Evening Standard Home Design Awards 2019: how your home makeover project could win you £1,000 worth of prizes

Entries for the Evening Standard Home Design Awards are now open. We're asking creative home improvers to share with us their bold and imaginative makeover projects.

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Entries for the Evening Standard Home Design Awards 2019 have now closed.

The four-day Easter weekend is an ideal time for enthusiastic home decorators to start makeover projects. And with two spring bank holiday weekends still to come, the transformation opportunities are endless.

From ingenious DIY hacks and reclaimed furniture fixes to luxe finishes and confident paint choices, turning a dated or underused room into a modern, flexible space is one of the most satisfying ways to improve our homes.

Which is why sharing the ingenious ideas you use to tackle decorating dilemmas is invaluable for us all.

Entries are now open for the Evening Standard Home Design Awards. To enter, and to find out how your home makeover projects could win you £1,000 worth of prizes, click here.

We are asking homeowners and renters across the UK to share with us their inspiring makeover projects, whatever the size or budget.

From kitchens and gardens to bedrooms, living rooms and bathrooms, we're looking for the imaginative and thoughtful ways you have transformed a space.

How it works

It couldn’t be easier. Upload one photo and a description of your finished makeover in any — or all — of the categories to be in with a chance to win £1,000 worth of fabulous prizes. Entries close at noon on May 10 2019.

Each category will have two winners: home decorators and DIYers are invited to enter, as well as professional interiors experts and Instagram influencers, giving us 10 winners in total.

Our expert judges will debate and decide the winning projects in the exclusive Library & Lecture Room at Sketch, London's most Instagrammable design hotspot.

The winning designers and their makeover projects will be photographed and featured in the Evening Standard in July and across our digital and social platforms.

Win £1,000 worth of prizes

Each of our 10 winners will receive £550 worth of luxury hotel-style bed linen from Tielle Love Luxury. It will include the bestselling superking cotton duvet cover, sheets and pillow cases; a jumbo towel bundle (with eight towels in four sizes) and two feather and down pillows as used by the five-star hotel Claridge’s in Mayfair.

They will also receive a sleek Bose Home Speaker 500, optimised for voice control via Amazon Alexa with integrated wi-fi, worth £400, and a £50 voucher to spend in the Lecture Room & Library, Sketch London’s luxurious two Michelin-star dining room, where all the tasting and à la carte menus have been devised by French chef Pierre Gagnaire.​

Judging

Our panel of expert judges includes Janice Morley, editor of Homes & Property; Dan Hopwood, former president of the British Institute of Interior Design; and award-winning design writer Barbara Chandler.

Joining them are design journalist and author of Mad About The House Kate Watson-Smyth; Marianne Shillingford, the creative director of Dulux; Thomas Sanderson product manager Laura O’Connell; and interior designer and TV presenter Sophie Robinson.

Judging will take place at Sketch London on June 3 in the recently redesigned Library, with its glittering chandeliers and vibrant hand-painted ceiling swirls. It is set against the eye-popping backdrop of the exquisite Lecture Room, with its opulent burnt-orange shades and zig zag-patterned walls threaded with real silver under a stunning domed ceiling.

What the judges are looking for

We are looking for clever storage ideas, well-planned lighting, bold paint choices and a flair for adding individual accessories to show a flash of personality.

Award-winning design writer and one of this year’s expert judges, Barbara Chandler is eager to see the real-life homes of our readers and says “personal” is the key word.

“I’ll be asking ‘What makes this room different? Does it shout out the ideas, tastes, lifestyle, imagination, inspirations of its owners? I’ll be looking for colour flair, careful use of space, clever materials and practicality. Does this room work?”

Clever use of craft, DIY projects and adventurous product-sourcing will also be considered.

“Where does everything come from? From markets and charity shops, the high street and DIY superstores, to auctions and high-end design boutiques... they all yield items that can make a room unique, a testimony to budgeting, knowledge, determination and resourcefulness,” says Chandler.

“So good luck to all our wonderful design devotees — and please make sure you tell us everything that you think makes your entry special.”

  • To enter and for full terms, click here
  • Follow us on Instagram @eshomesproperty and share your entries with the hashtag #eshomedesignawards