He’s designed everything from door knobs to bathroom fittings, lighting and plates, but how did Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud get into television presenting?

In this video, the self-confessed “odd bod”, his words not ours, says his enthusiasm for buildings has been part of his journey onto the small screen.

Watch the full video interview with McCloud below.

Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud has long been a vocal supporter of green homes. But how does he fit that into his love of traditional architecture.

“It’s very important that we get this right,” says McCloud. ”Dealing with the historic pre-1919 stock is a completely different ball game to dealing with houses built in the ’60s or 1980s.”

Watch the full video of McCloud’s take on green homes below.

Of all the probing question Kevin McCloud asks each couple on Grand Designs, the most anticipated is ‘how much did you spend’?

But despite his best efforts to unearth some financial secrets, most people featured on the long-running Channel 4 series are guarded about their expenditure and the richer they are, the tighter their lips.

Last week’s couple, Tim O’Donovan and his wife Philomena, had their clamped particularly tightly and despite weighty badgering by McCloud to reveal all, the Cardiff-based would only go as far as to say that that their costs had been ‘heavy’.

It’s hard to know how much their outlay was on Tenby’s former Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) lifeboat station, but £500,000 would be a good guess.

And one fact we can reveal is how much they paid for the property, which following its conversion is now a four-bedroom luxury holiday home for the couple.

Land Registry records note that the O’Donovan bought it in January 2010 for £100,000, which included the structure and foreshore it stands on, all freehold.

But it’s quite surprising that they paid anything for it. The RNLI, after moving out to its new, £5.5 million station next door, began a protracted and desperate search find a new owner for its old address. Refused permission to demolish it, the RNLI was faced with demolition costs running into the hundreds of thousands.

But Tenby’s local were keen to see it preserved, particularly as there’s been a station there for at least half a century. Records go as far back as 1962 and original ownership appears to have been shared between Pembrokeshire County Council and the RNLI under a leasehold arrangement, while the Crown Commissioners owned the freehold.

And it was the Crown relinquishing that freehold which helped persuade the O’Donovans to plough so much money into the property, which they will no doubt be spending a lot of time in given that they live just 85 miles down the coast in a relatively modest detached mock Tudor house in the northern suburbs of Cardiff, where Tim runs a demolition and civic engineering firm.

It’s a familiar story in today’s Prime property market – a Cheshire mansion bought for £1.85 million in 2007, bull-dozed, re-built and put on the market for £5 million. Two years and a price drop later Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff has finally sold his Prestbury pile – to another sports star, footballer Peter Crouch.

Apart from the set of cricket wickets carved above the front door and a mosaic of the Ashes urn in the swimming pool, this is the type of uber-luxurious house that was built for a footballer – even though it was actually built by a cricketer.

Flintoff bought the plot in October 2007 from ex-Fulham football manager Mark Hughes and after fights with locals and an initially refused planning application, he was able to knock down the existing property and build a six bedroom mansion akin to others on one of the UK’s most expensive streets, Withinlee Road, AKA Footballer’s Alley.

The house was designed for Flintoff family life and includes a large pool plus a smaller one for their three children. It also has a luxury gym and home cinema but the Flintoffs never lived in their made-to-measure home. Instead, they turned their attention to the dizzying heights of Dubai and their Cheshire mansion has waited patiently for two years for a buyer.

Despite being in Prestbury – the centre of footballer land (the Rooneys, Ferdinand and Tevez all live nearby) – Freddie wasn’t bowled over with offers for his £5 million pad. And only after changing estate agents, dropping the asking price by £500,000 – the price of a decent size house to most – plus the luck of footballer Peter Crouch moving Clubs, has the house finally sold.

Crouch is transferring from Tottenham Hotspur to Stoke City and moving up North with his new wife, Abbey Clancy and their six month old daughter and we have no doubt the house will suit the star couple’s needs perfectly, model Abbey will surely love the huge walk-in wardrobe (pictured above) and the WAG neighbours.

We all know those moments that TV presenters dread in front of the camera. Fluffed words, errant animals and the unintended double entendre.

So given his long career in TV and a strong penchant for the occasional catty comment, what does the Grand Designs presenter think has been his most toe curling moment?

