Our Lynne Lambourne and Grand Designs Live Collaboration

We're so excited to have worked with the fabulous Lynne Lambourne on her room set at Grand Designs Live! Plus, Lynne's incredible design won Designer of the Year!

About Lynne Lambourne

Lynne Lambourne is an incredibly passionate interiors addict. Since appearing on BBC2s ‘Great Interior Design Challenge’, her creativity has never stopped. Lynne's work has appeared in several magazines, books and TV shows including 'George Clarke's Amazing Spaces: Floating Homes', Gok Wan's ‘Fill Your House For Free’ and her home is regularly featured on film and television projects thanks to her keen eye for design and styling.

She's never happier than in her workshop upcycling with a paintbrush in her hand turning trash to treasure or teaching children on her Children’s Upcycling Bootcamps where she hopes to inspire the next generation to join the upcycling revolution.

About our collab

Lynne Lambourne is passionate about upcycling and turning trash into treasure. This year when she got the opportunity to design a room set at Grand Designs Live it seemed like the perfect opportunity to showcase all the amazing things she could find second hand and upcycle them to show you can create a room on a budget that looks like it has walked off the pages of Elle Decoration. Having long been a fan of Preloved and knowing what treasure lurks on their site it was her first port-of-call when trying to source the things she needed for the vision of her room.

'The site is so easy to navigate and has some amazing bargains on it, I love the fact that you just don't know what you are going to find"

The Room Set

The room set is based on one of Lynne's favourite slogans which originally comes from The Wombles. "Making good use of the things that we find, things that the everyday folk leave behind"

"I want people to look with fresh eyes at second-hand things and arm them with the information, tools and products to help them bring them from trash to treasure."

She also says, "so many things are ending up in landfill just because we want a different look as the trends change. But, with some elbow grease and creativity, you can upcycle something to be what you want. In my design, I have tried to show how chic and designer lots of the things we may otherwise take to the tip or bin can look. I want people to stop and think and be inspired to have a go at upcycling themselves."

Finding the sofa

Since Lynne contacted us, our biggest adventure was finding the perfect sofa to take centre stage in the room set. We searched high and low throughout the huge selection we had on site and it wasn't long before we found the perfect one!

The centre of the room set, the Preloved sofa was originally from the late 1960s/early 70s we believe and had been used in a family home but taken good care of. The man to whom it belonged had now downsized so no longer had space for it.

"Thank goodness for Preloved as it allowed not only me to find the perfect sofa, but for him to clear the space he needed"

Working with AnyVan

"The fact that it was miles away did not matter thanks to Preloved's partner, AnyVan. When you want to buy something you simply get a quote from them to collect it and get it home. Anyvan were fantastic, they collected the sofa and brought it to me on the same day."

"I loved that with Preloved have just the one company for delivery, so your email inbox isn't just filled with quotes. They were cost-effective and easy to communicate with and carried the sofa in with a smile and were there when they said the would be, totally hassle-free!

Make sure you look out for AnyVan widgets while looking through the Preloved site to get an immediate quote for moving your purchase!

The finished room set

Preloved's Holly and Rachel went along to see Lynne's room set at the NEC and couldn't believe how amazing it was! The whole room was full to the brim of talented handicrafts and amazing upcycles.

Lynne not only brought together a stunning room but really managed to get the message of the importance and excitement of upcycling across. PLUS her incredible design won her Designer of the Year - the best reward for all her hard work.

You can spot the amazing Preloved sofa, side table and Freeloved ladder that had been upcycled into an AMAZING planter!

Make sure you follow Lynne on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and check out her blog here!