Location: Birmingham NEC,
Dates: 10th – 14th October 2018
Opening Times: Saturday 10am – 6pm, Sunday 10am – 5pm.
Prices: £20 per adult. Under 16s free if accompanied with an adult with a ticket. Parking £16.
Today me, Jemima and my friend Rachel, headed off to Grand Designs Live to review the event being held at Birmingham NEC.
We arrived shortly before 10am and after collecting my Press Pass, we headed over to the entrance for the event to open at 10am.
When entering the event you had to walk through a long tunnel leading to the centre of the exhibition which included Central Bar.
The exhibition was separated into four different spaces; Grand Build, Grand Interiors, Grand Kitchens and Bathrooms and Grand Gardens.
It is the perfect event for anyone looking for house inspiration. Whether you’re looking for a new light, table, interior decor or whether you’re looking to renovate the house and change a staircase, have a new front door (I liked the one with fingerprint entry) or are looking for bi-fold doors.
This exhibition was large, with easily 500 exhibitors.
There were various stand out exhibitors for me, including Blackbrook Interiors who had some fantastic pieces. Jemima loved this egg chair.
There were various places to stop and eat or have a drink. Our favourite was the Gnome Sweet Gnome Cafe. We sat down and had some drinks and Jemima had a triple chocolate muffin. I may have eaten a bit of the muffin. Obviously for review purposes and it was lovely.
There was also the Interiors Cafe which seemed popular.
Jemima was enjoying the space of the exhibition hall and was having a good look around.
The exhibitors were taking quite a liking to her and she seemed to be collecting presents from various stands. Her favourite being this beautiful bath stand where she got a rubber duck, balloon and a lollipop.
A stand asked Jemima if she wanted to pose with some sheep for the chance to win a wooly toy if placed on social media. Jemima, obviously leapt in by the sheep.
But she was so excited that she kept moving and I struggled to get a good photo of her.
I really liked the Paul James Gallery which incorporated animals with graffiti in the art work. I could see me buying some when we finally move house.
There’s a section within the show, demonstrating interior designs. Here are a few of my favourites;
I long for a nice roll top bath but we don’t currently have the room in our house.
One of the stand out popular sales at the show, were the entertainment units. Football tables (see below), ping pong, snooker… They looked so much fun and such good quality.
My favourite section had to be the Grand Gardens section, which had us all looking at the best saunas, hot tubs, hydro pools and the cutest little huts.
Although the small food/drink stall section was also enjoyed and I came away with some cheese from Snowdonia Cheese Company (www.snowdoniacheese.co.uk) which was delicious.
They also had the best looking brownies www.chockshop.co.uk and flapjacks ever. But I kept strong (I’m on a diet) and kept with just the cheese.
We had a lovely couple of hours at the show. You could easily spend the day here if you went to the exhibitor talks on the main stages. Kevin McCloud is there over the weekend, so I highly recommend his talks which include Meet The Grand Designers, Behind The Scenes of Grand Design and The History of The Toilet, along with many more.
The only thing that let the show down for me was the cost of parking at the NEC (£16) .
That put aside, the show was great and I now have a lot of home inspiration at the moment.
Please do feel free to ask questions. I’m always happy to help.