PrimeLocation.com has landed an interview with the ever-debonair Grand Designs icon, Kevin McCloud. He talked to us on camera about a range of subjects including working on the TV show, Britain’s property market, his most embarrassing moments on TV and Grand Designs Live, the show he’ll be appearing at next month at Birmingham’s NEC.

But first, here’s Kevin talking about something entirely frivolous – his reputation as the sex symbol of British architecture. His answer wasn’t entirely what we were expecting.

Kevin, how do you feel about being a ‘pin up’?

See also:
What are your favourite things about a day out at Grand Designs Live?

You wouldn’t think that paint could be controversial. Once lead was removed from the product during the 1970s what’s not to like?

The current debate, in part stirred up by Kevin McCloud of Grand Designs fame, circles around whether ‘posh paints’ or ‘heritage colours’ are worth the vast extra expense – Farrow and Ball paints are costly as petrol, after all.

Nevertheless, if you do own a period property then there is increasingly peer pressure these days to use paint, fabrics, furniture and fittings that faithful to its architectural era. So what do you do, for example, if you’ve just bought a 1930s property in need of a refresh and want to take it back to that era’s style?

Our friend Donna Hardie, who is editor of property magazine Completely London, says that unless you’re an antiques collector it’s very difficult to create an authentic 1930s interior but that, by staying true to its original paint colour palette and mixing in some Art Deco-style prints and a few period furniture items, the years can be rolled back.

Art Deco was all about the influences of increasing mass travel so African safaris made animal skins, tortoiseshell and mother of pearl to popular in the home, and after Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamen’s tomb, Egyptian sphinxes and pyramids kicked in. The bold colours of the Ballets Russes were a strong influence too, so theatrical velvets, satin and fringing were used in strong shades of coral, cobalt blue, bright orange, jade green, mauve, black and gold.

Rather than coordinating different colours in one scheme, Art Deco homes featured rooms in one all-over colour. Accents and definition were added in the form of wallpaper borders featuring a Greek or Aztec geometric print in gold or silver but, as borders are a bit passé in the modern home, bring in geometric accents with printed wallpaper, cushions and drapes.
Also, chrome, glass and mirrored surfaces dominated the Art Deco home, so look for 1930s pieces such as Eileen Gray’s side table or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair.

But if Art Deco is not your style, here are some pointers on other periods:

Georgian
Early colour schemes in the Georgian period used darker shades of green, burgundy and blue-grey, but in later years they lightened up and featured vibrant shades of Wedgwood blue, dusky pink, dove grey and stone. Wallpaper was popular above panelling and came from the Far East, so Chinoiserie designs were the order of the day.

Victorian
There’s a commonly held belief that Victorian colours were dark and dreary – quite the contrary. Wall colours were similar to their Georgian predecessors, in shades of salmon, fawn, ochre, French grey, lilac and sage green, but architectural mouldings were picked out in shades of dark green, brown and purple. The Victorians also typically used embossed paper under the dado rail and painted it in a shade richer than the wall above.

1950s
This was the Atomic age, when exposure to technological advances paved the way for bolder shades, space-age prints and geometric shapes. Popular colours were robin’s egg blue, sunny yellow, pink, avocado green, brown and gold. Red was dominant in upholstery, while black and white chequerboard linoleum covered floors. Plastic, chrome, Formica and abstract wallpaper were in every home.

We have all seen House Doctor, Selling Houses and the host of other programmes telling us how to prepare our house to sell.  You know, the ones where the basic premise is to ‘paint your house magnolia’ and stick a new carpet in.

But while neutral colours do appeal to a mass market, how do professional interior designers suggest their prime clients prepare their homes for sale? After all, the more money you’re asking for a property, the harder you may have to work on presentation, right?

Before and after (below): How the lounge of a two-bedroom Georgian apartment in London was 'staged' for sale.

Our friends at Brahm Interiors say they are increasingly being asked to dress properties for sale or to let rather than just to make homes more beautiful. They say ‘don’t go for the minimal look but rather embellish and edit your possessions’.

Apparently a good edit of your possessions can do wonders. Coco Chanel once said “before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory, less is always more”. The same can be said of interiors accessories.

