On Wednesday I took the day off work and headed west to Earls Court and the Ideal Home show at Christmas!I’d been to the normal show a couple of times before, which tends to be on in around March/April time, but I’d never been to the Christmas one. Luckily enough I managed to get two free tickets via Money Saving Expert. They release around 3,000 tickets on a certain date for a few days (it’s normally around a month or two beforehand I think) and it’s basically first come, first serve until they’re all gone. Last year for the normal show I signed up for tickets at the exact time they were released so I had the pick of days, but this time I didn’t get round to it until a day or two later and by that point only Wednesday was left (Saturday and Sunday go pretty quickly!). But we were happy enough with Wednesday, so off we trotted to Earls Court.
We headed upstairs first off and were greeted by a selection of little stalls selling lots of cute decorations. They had covered the entire floor in white to look like snow, and even had a snow machine just outside the front entrance!
Moving on we stumbled across a myriad of cakes, chocolates, meringues and more. Even though I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I have to say these looked absolutely incredible!
^^ These meringues were almost the size of my face!
The carved chocolate was amazing, they all looked so lifelike (apart from the fact that they’re made out of chocolate, obviously!)
We stopped for a second to have a look at the view from the balcony and to try and figure out if there was anything in particular we could see that we definitely wanted to visit.That’s an ice rink in the middle FYI!
So downstairs we went and the entrance was filled with these snow-covered Christmas trees – they were so beautiful! I’d love to have something like that in my house but firstly they were ginormous and secondly I can imagine they’d make a right old mess!
More decorations – I think we were back upstairs at this point. I bought a few bits and pieces from the Sass and Belle stand. (I’m pretty sure I got a few bits from there last time!) and I’m really pleased with what I managed to get, it was all very reasonably priced. I spent just over Β£20 and got around 6 or 7 pieces.
^^ These wreaths were really nice actually – I probably should’ve picked one up as I would like to get a wreath – but I seem to remember they were a little pricey.
If you’ve never been to the Ideal Home Show before then basically they usually do room mock ups to give you ideas and inspiration for your own home. In the normal show they usually do 2 or 3 full house mock ups which you queue for and walk around in groups, walking through as if it was an actual house. This show however they didn’t do full houses but just a few room examples for Christmas decoration inspiration.
First up ^^ the bathroom. Now this I find quite odd if I’m honest! Firstly, who has an armchair in their bathroom?! Secondly, why is there Champagne next to the toilet?! And thirdly, although the tree-in-snow feature does look quite good, who in their right mind would ever do that in their home?! Bizarre.
The rest was fairly normal, I like the wolf cushions here ^^
That book Christmas tree is pretty clever, I’ve definitely seen that before – probably on Pinterest!
I really like this room, I think probably because it reminds me of our lounge quite a bit!
I really like the knitted bean bag and the light above.
I’d quite like to get a tray for our coffee table, probably not a circular one, but I like the wood style of this one – we have quite a lot of white furniture in our living area so I think its always nice to get a few different textures/colours into the space.
I really like the white decorations on this, although personally I wouldn’t go for a white tree as well, I’m quite attached to the idea of having a real tree (or at least a real-looking tree!)
I love this room, although it’s not something I would do myself – I think the room would end up being quite dark if it was actually done within a house with no industrial spotlights shining on it! But I love the use of colour here, and they have our Eames chairs! (But in a different colour obviously.) I’m absolutely in love with that bar cart though! The gold colour works really well in this room, but I’m not sure how it would look in our space. I love the size and design though – would love something similar perhaps in a silver or copper finish. I feel like I go on about bar carts all the time at the moment! Whenever I mention it to Nick he’s like;Β ‘are you looking at bar carts on Pinterest again?!’ and yes, I usually am… One day I will get a flippin’ bar cart, ONE DAY!! π
Love the little paper pom-poms on the side here too. ^^
This set-up was beautiful, but the wallpaper was very wintery, so I can’t imagine how you would make use of it all year round!
Hello there Gino..! ^^ People flocked in their masses to watch him, and I’ll give him his due, he does know how to keep an audience entertained – that cheeky Italian humour!
On the ground floor there was a stall with these incredible cake decorations ^^ – absolutely amazing! My personal favourite is the middle-right cake, with elements from each of the other cakes on it.
Soon we’d gotten around everything that we wanted to visit, so before we departed we headed to the Christmas wine bar – where else?! And got ourselves a mulled wine.
