Spring and Summer Event with B&Q & Some Pretty Meringues Too.

I was thrilled to be invited to the Spring/Summer B&Q event in London this week. I needed to get out of the house and away from the freezing fens to get some new inspiration. After a journey down in pouring rain and a lovely chat with a cabbie, I arrived to find lots of yummy looking meringues at the entrance.

Of course, as a blogger I am always obliged to take a photo of something so pretty. I’m sure the trade professionals thought I was mad, but they looked amazing and yes they tasted as good as they looked! They were in the colours of the new paint and home range which I thought was just a bit inspired.

Back to the visit though. This awful weather has me looking forward to spring, and I’ve decided this is going to be the year of us finally getting some grown up garden furniture. Barring anything else breaking *glares at the guttering which destroyed last year’s budget*. I’m fed up of having wobbly BBQ’s on some dodgy £5 table I bought at a car boot sale 20 years ago and 3 Ikea fold up chairs which I think are as old. I want to introduce a bit of luxe to our garden.

I’ve spent ages looking online at Rattan (plastic but realistic looking) furniture for the garden and trying to decide what to buy. I was very impressed by the dark brown/black set they had which was a sofa, two chairs and a storage box/coffee table for the cushions which come with it and it should retail for £299 which from what I’ve seen is a bargain.

Then I promptly fell in love with a low 2 seater set, which was amazingly comfortable and stylish – would look great on my patio with a bottle of wine next to it! I didn’t catch the price though, so fingers crossed it’s in budget?

B&Q I think have changed quite a lot in the last few years and have become more design led than before and today really showed that. They had a great range of accessories which are pretty inexpensive but look fantastic.

Top Left: is of a Solar Lamp for the garden (and you know what I sucker I am for those!).

Top Right is a cool knitted ball, which would be fun for children to sit on or in our house just play with.

Bottom Left: Trees in pots of all shapes and sizes to give your seating area a little more class and interest. Also they could screen you a bit from neighbours.

Bottom Right: Gorgeous, gorgeous jars to put flowers in…one of those is going in my fireplace!

I was very taken with the large map canvas below which would look amazing in a dining room or kids bedroom, especially if you had stickers to mark off where round the world you’d been – thanks to the lovely buyer I met for that idea! Also since the weekend when I hung a new canvas with some command strips, I’ve become a massive fan for the first time in my life of not knocking nails into walls. These are now much easier to hang which is the problem I’ve always had with canvas prints before.

The room set which captivated me the most was the beach look, I just though it looked very restful and calming. The back wall of the photo below although it looks like tongue and groove painted up is in fact a lovely tactile wallpaper. It’s no messing either you just paint the wall with paste and shove up the wallpaper, no messing about with tables etc. My kind of DIY!

All in all I had a lovely morning and got back some of my designing Mojo, I’ve got some more ideas for the patio and the dining room which is up next for a makeover. Thanks for a great day out B&Q.

**Full disclosure I was paid travel to attend and I got some yummy meringues which Miss L ate and I didn’t get near!**