce something, create together.

It means a lot to my mom, you know,
to be able to make this piece sentimental,

you know, for her and for us,
this means so much.

You've got a combination of neon
and we can have some carnival bulbs,

reclaimed wood letters
cut out and painted.

Making it more 3D.

Just like Dad would've done,

Creating layers and effects.

We've sort of got the idea
on paper.

If we don't get it right,
if we lose something off of that...

...then it's kind of like
losing a bit of my dad.

This is just the start of putting together
something very special for Chris.

Yeah, there's a lot more work to go.

I live in Toronto.

I live with my beautiful wife Sidura
and our three amazing kids.

Express coming through!

The neighborhood is very typical.

You know, just to see the house
from the outside,

it looks like every other house.

Come on down. This is the basement.

This is a Via Rail Canada coach
in my basement.

Built in 1954.

The frame of the train in the basement
is wood so I had to build that.

So that isn't the actual steel walls
from the real train.

But inside is a mix
of recreated parts.

And parts that are
from the real train.

So the seats are
from the real train.

These seats date from 1954.

Really robust.

And the tables were added
almost 40 years ago.

And it fits my whiskey glass
really nicely.

I love trains all over the world,

But it's Via trains in Canada
that I am obsessed with.

Isn't that great?

I love the equipment, I love the history
of it, I love the smell.

Sometimes I'll come, I'll just, you know,
really smell that upholstery.

Oh, I love it, 'cause it takes me back.

But at the end of the day for you,
it's really nostalgia.

When I was two years old
we took the train for the first time.

It was called the Turbo.
I remember it so vividly.

I became obsessed with that train.

But the Turbo was retired
when I was seven.

I was crying for a week and I
swore, when I was old enough to do so,

I was gonna build a Turbo coach
in my house.

I printed my own tickets.

And you have a 1980 Via ticket.

Same paper, same everything
as the original Via ticket.

I mean, even down
to the little tiny printing,

So you can really have
the whole train experience

by coming to my basement.

Overall, I think that the total outlay
for the train in the basement

is about $10,000.

When you think about it spread
over four and a half years

it's actually not a crazy amount of money.

On the real train
there's a bathroom over here,

and on mine there's no bathroom.

That would just be smelly and stinky
and instead I've got my record collection.

We can turn on the sounds
for the vestibule.

Just like that,
and they start in the vestibule.

The vestibule has a recording
of a real vestibule

on one of these cars, taped in 1979.

And it's really squeaky and wonky
because they were very squeaky vestibules.

We've got the next train car
over here as a photo mural.

So you can stand in the real train.
You think the rest of the train continues.

It's got wonderful
end of car details.

There's gotta be about 200 rivets
in here, if not more.

Maybe 300 rivets.
That took about two weeks.

It was a long time of,
you know, glue, pop, glue, pop.

Normal is a relative term.

And what is normal for some people
is not normal for others.

Jason doesn't do anything the easy way.

We've been married 17 years.

And I think when you live
with something for so long.

And it becomes your normal,

You forget how to look at it
the way other people look at it.

Dinner.

I was just saying this
to the kids the other day,

You know, you have to work hard
in order for something to mean something.

You know, Jason can say with pride,

it took him four and a half years
to build that train in the basement,

and he did this himself.

I mean, it's a train.

It's awesome, it's amazing.

It is the thing
that puts a smile on my face,

because I'm seeing or being on a train.

Everyone has the hobby gene. I wish
more people embraced their inner nerd.

Today we've come to meet up
with Nick.

Nick makes all our glass
for God's Own Junkyard.

We just roll over with him,
everything to do with the design,

And the glass and the colors,
make sure everything's in stock.

Most importantly, to make sure
that we can get this made in time.

Okay, Nick, here's the design,
this is what we're looking to make.

Any problems that you can
initially say?

Mostly it looks all right,
apart from the S's.

Might need to be scaled down
a little bit.

Right, so the big question today is
whether we're gonna get this done in time.

That is a big question.

There's a lot of glass there.

- Do your best though.
- I'll do my best.

This job is quite a sizable job
for the amount of time that I've got

so there's no real room for mistakes.

I use propane gas mixed with air,

Which gives you the heat.

Put the glass in the flame
and bend it.

When you're making neon you sometimes
get a little crack in the glass

which has to be repaired
or you can drop a tube,

You can break a tube
and it all has to be remade.

It becomes like a bit of spaghetti.

The two most challenging words
are gonna be "strangest".

And the "S".

"Strangest", I've got to follow a template
and make it fit exactly.

And it's gotta be done
in Chris's style,

Which is quite time-consuming.

Emotionally, this is probably one
of the hardest pieces I've ever done.

Because it evokes so many memories

and because we're trying to get it
true Chris style.

I'm about to pump the chassis.

I'll pump this tube
with pure neon gas,

Which lights up red
once it's finished.

If I wanted the tube different
color I would pump it with argon gas.

The last bit of the process
is where the tube settles down.

And becomes a true color.

In the next couple of weeks,
I'm gonna be making visits to Nick,

making sure he's on it
and he ain't let me down.

'Cause he's up against it.

