Did you know The Ideal Home Show’s been going for over 100 years?

So it may seem a little ridiculous that this is the first year we’ve exhibited in our 20 year history.

However, we can now safely say it won’t be our last.

Three weeks of hard work but extremely good fun at the same time and loads going on – both on and off our trade stand.

In fact, we were that busy we ran out of free fizz and competition flyers TWICE.

The Ideal Home Show – Knock Out Deals and Facebook compliments …

The special show offers we had on proved hugely popular, in fact some show goers were literally knocking themselves out to get in on the act – it didn’t stop us taking their order though, as the video below clearly demonstrates.

And our competition to win the fabulous Kool Kombi Cooler was a real hit.

This novelty cooler proves popular at all the shows we do throughout the year but the audience at the Ideal Home Show literally poured over it and we received around three times the amount of entries for our competition compared to other shows.

Win a Kool Kombi Cooler at The Ideal Home Show

The only slight disappointment was that we weren't allowed to exhibit any of our rattan furniture because another company had pipped us to the post and got exclusivity - oh well, you can't win them all.

Anyway, enough about us as we certainly weren’t the only success story of the show.

Show Gold for Pershore College …

We were delighted to hear that students from Pershore College in Worcestershire won a Gold Medal in The Ideal Home Shows Young, Gardener of the Year Award.

Their exhibit, ‘Go with the Flow’ won on the basis that it demonstrated a good understanding of harmony and sustainability.

'Go with the Flow' at The Ideal Home Show

Not only did it win the medal but it got them a feature in the Evesham Observer as well.

The college is located just down the road from our base in Warwickshire and they do some great work across the board so it was great news for us when they got recognition at a major public event.

We also try and promote sustainability ourselves and have even dedicated a blog – Garden Recycle – to the subject.

Garden Recycle Blog

Well done guys, well deserved!

Other highlights from the show …

The Ideal Home Show runs for a massive three weeks offering plenty of time to shine.

Below is a round-up of some of the highlights.

Ideal Champagne Bar:

Sponsored by Hydropool this tranquil little haven in the heart of the Ideal Gardens offers show goers the opportunity to relax with champagne and charcuteries.

With planted ice buckets and an entire turf wall the bar accommodates up to 60 people at a time.

A great place for show goers to re-charge their batteries half way through the day.

The Ideal Catwalk:

Sponsored by Lexus this has a different agenda for each day of the event and showcased all the latest trends and styles in the fashion world.

There were also styling advice and Q&A sessions from industry experts.

View the Catwalk Lookbook.

Future Proof Home:

This was definitely one our highlights as it contained examples of initiatives to reduce energy consumption and material wastage.

Designed and built by Trivselhus by Esh the home uses a fabric first approach to allow architects to meet ever changing needs.

The home was built in a factory and assembled on site at the show and one of its stand-out features was the revolutionary Climate Shield that gave the house an energy rating of ‘A’ compared with the ‘E’ more commonly found in current houses.

View the full spec in the Sourcebook.

All in all a brilliant event and we’re already looking forward to next year.