This is your chance to directly influence the series, and to give a platform to a craft or skill close to your heart. It’s all rather exciting, quite frankly.

Post your craft suggestions in the comments form below, and they could feature in series two of Kirstie’s Homemade Home…

If you’re fed up with flat pack, had enough of the high street and want your home to ooze individuality, get in touch and you might be selected to get Kirstie’s help transforming your interior. Kirstie will enlist the services of skilled craftspeople from across the UK, to give your house its own signature homemade style.

You can find out how to apply for Kirstie’s Homemade Home here, and follow the programme’s makers on Twitter.

Stool By Howcroft & Jordan

The terms ‘cutting edge’ and ‘crafts‘ are rarely seen in the same sentence, but they should be. If this event proves anything it’s that there’s a wealth of new and established talent out there, making high quality, bespoke contemporary craft items.

Ceramics by Virginia Graham

Furniture, ceramics, jewellery, glassware and textiles will be on show, and all work is selected by a panel of craft experts so that only the hottest design talent makes the grade.

Glass Vase by Kathryn Pearce

With the recession biting and people like Kirstie Allsopp and Perri Lewis of the Guardian (amongst others) on a crusade to promote British-made quality craft products, the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair should be a huge hit.

The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair runs from 23rd – 25th October 2009 at Spinningfields in the heart of Manchester. For more information, visit www.greatnorthernevents.co.uk or email press@greatnorthernevents.co.uk

By far and away the most popular of the Rate My Room galleries is Rate My Homemade Crafts, a photo gallery of user craft projects. This is due in no small part to the runaway success of the crafts extravaganza that is Kirstie’s Homemade Home. We’ve had well over 100 photos submitted so far, all available for you to peruse, rate and leave comments on. The selection ranges from the sublime to the (dare I say) ridiculous, but collectively they make for an entertaining few minutes’ browsing.

This morning I decided to try to choose my top five. Don’t be disheartened if yours didn’t make the cut – there’s no accounting for my own dubious taste. Here, in no particular order, are my five favourite reader craft projects.

1. Chopsticks Accent Lampshade by veryirie

What I like about this project is the way more light penetrates the shade towards the top (the thin end of the chopsticks), creating a nice natural gradient of colour. Its maker included basic instructions on how to make it yourself – sounds dead simple, although there may be a few raised eyebrows when you head to the checkout with 40 pairs of chopsticks in hand.

2. Carved House Sign by CharlieS

Pure, unadulterated envy – I make no secret of the fact that I’m hopeless at working wood, so this just makes me jealous. The level of detail is quite something.

3. ‘The Beat Goes On’ Mosaic by breezyb5

A combination of glass and ceramics, this mosaic tells a story of music in the 60s. Although the colours and design might not be everyone’s cup of tea, the effort and creativity that went into this project are self-evident.

4. Tomato Ball by Rowena

There’s three reasons I like this – firstly it looks very well made. Secondly, it would make an excellent living room football. Finally, there’s the description added by Rowena – ‘I crocheted this tomato ball for my 9 month old niece, who loves throwing it at her parents.’

5. Sushi Bar by Sushi Bar Craft Ornament

Not sure where to start with this one. There’s something delightfully daft about spending your weekend making a mini sushi bar, staffed and frequented entirely by teddy bears dressed in Kimono robes. I’m yet to see this one on Blue Peter, but the list of materials suggests it would make the perfect after-school project for our nation’s youth.

Feel free to leave your comments below, or go to the Rate My Room homepage.

Of course, no TV show can please everyone (some people even dislike Grand Designs, would you believe?!) The majority of feedback focuses on the programme giving people the confidence to try crafts themselves. Kirstie’s mission statement was to get more people into traditional crafts, so I think we can be content with a job well done.

The most satisfying comments and emails we’ve had are from people who run craft supplies stores, or teach classes in traditional skills. For example, Megan who runs www.cumbriancountrycrafts.co.uk emailed me to say, ‘Recently my orders have gone through the roof… now my sales are great.’

Similarly, Dorothy from www.sheepishwoolshop.co.uk got in touch with the following: ‘You really have inspired my customers and created such interest in the art of knitting. I own a wool shop and your program is certainly the topic of the moment. Customers who have never knitted and are now hungry to learn. Thank you for the inspiration!’

In times when tales of economic woe prevail, it’s a refreshing escape to hear stories of businesses flourishing in what’s rapidly becoming a mini crafts renaissance.

if you’ve loved the show and would like Kirstie’s help turning your house into a homemade home, you can apply to be on Kirstie’s Homemade Home here.

