Bustling with optimism

Had you been at the Ideal Home Show you could have mistaken our economy for being in a blooming state of good health and a culture that was openly spending at will. Whether it had been new-year optimism, or the fact that Earls Court was just housing the latest trending setting gadgets and styles I wasn’t sure, but one thing is clear that Saturday & Sunday’s attendances at the show were nothing short of astounding. Personally this was my first IDH since 2005 and boy is the March show big. Outside the event, the outer structure of Earls Court was covered over with Astroturf to signify that this year’s event had an ecological aware theme about it. Fortunately the event wasn’t awash with carbon footprint scare mongering companies, which was my fear.

Futuristic home entertainment hub

The event took place over two floors at Earls Court One. Is it co-incidence that abbreviated it spells E.C.O? I seriously doubt it, but if the event organisers took that into consideration, you should be commended as it is very clever. The floor is divided up into different sections catering from DIY, Home Improvement, Food & Drink, Shopping, Gardening and even a section featured for woman. The bottom floor was used primarily for big displays such as several full sized houses you could go and have a look in. It maybe worth noting that if you want to look around these houses you’ll either need to be there at the opening time or alternatively wait in a queue for an hour and then get crushed going up the stairs.

Hi-Can the home entertainment bed

Some of the highlights at this year’s event are the Gardens. As you will be able to see in the pictures, these really are a work of art and meld the ecological path we are taking as a world and recycling what could be perceived as rubbish and turning our gardens into quirky and rather attractive leisure area’s. The use of office furniture and industrial cargo forms a garden that truly leaps into a new age of design. You may also get a distinct smell of chocolate, that’s because a garden feature and leaves were sprayed in pure bitter chocolate spray to create a delightful and quite surreal scene.

The houses and cars of the future

In terms of what we went to the IDH for, the future technology aspect was smaller in comparison to other areas but there were still some impressive products on the display, some of which we got private use of such as the Hi-Can. The Hi-Can is a full entertainment suite bed. In its own chamber it has a built in Xbox 360, high definition projector, full surround sound with under the mattress bass cabs, adjustable bed movements and full remote control of all operations of the bed. More information on the Hi-Can will be available soon in our additional feature ‘Top 10 Must Buy Items at the Ideal Home Show”. Also on display was Virgin (distinct absence of BSKYB at the event) who showed off their 3DTV technology, from the surface it is pretty impressive though how it will compete with BSKYB will remain a mystery, it’ll bode down to whom produces the most content we think. Unfortunately we missed a preview of the first 3D Video Camera aimed at consumers and the Dyson AM01 which is the next revolutionary step of the fan. The AM01 has no blades so it doesn’t cut the air up, instead it uses a cyclone principle which produces air that feels exactly like an outside breeze, creating a more natural and ambient temperature.

Chocolate coated garden furniture

Offset your carbon footprint, throw it in the garden

Those that may question of future of 3D being limited to just the cinemas were proved wrong at the show, LG had its latest 3DTV on display and we can confirm it is damn hot! It’s not at the stage where no glasses are required. However the effects were extremely impressive when playing a demo of a live concert by U2. We were always slightly sceptical whether 3D could make its way into our homes and be a permanent fixture, well after seeing the footage I wouldn’t want to watch movies any other way. Whether I’d want to watch Eastenders in 3D is another thing.

The LG 3DTV is a real beauty

One of my favourite parts of the event had to be the food stall. Smells of Asian food, spices mixed with the traditional Aberdeen Angus beef had me in a stir. Unfortunately the prices are extremely steep, not helped by the already internal restaurants on the premises being overly expensive. This isn’t a trend setter though. Excel does the same thing as well, shame really as we were extremely tempted to taste some of the delightful savouries on offer. A mention has to go to Thunder which is a new drink doing the rounds, a toffee vodka that is absolutely gorgeous and worth every penny of the £20.00 bottle. So if it comes to food or even drinks bring some with you or go outside and look for a cheaper alternative. The cooking shows are pretty good though and some top chef’s were at the show cooking daily, so for those enthusiastic about flavours it’s definitely worth sitting down and getting tips from the best.

Just an idea of the size

The goody bags are shit! Enough said

One of the two things I didn’t like about the Ideal Home Show was just the sheer amass of people past midday, there didn’t appear to be control over the amount of people that went into the exhibition centre and especially on the upper floors and outer areas of the ground floor this caused traffic jams of people. This may somewhat want to rush your experience a little and for us it made us feel uncomfortable in the end and we had left, fortunately we covered everything we wanted to, but for those that have paid out the ticket it’s something the organisers may well want to think about next year, bear in mind we went on a Sunday, Saturday was even worse according to some of the buzz going on, on Twitter. It may be worth keeping away from the rather expensive show guides as well, despite the core content of the guide is good and acts as a nice aid to the show, ultimately people buy it for the goody bag. I can safely say that the goody bag absolutely sucked this year, with the biggest freebie being a bag of dishwasher tablets! If you can get free tickets to the event or at a reduced rate, we seriously advise you take this option. Tickets are ranged from £11-16 which considering the very sparse free content maybe a little steep, however given the right variables you can have a great day here. The sheer size of the event is overwhelming but slightly exciting at the same time just don’t get caught in the traffic queues, which are clearly caused by exhibitors doing demonstrations on the narrower walkways.

Overall we had a good time, wear some comfortable shoes as they’ll be allot of walking involved and don’t be afraid to shop around as the choice (especially in the woman’s section) is truly mind boggling. Keep an eye out for our Top 10 purchases that you could make a little later this week. We’re a little gutted we couldn’t go on press troop day, as interviewing Suzi Perry would have been the icing on the cake.