First managed to have a chat with the fabulous fashion guru and interior designer Hannah Sandling to talk about the Daily Mail Ideal Home Show amongst other things.

The show will bring together the very latest in home design, must-have products and accessories, exciting innovation and expert advice from the UK’s interior design world, running for 24 days and it’s all under one roof.

Hannah has appeared in magazines, on the radio and on numerous TV programmes including This Morning, Homes and Property and Richard and Judy over the years offering advice.

Here’s what the leading stylist of the stars had to say:

Tell us more about National Interiors Week and the Show….

Well basically I’m going to be there for the week. There’s going to be loads of exciting interiors and its helping people to create an oasis of calm. To make people realise and understand that your home isn’t just a place to dump your furniture and sleep, it’s actually an oasis. It’s supposed to be like a healthy environment, which stimulates your senses. So when you come home, you can just shut your door and chill out. It’s your little, relaxing retreat.

The Ideal Home Show is supposed to get people really inspired so they can come and see all the ideas and put them into practise themselves. They can go home and create these wonderful environments worth living in. As I say I’ll be down there doing my various talks and chats, - we’ll have a fashion show using wallpapers and various products from interiors, seeing how both of them overlap. People can come and have a chat to me and talk about what they want their houses to look like and see how I can help.

But it’s very stimulating. We’ll be talking about all the current fashions and trends as well and about how easy and accessible they are and how you are. But it is also about understanding that there are actually rules to creating a perfect environment that feels like you’re in harmony with it.

It’s not just about trends when it comes to doing your home is it?

No, your house has got to be an extension of your personality. That’s really important. So although one particular look might be in – like I know that black is a really sort of big look for this year – there’s no point in putting someone in a black house cos they might feel that it’s too heavy and scary. But then again the whole green look is going to be absolutely huge – so they might think, “oh that’s more me, it’s more calming, soothing and relaxing. It’s great cos I always think if there are eight different rooms to look at, it’s always good to see which one you feel most at home in. Like if you just kick up your feet, put your slippers on and watch Corrie, whatever you feel most homely at with the all the colours - you know. If you feel you’re gelling with the colours then that’s the environment you should go for rather than just going for a certain colour cos it’s “in”, because you’re not going to feel homely or relaxed in it.

Colour therapy is a big thing now isn’t it with interiors? As you say many people don’t seem to appreciate the difference it can make to the paths we take and how we feel?

Colours are a very strong, powerful tool. They really can alter your mood and emotions. So if you do feel like you need jollying it a little bit then I would recommend you put yellow in. But if you do have a very hectic life and schedule and you want to sleep at nighttimes, then you want your bedroom to be this atmosphere of just calmness and paint your bedroom green.

However, there is one thing about green though, because people always think “I’ll just slap up a colour of green on the wall, it’s all going to look good and I’ll be all relaxed.” Although it is the colour of nature, although it can make you feel relaxed, if it is used wrongly in the House it can actually made you feel claustrophobic. That’s because if you think about green and nature – there are thousands of different colours and you’ve got light filtering through the leaves and they’re all blending together.

But if you just slap up a bland matt colour of green up on the walls it can actually feel very rigid and stagnant, so that can make you feel very claustrophobic and you just want to get the hell out of that room. So maybe put a colour wash on or break the wall up with a picture, or have a lovely light that creates a very unusual effect and gives the wall movement. Green, although it can be very soothing can actually make you feel quite sick (Laughs). You have to think about it very carefully, maybe just put it on one wall and then echo it with a couple of candles and a lamp shade on the other side.

What’s this about some new research showing that dining rooms are firmly a thing of the past?

Yeah, the dining room isn’t used that much. People just tend to shove all their boxes and other bits and bobs in there. But I think it’s so important to be able to use your dining room as a room where you sit down as a family and enjoy your meals together. So don’t shove all your boxes in there or do all your office work in there. If you do, do all your office work in there, make sure you close it behind wooden doors at the end of the day. Use it as a family environment though. Put candles in there or a lovely big bunch of flowers and that will entice you to go and sit in there and actually enjoy a dinner in there. About 60% of people just simply don’t use it, they just Alf Garnett style it and sit in front of the TV with the footie on and their dinner on their lap.

You actually really enjoy your food so much more if you’re actually sitting at the table looking at what you’re eating rather than just watching the telly.