Catch Kirstie’s Homemade Home tonight at 8 on Channel 4. 4Homes will be tweeting live during the show – join in the conversation at twitter.com/4Homes. You can catch up on any missed episodes over at channel4.com/catchup

Kirstie’s living room. Photo courtesy of IWC Media

Tonight, however, Kirstie gives the living room and playroom a good going over, and the results are much more in line with my own tastes. On the walls are a combination of early 20th century advertising posters and more contemporary artwork.

The furniture, and I hope Kirstie won’t mind me saying this, is a bit a bit shabby but looks invitingly comfortable. Her choice of salvaged log fire is tasteful and well suited to the property, while the poker that she makes, with help from the local blacksmith, is reassuringly imperfect. The twee amongst us (myself included) will no doubt find these imperfections to be characterful and individual, which is of course what the show is all about.

As well as the aforementioned blacksmithing, Kirstie has a go at knitting some very cute draught excluders for the playroom, and learns how to make lampshades. Incidentally, this looks surprisingly simple. In my favourite sequence from the show, she goes bargain hunting at a salvage yard and haggles like a woman possessed.

Watch Kirstie’s Homemade Home, tonight at 8 on Channel 4 or any time you like with Channel 4 Catch Up.

I particularly enjoyed this episode because of the art deco theme that runs throughout, from Kirstie’s gorgeous reclaimed bathroom suite (it’s just about my perfect buy) to her Burgh Island Hotel visit. Though I’ve never seen this magnificent building for myself, I remember it featuring on an episode of BBC2’s Coast and falling in love with the place. Kirstie’s there to grab some art deco inspiration from their wonderful interiors, before hot-footing it over to a stained glass maker to have a go herself.

Later in the show Kirstie gets her hands dirty with some wallpaper screen printing, and makes herself some scented candles to fragrance the beautiful bathroom she creates. On top of that, she somehow manages to secure access for a film crew to go inside top designer Anouska Hempel’s home – it’s not to my taste, but then who am I to criticise a woman of such impeccable design credentials?!

It’s a jam-packed extravaganza of craft, and by this evening we’ll have a wide selection of related guides on 4Homes so that you can have a bash at home.

Kirstie’s Homemade Home is on tonight at 8pm on Channel 4.

Inevitably, there are loads of crafts out there that require equipment and skill only available at dedicated classes. Fortunately, there are countless opportunities for you to get stuck in to everything from glassblowing to pottery. Here’s our advice on how to find a craft course – I hope it can be of some help to anyone who wants to learn or develop arts and crafts skills, but doesn’t know where to start. We’ll be adding to it each week, and within the feature you can find the contact details for the artisans featured in Kirstie’s TV show.

Click here to find out how to find a craft course.

Has Kirstie’s Homemade Home made you want to take up a new hobby? Are you already into crafts, and if so what do you think of the programme? Please leave your comments below…

So what did you think? For what it’s worth, I think it’s refreshing to have anything on tv that isn’t about making money from your home. I’m not nearly fresh-faced enough to believe that the programme will do anything to change the way we think about our homes – we’ve all invested too much (financially and emotionally) in the whole housing process for us not to look at a house as an investment, even if it’s a long-term one. And with savings rates being as low as they are, many of us still think it’s best to sink hard-earned cash into property rather than put it in a bank.

That said, having done up six houses myself, it’s great to see someone approaching a renovation in a way that doesn’t involve a) trip to DIY store, b) trip to giant furniture store to buy roomset and c) trip to supermarket to buy ubiquitous products to accessorise with. I’m not knocking any of these approaches – we all go to Ikea, for example, because their furniture is cheap, just about stays together AND you can buy a whole room’s worth of furniture that looks really quite good together. The only hassle is getting it through the check out.

However, that kind of room, while stylish, swish, modern and, importantly, affordable, is never going to be unique, individual and one-off – and that’s what really makes a home interesting. And while I don’t want to put anyone out of a job at these bigger high street or retail park stores, I do think it’s high time we all supported local British craftspeople who work really hard, for little profit and almost no national recognition. And if the show does nothing else but to inspire us to think a little bit more imaginatively about how we design and decorate our homes, it will have done a good job.

What do you think?

You can check out all of our craft tips, and watch an exclusive extended interview with Kirstie, on the Kirstie’s Homemade Home page.

Incidentally, the highlight of tonight’s show for me is seeing the result of Kirstie’s glass blowing efforts – fabulous.

For more on the show, there’s an extended blog post over at Primelocation.

Kirstie’s Homemade Home starts tonight at 8 on Channel 4.