I’ve had better mulled wine if I’m honest – I think they just stuck some red wine in the microwave! But it was nice enough to sit down with, I mean it’s still wine! π
All in all, it was really good fun, especially considering it was free! I have to say though, I thought it would be more Christmassy. I know the majority of my pictures would suggest otherwise, but that’s because I basically just took pictures of all the Christmas stuff! But really, there were just a few stalls of decorations, the mock ups of the rooms, and those beautiful Christmas trees in the entrance, but then there was a lot of generic interior stuff (furniture stalls, doors and windows, and even garden furniture!) Don’t get me wrong, I love all the interior stuff, but considering it is the Ideal Home Show at Christmas, I thought it would be totally Christmas focussed, leaving the general interior stuff to the show in March. Maybe it’s just me! I would definitely consider going again though, but only if I could get free tickets again, I don’t think I’d want to pay for one, although in fairness they’re not too expensive – Β£14 for an adult ticket I believe.
However, it certainly got me in the Christmas spirit, and I managed to pick up some bargains too, so I certainly can’t complain about that!
First up ^^ the bathroom. Now this I find quite odd if I’m honest! Firstly, who has an armchair in their bathroom?! Secondly, why is there Champagne next to the toilet?! And thirdly, although the tree-in-snow feature does look quite good, who in their right mind would ever do that in their home?! Bizarre.The rest was fairly normal, I like the wolf cushions here ^^That book Christmas tree is pretty clever, I’ve definitely seen that before – probably on Pinterest!I really like this room, I think probably because it reminds me of our lounge quite a bit!I really like the knitted bean bag and the light above.I’d quite like to get a tray for our coffee table, probably not a circular one, but I like the wood style of this one – we have quite a lot of white furniture in our living area so I think its always nice to get a few different textures/colours into the space.I really like the white decorations on this, although personally I wouldn’t go for a white tree as well, I’m quite attached to the idea of having a real tree (or at least a real-looking tree!)I love this room, although it’s not something I would do myself – I think the room would end up being quite dark if it was actually done within a house with no industrial spotlights shining on it! But I love the use of colour here, and they have our Eames chairs! (But in a different colour obviously.) I’m absolutely in love with that bar cart though! The gold colour works really well in this room, but I’m not sure how it would look in our space. I love the size and design though – would love something similar perhaps in a silver or copper finish. I feel like I go on about bar carts all the time at the moment! Whenever I mention it to Nick he’s like;Β ‘are you looking at bar carts on Pinterest again?!’ and yes, I usually am… One day I will get a flippin’ bar cart, ONE DAY!! πLove the little paper pom-poms on the side here too. ^^This set-up was beautiful, but the wallpaper was very wintery, so I can’t imagine how you would make use of it all year round!Hello there Gino..! ^^ People flocked in their masses to watch him, and I’ll give him his due, he does know how to keep an audience entertained – that cheeky Italian humour!On the ground floor there was a stall with these incredible cake decorations ^^ – absolutely amazing! My personal favourite is the middle-right cake, with elements from each of the other cakes on it.Soon we’d gotten around everything that we wanted to visit, so before we departed we headed to the Christmas wine bar – where else?! And got ourselves a mulled wine.I’ve had better mulled wine if I’m honest – I think they just stuck some red wine in the microwave! But it was nice enough to sit down with, I mean it’s still wine! π
All in all, it was really good fun, especially considering it was free! I have to say though, I thought it would be more Christmassy. I know the majority of my pictures would suggest otherwise, but that’s because I basically just took pictures of all the Christmas stuff! But really, there were just a few stalls of decorations, the mock ups of the rooms, and those beautiful Christmas trees in the entrance, but then there was a lot of generic interior stuff (furniture stalls, doors and windows, and even garden furniture!) Don’t get me wrong, I love all the interior stuff, but considering it is the Ideal Home Show at Christmas, I thought it would be totally Christmas focussed, leaving the general interior stuff to the show in March. Maybe it’s just me! I would definitely consider going again though, but only if I could get free tickets again, I don’t think I’d want to pay for one, although in fairness they’re not too expensive – Β£14 for an adult ticket I believe.However, it certainly got me in the Christmas spirit, and I managed to pick up some bargains too, so I certainly can’t complain about that!
Bring on December when we can put up our tree! π
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