What are people’s most common mistakes to do with interior design? Themes can sometimes be considered to be a big no-no, for instance can’t they?

I always think over-cluttering is a no – no. My advice if you were really stuck with the interior for a room would be to paint an entire room white, remove all the furniture and everything. You’re short of inspiration and you don’t really know where to get it – then you might be on a walk one day by the beach and you might see a shell or a bit of old drift wood and you think “Oh my god – those are the colours” that’s just really inspired me. You take your shell or whatever to Dulux or whatever paint company you want to go to and pick up the same colours and before you know it you’ve got a theme for that particular room.

Less is more. Some people just clutter, clutter, clutter. You just end up living a life of clutter ness and before you know it you’re brain is all cluttered up and you sort of become a disorganised character, you’re getting out of bed, forgetting your house keys and getting locked out. Build up an interior from the foundation and just add little bits at a time rather than just buying things for the sake of it. Also, I think it’s a really good idea to wait for the sales, when they’re on –but don’t buy just for the hell of it cos something’s half price. Ask yourself would you buy it if it were full price.

Some people can get colours clashing a little bit. So it’s a good idea to get a colour whirl to see what colour work together and bounce off of each other rather than fighting with each other.

Lighting as well – that’s very important. Often people have ghastly lighting, which looks just awful and shows up all the horrid areas in a room, makes everything look bland and you unflattering yourself. Lighting can create and totally transform an ambience and a feeling of a room. You can have a light bulb hanging from a ceiling sometimes and it can just kill the entire atmosphere in a room. But having a little light poking out from a plant just looks sensational.

Also the common mistake is thinking that because a "look" is in, - a trend as I said beforehand, "oh I gotta go for that" or "I've gotta get all that in." The whole pattern look is in, this year and people go "oh great" and to be honest it's only for the brave because this year is all about mixing patterns. But some people think "oh great, I'll go and get red, I'll go and get green and blue and white and yellow. It's just ends up looking like a complete junkyard. But that's often when people don't quite understand what you have to do with patterns - it's all about finding harmonious colours, a family palette of colours that are going to work with each other rather than fighting. So again, it's understanding colour - it's really important because it can kill a look within a split second.

What recommendations do you wish a person had provided you about doing your own home when you started out in the beginning?

When I first started out, obviously I was doing it on a shoestring budget, I kinda wanted the best I could get but at the cheapest I could afford. So I went to second hand stores, I went to junk shops, markets and places like that. So I actually got gorgeous sofas that I couldn’t afford in normal shops because they were at full price. Because they were at second hand shops there was like 30% off the price.

So I ended up creating this wonderful home on this shoestring budget that ended up looking like I’d spent 70% more to be honest. I kinda lived in an empty shell, but when I saw something I was like, “yes I’ll get that.” I couldn’t afford to buy spanking brand new stuff, but I ended up finding these really unique, unusual things that nobody else had.

I also ended up doing a bit of customizing. I got things – which I learnt over time – which I wish I had done – like finding an old chair which might be £30 in a market and all the stuffing’s hanging out. You take it down to a furniture shop and ask for it to be fixed up and recovered. Stick about £50 on top of that and you’ve got a gorgeous old antique or boutique looking chair in your house for a fraction of the cost. You’ve also got the material that you love and want to use, that will match the rest of your interior.

Customizing is going to be very big this year and recycling as well – especially with all the problems we’re having in the world these days. Before you chuck anything out – think can I use it or recycle it? Old granny curtains might make a lampshade, a tablecloth or a cushion. You could also simply re-dye them and put them up again. There’s so much you can do.

You’ve done loads of celebs houses. Whose celeb home have you loved doing and why?

Carmen Electra’s is probably one of my favourites – I’m a massive fan of hers. She’s so cool and rock and roll. She really has a lot of time for you and is an absolute joy to work with. Emma Bunton’s been pretty cool. Also Craig David – love him and he looks great in everything and is up for a laugh. I just like being people who exude confidence, who want to help you and who are charming – I’m attracted towards people like that. Another person is Nick Knowles – who I’m presenting a show called The Big Day with at the moment.

The Daily Mail’s Ideal Home Show runs from 9th March to 1st April 2007 at Earls Court in London this year. For more information, please visit www.idealhomeshow.co.uk