A weekend to remember for inspiration in your home

It can be quite a personal and financial trial researching a home project as you often have to travel to a variety of locations to find just the right items or accept less mileage and a lot of compromise.

If you are in the mood for a little makeover inspiration this Bank Holiday weekend, you may be faced with less of a dilemma as one of the biggest home design events outside of London will be taking place between May 1 and May 3 at Tatton Park in Cheshire. Not exactly on the doorstep, but it may well be worth a journey.

The Design Weekend Home and Garden Exhibition will be celebrating its 12th anniversary this year and continues to go from strength to strength.

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Originally involving 25 exhibitors, it now boasts more than 200 stands and is the largest event of its kind in the North, opening its doors last year to about 20,000 visitors over a three-day period. The Design Weekend aims to be a melting pot of interior and exterior talents and services and boasts exhibitors from throughout the UK who should be able to help you with just about anything you can think of for your home and garden – everything from swimming pools to garden rooms, kitchens and bathrooms, to fabrics, flooring and fires, galleries to gazebos.

You can expect to encounter the likes of retailers such as Porcelanosa, Oxfordshire Garden Furniture, Portrait Pools and Charles Crowson Handrails and be able to seek out advice from the range of interior home professionals attending the event.

For those of you who know that your other half is a little less enthusiastic about visiting an event like this, you might want to dangle in front of them the prospect of demonstrations by local chefs, and barbeques on the terrace or perhaps the Pimms tents and Champagne bar (well, it is a Bank Holiday weekend after all) – which may make the pill easier to swallow.

Event founder Joanne Beedles conceived the non-profit making weekend to help the local economy and to showcase good design away from London and the South East.

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It is a cause that she is passionate about. Indeed, over the 12 years the show has been held, Joanne has personally financed the event on occasions to ensure it continued to run when times got tough. "I must be crazy, I know" says Joanne, "but I love a challenge and the event is so good".

In the present market, when consumer events often seem to have been cancelled or diminished in size and stature, Joanne has been keen to continue to run the event for the benefit of everyone involved.

In the last few years, the show has developed its own design awards for property and interiors, with attendees at the weekend getting to vote for their favourite projects, as well as getting an insight into the inspiration behind the schemes.

Joanne sees the public-voted awards as instrumental to supporting the design industry outside of London, saying: "I feel strongly that we should all work together to create opportunity and expose talent."

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Even those who are unable to attend the actual weekend can still get to review the short-listed design projects and vote online at www.design-et-al.co.uk

So there is no excuse for missing out.

Tickets for the Design Weekend are available on the day at 12 for adults, 8.50 for concessions, with children under 16 going free. For more details or discounted advance ticket sales, visit the website (listed above).

Jamie Hempsall is a member of the British Institute of Interior Design. Contact him on 01777 248463 or follow him on Twitter.