And then we've got to get it up
to me mom and dads' house in one piece

and make sure it's on that wall working

and it hasn't fractured
or broken in transit as well.

I'm so excited about today.

Really looking forward

to doing something so special for Chris.

When I'm finished with this
it will look totally different.

It'll almost be like a Soho Street scene.

We're gonna get something up
in there.

Maybe something like "hotel",
nice red glow.

As they come in, it'll be,
oh gosh,

neon overload.

Brilliant.

I'm Martin. I live in the
southwest of England with my mate Jayne.

We've been in this house
for a year.

The outside is very unremarkable.

It's your standard post-war house.

You'd pass the house and not even
know what's going on inside.

We wanted a medieval dining room
and that kind of sprung from there.

We wanted the whole room
to feel medieval.

And I actually think when you
walk in here it does feel medieval.

Although the room is actually
a square room, with a bay window,

Because the ceiling
has been painted round,

it actually makes you feel
like you're in a tower.

There's an archway here
painted on the wall.

There's steps that we've done up
so it leads into another place,

which I absolutely love because I feel
that I want to go through that door,

I so want to find out
what's behind that door.

I wanted the color to match in
with the table and the fireplace,

Which are actually
quite different woods

I didn't want the place to look
like a dungeon, so I didn't want it gray.

I wanted it to have a warm feel.

I really wanted some flame lights in here.
We used to have some other flame lights.

The fan was quite noisy.

I managed to find these flames
in the basket, which I think are gorgeous.

So I actually found these coats of arms
at a car boot sale.

Our family coat of arms, it was actually
black and white with three stars.

So I printed it and put it on here.

Here it is, this is the back
of our house.

We decided,
as the dining room was medieval,

It made sense to paint a castle
in the back of the house.

So we've got a portcullis
in the middle

and then there's all the battlements
across the top.

These are pennants, this has got
our coat of arms as well.

And then there's kind of a witch's corner
down here with a cauldron and a broom.

It's not something you would
expect to see at the back of the house.

Particularly our house
because it just looks very regular.

And unremarkable from the front.

I have twins,
Max and Evie who are 15.

Max and Evie don't particularly
share my passion for things

that are unique and different.

This is yours, Max. Go to this side.

It's not really my style.

My least favorite part of the house
is probably the dining room

because it's probably the weirdest.

Is there anything
you like about it or not?

I like the fireplace.

- Do you? The twinkling lights?
- I like the lights.

What would you do then?

- Paint it white.
- Would you?

I mean, it doesn't look normal, does it?

So I've got some friends coming over today
who've never seen the house before.

Thank you for coming.
Come on through.

This is our medieval dining room.

Oh my word.

Oh, Jayne, this is incredible.

Makes us think that we've
come down from Harry Potter.

Yeah.

Thank you for coming.
Come on through.

But actually, it doesn't really
matter, it's not for them, it's for us.

Where would you find a suit of armor?

We actually found it
in a reclamation yard.

It's always nice
if people like what you do.

Oh, look at this!

Look at the fairy garden.

If you turn around you can look
at the back of the house,

that's the last medieval surprise.

I love it! That was one of the first things
we ever bought, actually, wasn't it?

It's not a normal house, is it?

I think we could both do this
individually.

But I think we did it bigger
and better together.

Everyone inside. Let's go. See you later.

- Thanks for coming.
- Goodbye now.

It's been really tough
to get everything finished.

And finalized in time
for the party.

There were moments when I thought
this would not get finished.

I'm really happy
with the final piece.

It's got everything that ties
into what Chris was about with his neon.

It looks fabulous, it's got color,

It's got life, vibrance.

I feel like Chris is here with me.

Chris had a big thing
about America.

Anything to do with American
he would love.

He got the idea for Dog House
from an American motel.

He just thought it was brilliant
because most men end up in it anyway.

Bulb signs
were especially poignant

because, especially like "fun fair"
and "carnival",

When I met Chris,
he was doing beautiful fairground art.

They kind of always take me back
to those really early days

when we first met.

I'm gonna be really excited to see
what everybody thinks when they come in.

People that know us,
they know that we work in neon,

but I don't think they expect
to see a house full of neon.

Hi guys. I'm absolutely thrilled
that you've come along tonight.

And you all mean an awful lot
to me

and you all meant an awful lot
to Chris, as well.

And there is something
that I've made in honor of Chris.

And it's something
that I'd like to share with you.

Shall we go in?

Lovely.

This is a one-off, isn't it,
very much so.

"Get your ya' ya's out"?

- I don't think so.
- Oh, that's wonderful.

I'm feeling really happy.
It's been lovely to see everyone

and to share the warmth
and the glow of the neon with everybody.

I like the lips there with the neon,
it looks really nice.

I would probably have that
in my house.

We own the house just down the road.
It looks nothing like this.

Completely different.
This is unique, one in a million.

You won't find this anywhere else.

It's like saying, look, he's still
around, he's still in our lives,

and we'll always remember him
with his neons.

It's always gonna be there.
It's like the legacy of Chris.

I'm sure now I feel
that I can come to the house,

be here, whether on my own
or with the family,