Ideal Home Show 2017 – Interior Design tips

I’ve been visiting the Ideal Home show since I was a small child. It’s ironic that my parent’s dragged me there when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. Now it’s me dragging my husband there! I lured him with the promise of nice food from the Eat and Drink festival (also part of the show). 

If you haven’t heard of the Ideal Home show, it’s exactly what it sounds like. A huge exhibition filled with everything you could ever want to create your ideal home. It’s a great way to see all the latest interior trends, pick up tips from expert talks and try out items before you buy them.

Ideal Home Show 2017

As the show is only open for another few days, I won’t review it or tell you what to see if you’re attending. Instead I’ll fill you in on the tips I picked up from a talk I attended – Be your own interior designer with Julia Kendall. And I’ll provide you with lots and lots of lovely photos. I stalked around like the unofficial paparazzi and took over a hundred photos. Don’t worry – I’ve edited them down to the very best ones for you.

Undoubtedly one of the highlights for me were the show homes, built right in the middle of exhibition centre. A 21st century cottage complete with a thatched roof and an apartment block which represented three stages of the property ladder. All rooms were designed by students from Chichester College.

So, let’s take a peek inside shall we!

21st Century Cottage

Property Ladder Apartments

I love the picture rail above the window, but I doubt many houses have the window so low down.

I really can’t get enough of these plant walls  – if only I was better at keeping plants alive.

There were also a series of room sets from Good Homes Magazine, which were absolutely gorgeous. My husband literally had to prize me away from these.

Good Homes Roomsets

Brilliant use of textures to bring this room to life.

Patterned tiles are such a huge trend this year.

Yes please to twin sinks.

Beautiful tiles!

Love the chevron flooring!

No ideal home would be complete without a glorious garden and luckily there was plenty of outdoor inspiration too. These front garden sets were designed by the Ideal Young Gardener of the Year entrants.

Interior Design tips from Julia Kendall

I thought I would share some of the tips I picked up from the be your own Interior Designer talk with Julia Kendall.

• Good lighting is central to creating a perfectly designed room.
• Look for ways to increase the natural light or embrace the dark.
• Ensure that lighting is layered and design a lighting scheme from the very start.

If you’d like some advice on choosing the perfect light scheme, I wrote  a blog post all about it!

• The colour of the room can really affect your mood, so choose carefully.
• Balance colour with neutrals to give the eye somewhere to rest.
• Try everything on a mood board first, so you can iron out any mistakes. Try and accurately represent the proportions of each colour you will use.
• Use a photograph you really love to create a colour palette. She suggested using Design Seeds, which I also love. It’s a great help for choosing a colour scheme.
• If you’re finding it hard to choose between decor styles, start a Pinterest board and start pinning everything you love. When you look back through your pins, see which style has dominated your pins the most and that’s the one to go with.

We actually didn’t buy much at the show, as tempting as the enormous hot tubs were. But I came home with a head full of inspiration and a tummy full of Indian street food, which is just as good.

Did you go to the Ideal Home show? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.