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It’s not every day you have an enthusiastic audience during work, but that’s exactly what happened yesterday when Blades were called to install a temporary artificial grass pitch for the Champion’s League festivities in London’s Trafalgar Square.

The build-up to the Finals began this morning with Chelsea LFC and England forward Eniola Aluko having a kick around with former Real Madrid CF midfielder Christian Karembeu, and morning commuters were privy to the shine of both the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Women’s Champions League trophies on full display.

The activities will continue in Trafalgar Square until Friday; including a unique 3D projection shown three times a day showcasing some of the most iconic moments in European Cup history. Visitors will also be able to purchase UEFA merchandise and have their picture taken in a UEFA photo booth. Find out more at www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague

A couple of photos we took yesterday during the installation:

A few months ago we received an interesting request to supply artificial grass for a new production at the Soho Theatre in London. When we’re not knee deep in mud and grass we’re quite partial to soaking up some culture so we were only too pleased to help.

The production is Pastoral, a “darkly funny and highly original play” written by Thomas Eccleshare, the winner of the Verity Bargate Award, starring Anna Calder-Marshall and directed by Steve Marmion, Artistic Director of the Soho Theatre.

The play is part of the 2013 Hightide Festival and after its premier there will be opening at the Soho Theatre on 15 May and running until 8 June.

They first noticed it a few weeks ago, creeping round the war memorial and through the crack outside Subway. Just little weeds at first, little sprouts. Herbs and reeds and wild mushrooms. It’s amazing how quickly they’re growing.

Moll thinks she’s going on holiday but something more sinister is afoot. As menacing cats and strutting voles advance, a dangerously fertile countryside just keeps on growing – humanity is on the brink.

We can’t wait to see another creative use of artificial grass for ourselves next month.

View the trailer:

Tickets are available to purchase here.

The end results are always that little bit more rewarding so we decided to collate a few of our favourite transformations, large and small, to offer some inspiration to anyone considering artificial grass in London. Click the images to enlarge.

Emerging designers from top London and European design schools were teamed up with high street retailers to transform their shop displays and evolve branding and retail strategies. In total nine shops received stunning make-overs and 11 emerging designers were given the opportunity to build their portfolios.

Two such designers, Hugh McEwen and Catrina Stewart, approached us to sponsor the project with a donation of our bright purple artificial grass for their design for Nana Yaa, an Afro Carribean supermarket. We were delighted to help them out, even more so when we learned recently that Hugh and Catrina were awarded top prize in the competition.

The transformation of this little corner of London has been well-received by the retailers and locals alike – with many people feeling it has provided a welcome shot of community spirit as well as boosting trade. We’re big believers in supporting our high streets and independent retailers, so sponsoring the project was a great opportunity for us to show that.

Hugh was kind enough to send some photos and you can read more about the project here: Press Release

The first project at Singlegate Primary was to extend the existing outdoor area, which includes a sensory garden, and create a large, fun space for the children to play. Bringing Nigel’s vision to life called for our boldest and brightest artificial grass colours…together with some very intricate cutting and splicing to create those pleasing curves.

We had the privilege of working with an extended team of highly skilled – and quite brilliant – craftspeople; such as SGMM Modelmakers who hand-made the fanstastic pirate ship and wendy house.

When we received Nigel’s plans on paper we knew there were going to be a few head-scratching moments, such was the complexity and scope of works. We’ll let the photographs do the rest of the talking…

We’re looking forward to working on more projects with Nigel Abbey Design and their extended team of specialists in the coming months. Together we can offer a bespoke service for schools, nurseries and playground proprietors, one that is fully scalable to suit all spaces and budgets; whether that’s transforming a small dead or muddy space with a splash of clean green grass, or the design, project management and construction of one of these incredible outdoor classrooms.

Do get in touch and we’ll be happy to arrange a meeting to talk you through some options and costs.

Whilst our part was tiny in comparison to the work of most, we were still thrilled to be involved in three separate – and very different – projects to celebrate the Olympic Games and their legacy.

The first was for Innocent, makers of delicious drinks and official smoothie and juice of the Olympic and Paralympic Games! As part of their official duties Innocent wanted to create a smoothie and juice bar with a lounging area at Wimbledon for the tennis events. Their space was right in the thick of the action and our brief was to install artificial grass across the entire area – walls and all. TigerTurf supplied two types of grass for the project.

We arrived on site at Wimbldeon two weeks prior to the Games as preparations were in full swing. It was a hive of activity but exciting to catch this behind the scenes glimpse of what was to come. Driving the Blades wheels past Centre Court and weaving between surrounding courts was a fairly surreal – and carefully executed – experience.