Once you have had a thorough edit, it might be time to add. Whatever your property size or budget, a few savvy props can transform a home. The breadth of furnishings and accessories now available on the high street means that there are solutions available to give a property that elusive X factor. Brahm often utilise ‘statement pieces’ and simple accessories that work with the existing interiors. A large mirror, an sculpture or a prized antique can completely transform the room by giving it a focus. Tie in other items in the room and you end up with a coordinated scheme that will appeal to any buyer.

Recently Brahm were called in to revitalise a Georgian flat in London (see before and after pictures, above). They added a large rug to the living area to provide some warmth and a focal point to the spacious room. Existing furniture was joined by floor lamps to frame either end of the sofa. Light coloured cushions were placed to contrast with the sofa’s dark brown fabric while tired armchairs were swapped with two neutrally coloured ones that added ‘structure and sophistication’. They then positioned large vases of flowers in the centre of the room to provide drama.

Such simple additions can make a huge difference.

Do you watch Kevin McCloud on Channel 4′s Grand Designs TV show and think ‘that could be me building my own home?

Then from 7th-9th October Birmingham is where you should be for inspiration. The live version of the TV series is at the NEC exhibition centre this year, which will be hosting the all-painting, bricklaying and roof tiling Grand Designs Live starring the ever-eloquent Mr McCloud.

Kevin McCloud speaking at last year's Birmingham Grand Designs event

Hundreds of suppliers and experts will be joining McCloud at the show so if you want advice and information about building your own home including interiors, technology, bathrooms, kitchens and much more, then PrimeLocation.com the show’s official property partner, has a 2 for 1 offer on tickets to the event. To find out how to take advantage of this deal and for terms and conditions go to the PrimeLocation.com website.

As Caroline Quentin struggles to impress the viewers of her Tuesday night BBC2 TV show ‘Restoration Home’, we spoke to a couple who have radically restored an apartment on one of Britain’s most famous squares, Brunswick Square in Brighton.

Flashy kitchens or the latest home entertainment gadgets are what tempt most buyers when looking for their ideal home. Few have the vision to see beyond a grimy bathroom, stained pea green carpet or rotting ceilings – but Ricky Paugh and girlfriend Jemma took a leap of faith when they bought a flat in Hove near Brighton, especially the agent told them “I don’t know why anyone would buy this property”.

The ulgly duckling

Ricky, 34, and Jemma say they like unsightly properties. “The uglier the better because we like to add value”, he says. When they bought their one bedroom first floor flat in Brighton’s historic Brunswick Square they were appalled by how disgusting it was. The reception room had been carved up into three small rooms, there was a foul smell and the bathroom was “caked in grime”.

But what attracted them to the run down regency home were the tell-tale signs of its former grandeur in the bedroom, which would have been the main receiving room for guests before the homes were broken up into flats. It had a 14 foot high ceiling with original cornicing and coving yet next door, the lounge had only an eight foot high ceiling.

They “bought it on a whim”, believing that behind the suspended lounge ceiling would also be hidden grandeur. And they weren’t disappointed. Ricky says it was the “greatest find by far” during their ten month renovation. They uncovered completely intact cornicing as well as a centre ceiling rose. There was also ornate Victorian gold-leaf wallpaper still on the ceiling.

A victim of the times

Ricky thinks the ceiling was lowered in the oil crisis of the 70s when people couldn’t afford fuel to keep large rooms warm. The fireplace was also filled in to prevent drafts and the sash windows stuffed with newspaper dating back to the 70s.

The couple have spent £33,000 on the flat and have created a hallway, taken the bathroom out of the bedroom and turned the front room into a large open plan space. As well as revealing the original ceiling, they’ve also unblocked the fireplace and made the windows wind-tight.

Restored coastal home for sale in Brighton

Now, the property is for sale and, being on the beach, would make a seaside bolthole for someone working in London during the week or someone looking for a coastal home which seamlessly blends modern life with traditional features.

Ricky hopes whoever buys it will appreciate its history – the square dates back to the 1800s and the property was once lived in by Sir Horatio George Walpole (the great nephew of former Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole). And, of course whoever buys it now will be tempted by the flashy new kitchen and gadget-filled bathroom – which includes a plasma TV in the shower.

7, Brunswick Square is for sale with Sawyer and Co for £280,000