He’s been looking forward to it for months. Kevin McCloud, the popular star of Channel 4’s Grand Designs, says year’s Grand Designs Live at Birmingham’s NEC is among the highlights of his year.

“I do enjoy it enormously,” he says. “It’s an exceptional event.”

There’s plenty in store for visitors to this year’s event which run until Sunday October 9, 2011. Outdoor carpets, rubberised furniture and industrial-sized all-weather cookers will tickle the fancy of those interested in gardens of the future.

But there will be other, more-conventional designs and inspirations for the home.

The show will provide visitors with plenty of amazing ideas to turn their dream home into a reality.

Whether they’re self-building, renovating or simply re-decorating, visitors will find everything they need for their very own grand design.

Out-of-this-world heating solutions, outdoor lighting and entertainment technology all feature at the heart of the exhibition in Grand Gardens, showing visitors how they can use their garden as an extra entertaining and living space all year round.

The core of the inspiration is The 24 Hour Garden, in which three interactive show gardens transform from day to night in minutes – an ‘outdoor living room’, complete with a ‘floating carpet’, the ‘tranquil escape’, with its unique boulder lounger and driftwood panelled walls, and the ‘contemporary kitchen garden for entertaining’, with its tea cup wall and bold dining set.

However, there’s a limit to extending the season – and no one’s going to be out there fine-dining in the pouring rain, agrees award-winning TV garden designer James Alexander-Sinclair, who will be discussing The 24 Hour Garden at this year’s show.

“The point of 24-hour gardening is not so much sitting in it, but looking at it,” he says. “You can sit in your sitting room and power a switch and there you have it.”

Does he approve of outdoor garden carpet? There’s a large pause followed by a snigger.

“I’m not quite sure what the point of it is,” he concedes. “Outdoor carpet’s a marvellous idea if you like outdoor hoovering. But it’s part of the idea of the garden being an extra room to the house.”

For further details about Grand Designs Live visit www.granddesignslive.com