My Day at the Ideal Home Show Part 1

Wow, what a day. Long, fun, interesting, tiring...

...after leaving at 7:15am I finally met my sister about 11 o'clock outside Earl's Court.




Where to begin....well there were two floors of stands, downstairs there was 'Ideal Interiors' 'Ideal Garden' 'Ideal Renovations' and 'Ideal Home Show Village' and upstairs the 'Ideal Woman' 'Ideal Shopping' and 'Ideal Food'. There is something for everyone here, whether you rent and are looking for inspiration for furnishing or whether you are redeveloping a property it is all here. My sister and I just wandered;

and found a large water feature in the middle of the show, with a champagne bar in the middle. We continued to wander, and had a good look at the Ideal Home Magazine room sets, here are a couple:

Living Room: a lovely use of colour with bold accessories and floral curtains, I love the way it mixes things up, sending a real eclectic message suitable for any person with varied tastes.

My favourite was however the bedroom:

and...

and...

I love this wallpaper, it reminds me of 'blue and white' crockery, it is called Palais Chinois from Osborne and Little, and at £57.50 a roll, it is something special. The gorgeous 'birdcage memo board' is £39.50 from Primrose and Plum...I love this, it is the sort of thing that can be turned into a real feature and used for anything and in any room.

I love the mixtures within this room, the almost oriental wallpaper in classic colours, the bright pink accents and the loud curtains clash together to create and real masterpiece. The accessories really complete the look, just remember if you are decorating like this accessories can make or break a room, and sometimes it is not worth buying cheap if it will ruin the 'look'.

The queues for the Ideal Home village where loooong, therefore after a quick snap of my sister in front of the 'Rovers Return' we wandered around some of the stands. One being Little Greene, a great paint company with some of the most beautiful colours. I was able to request 3 free testers..when they arrive I will let you know what they are like. For more details visit www.littlegreene.com.

Next we went upstairs to have a wander round there too.

While wandering we stumbled across the Ideal Woman catwalk and decided to return there to watch one of the catwalk shows. In the meantime we wandered around Ideal Woman, a series of stands promoting beauty and fashion items and things to try.

We then ventured into Ideal Food (my second favourite part). With lots to try and taste for free we tried all sorts. We also stumbled on a demonstration of a blender...that I fell in love with. The Vitamix...the guy demonstrating managed to make ice cream, hot soup, smoothies and crushed ice. With no heating element, bullet proof plastic and blunt blades that can blend just about everything, it was incredible. The same machine McDonald's use for their McFlurry's, Starbucks use for their Frappes..and the list goes on. However at approx £400 rrp I obviously didn't buy one but dream of owning one.

Find out what we saw after the catwalk show in a few days...