Grand Designs Live is currently on at the ExCel London and our roving designer, Claudia de Yong has been along to see what's in store.
Take it away Claudia: After my excitement of going on the Dockland Light Railway for the first time to get to ExCel to Grand Designs Live, I realised quite quickly that it is miles away and the railway was not that exciting at all!
ExCel is a funny place .It is a mixture between an airport, a motorway service station and an exhibition centre- a very British one at that. I have been to exhibitions abroad before on this scale but I felt the venue and the layout was not successful. As usual, there were no chairs or benches in the hall to sit on at all. It was stuffy and not well signposted as to where the entrance or the exit was when desperate to get out!
I am not sure quite what I was expecting from the show on the garden front but I was anxious to see what was being offered to the public at a show like this and whether it was the sort of venue for example one would want to have a stand at to get business. I am not sure what the costs were of the stands but as the show is on for 10 days , it could have been an opportunity for good advertising.
As a visitor and a designer I was impressed by some of the home interior stands but not by the garden section. If I had been after a lovely bathroom or kitchen then there were some great things. There were also some oak building manufactures and if I could find some land I would love to have a fantastic oak framed house built.
But the busiest stand by far in four halls was, one selling flip flops!!
On the garden design side there were quite a few designers with their work on display. There was a giant flag hanging from the ceiling with Diarmuid Gavin Designs written on it. I walked round twice looking for his stand before realising it was a pale wooden shed with some books on a table outside and a plan of a garden stuck to the side of the shed.
But the best shed I saw was one that is for our feathered friends. Chicubes make hen houses and by far the cutest one was this one in the picture.(www.chicubes.co.uk) Couldn’t work out though how the chickens open the door-it has a bolt on it!!
There were two stands with swimming ponds being shown. I am still not sure how many people go for these in England although they are quite easy to do if you know about ponds and luckily I do!
As with all shows there were discounts being offered and show offers even from garden designers. There were artificial grass companies and even a stand selling Dutch bulbs similar to those in Amsterdam along the river.
There was a strong emphasis on being green and it was a shame no one in the garden section had cottoned on to this as on this site one of the most widely discussed topics has been about sustainability.
I think Grand Designs will probably in time take over from the Ideal Home Exhibition and there won’t be the need for two similar shows.
Next week I am going to the Malvern Show and hopefully I will have more garden ideas to pass on and companies to write about.Another new show for me and another time being a visitor and not an exhibitor. I hope the food is better and there are chairs to sit on because my feet are killing me!
Grand Designs Live is currently on till the 4th May.
Claudia de Yong
Garden Designer
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