The show review

Thank you to everyone who came the NEC National Selfbuild Show last week. It was especially nice to meet so many blog readers and followers -  I promise to try and find more inspirational stories to repay your loyalty and kind comments. It makes a huge difference to know that people are reading it (I don't believe the blog stats - surely 300 people a day aren't popping by and reading the nonsense I write here??) and also encourages me to not be so flippant or so lazy.

Speaking of lazy, I am supposed to be on holiday this week so don't tell Ben I have been blogging (I am sure he isn't one of the 300)

Anyway - the show was good. We sold the exhibition barn (well we actually sold it twice - Buy one get one free if you like), we sold the Artisan Pod, we sold the planters, we sold the trees........and we almost sold the sofa (but that is another story). So all in all we were very pleased as these shows are very expensive to do. But most importantly we had some lovely enquiries and met a lot of interested people which hopefully bodes well for the next 12 months.

Here is the large barn on the Monday before opening

As you can see, it takes a lot of work (4 carpenters, 4 electricians, 2 painters, one project manager, 5 display and management staff) just to get the show stands ready - and we only have 3 days to build the structures.

The Pod was prefabricated so in many ways only had to be joined together

And people seemed to really like it

The large barn was very impressive and would make a brilliant house (albeit small - 90 sq m) or annex. It is certainly an opportunity to show off our craftsmanship and I personally felt that you could really judge the quality of what we do (in comparison to others) and I was very proud to be working on the Border Oak stand. I know the carpenters who made this barn and the Pod were also very proud.

We had lots of enquiries for the planters, tables, chairs, lights, sofas, oak blocks etc which was encouraging. Someone even stole a large portfolio that I had just had printed (sooooooo annoying - if you wanted it I could have sent you the hyper link!! Please give it back if it found its way into your bag by mistake. I know how easy it is for large professionally printed one off portfolios to jump off the table and into your rucksack without you even noticing.)

The panelling was painted in F&B 'Mouses Back'  - possibly my new best colour

And it really worked with the olive trees and planters (600mm x 600mm woven oak planter £150)

1200mm x 600mm planter £250

And here are some of the Pod interior - my favourite element here was the wild oak desk top -
'the perfect blend of rustic and contemporary' I overheard someone say............

But all in all, a tiring, hilarious (some one actually licked our oak frame?!) and feet ache inducing 5 days. We are all really looking forward to working through the enquiries and hopefully building some lovely new homes for the people we have met.
I'll be back next week with some more blogging - and remember, don't tell Ben I was working.