A Design or i e
slots at Ask An Expert and 30 minutes at the Kitchen Advice Centre, both on a first- come first- served basis, for advice from architects and experts in project management, financing projects and technology or kitchen design.
To get the most out of your time Andrew Moore of SieMatic By Project Kitchens in Surrey suggests taking plans of your kitchen along ALL ABOARD: Kevin McCloud with Harry Dwyer and Charlie Waller on their houseboat or at least measuring the room and drawing it to scale on paper so that you can tell at a glance what will fit into your kitchen.
Photographs are also helpful, although he says they have been able to help people who come with rough sketches on the back of an envelope.
New for 2016 is the Tech Theatre, great for those who are interested in Smart Homes, a home cinema or just like everything to work at the touch of a button.
There are Interiors Roomsets by the six winning interior designers and stylists with new ideas for different rooms.
And for those who want to transform their homes or build a new one there is the new Build Theatre, where you can pick up practical advice and find out about materials essential for a building project.
Not everybody wants to build their own home but lots are interested in holiday homes and around 2,000 visitors a day have been viewing the new LAGO Lodge unveiled by The Dream Lodge Group at the show. It is the first lodge to be built at the company’s new UK factory and it has been designed in collaboration with the Italian interiors company LAGO, which has a store in Harrods.
The three- bedroom “super lodges” have a modern Mediterranean look with oak kitchen work tops and ultra- chic bathrooms plus a large outdoor deck with integrated seating, a gazebo and state- of- the- art hot tub.
Sales and marketing director Martin Tribe admits the lodges cost serious money: “This is £ 400,000, so you don’t want to be able to see your neighbours,” he says.
“So we have gone more high- end and more luxurious with more space between each lodge at our new sites.”
These include Fornham Park, a Capability Brown landscape near Bury St Edmunds on the Suffolk/ Norfolk border and The Sanctuary near Newbury in Berkshire. Both open on August 1.
If you can’t get to ExCeL London this weekend though it’s not a problem. Grand Designs Live goes to the NEC in Birmingham from October 19- 23. INFORMATION granddesignslive. com