The Wimbledon championships had just ended so it was all hands on deck to master a complete transformation of the existing space – the finished look was fun, inviting and very Innocent.

You can view our full project gallery here.

The second Innocent project was a co-hosted event being held Associated Newspapers’ headquarters in Kensington to celebrate the Games. The timescales were tight but our wonderful team gave up their weekends to make sure the space was ready on time.

At the core of these substantial offices is a full height atrium with glass roof. Our brief was replace the existing carpeted area on a large interior terrace with a lush green artificial grass, also supplied by TigerTurf. The natural light that floods the building, coupled with some exotic planting around the terrace, gave the finished space a real feeling of being outdoors.

We had some lovely feedback from the client too, who told us that colleagues in the building are now calling this area “The park on 4th” and are campaigning for it to become a permanent fixture.

View our project gallery here.

After a challenging few months working on the Royal Barge for the Jubilee we were looking forward to returning to some kind of normality. A fabulous project to work on but we loved getting back to projects that really make a difference to every day lives.

Domestic artificial grass projects are – and always will be – incredibly important to us because we see the positive impact almost immediately. We’ve completed some fantastic balcony transformations, given dog-owners the lush green lawns they have always dreamed of, and helped families create clean, fun spaces to spend time quality together. You can’t beat that feeling.

We also started working with an innovative landscape garden designer, creating an awesome sensory garden for a primary school in London. This deserves its own story so more details about coming soon – a picture will tell a thousand words on this particular project.

And finally, just when we thought we wouldn’t top the Jubilee for prestigious projects to work on, along comes London 2012. We’ll be able to tell you more about these after Friday’s opening ceremony, suffice to say we’re all feeling pretty proud again.

Artist’s Impression – Credit Joseph Bennett

At last, we’re finally able and immensely proud to tell you what we have been working on during recent months.

Blades were selected to provide a backdrop of red artificial grass for the Royal Barge that will carry the Queen during the Thames Diamond Jubilee River Pageant.

This artist’s impression gives us a clue as to how magnificent the Royal Barge will look but we can’t wait to see the finished transformation and we’re understandably thrilled to have been given the opportunity to work on such a prestigious project.

The pageant is taking place on June 3rd and will be the centre piece of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. A one thousand-strong flotilla will assemble on the Thames, which is apparently the largest flotilla of its kind in modern times. Accommodating The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the Royal Family, the first sight of the Royal Barge on the Thames will be one of the most highly anticipated moments of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.

The Royal Barge has been designed by Joseph Bennett and Rachel de Thame. Joseph is a multi-award-winning production designer whose diverse career has included designing for films such as ‘Charlotte Gray’ and ‘Jude’, and the HBO series ‘Rome’, for which he won two Emmy awards. So to have worked with such an inspirational and distinguished design team has been a real privilege for us as well.

Joseph said: “Blades have laid some beautiful red grass which has helped transform the Spirit of Chartwell into the Royal Barge for the Thames Diamond Jubilee River Pageant. Their care and professionalism has been very impressive, and we are delighted to have worked with them on this very special project”.

Back in January we were tasked with finding the perfect grass to help bring Joseph’s vision to life. We began installing the sumptuous wine-red artificial grass across the entire top deck in – unfortunately for us – the wettest April on record. It was a challenging few weeks to say the least, but we’re really proud of our installation team and it seems everyone is delighted the end result.

Update – View our project gallery

Back in January we were privileged enough to spend a wonderful Winter’s morning with Mark Anscombe being shown around Woods Mill Reserve, headquarters of  the Trust and one of its 32 reserves.

The Sussex Wildlife Trust was formed in 1961 and they exist to safeguard the habitats of Sussex looking after the plants and animals that live there. The Trust now has more than 430 active volunteers, 32,000 members and it manages 3,500 acres of land in 32 nature reserves. Through an extensive programme of courses and events they enable people to understand and respect the diversity of habitats and wildlife in Sussex.

They play an important part in educating children about the environment at their education centres at Woods Mill Reserve, near Henfield and at Seven Sisters Country Park, near Seaford. Woods Mill also houses the Sussex Biodiversity Records Centre, which now holds over 2.7 million species records across Sussex.

We spent a peaceful few hours strolling around the reserve learning all about their great work and we would highly recommend a visit to anyone. We’re certainly planning another trip very soon to catch Spring bursting in to life. Huge thanks to Mark and the team for taking time out to walk us around – we’re already looking forward to building on our membership to extend our support in the near future.

A few shots from our visit (image 4 you can just about make out the white rumps of two beautiful Roe Deer!)…

They’re no stranger to artificial grass either. Last summer Dawn Banks designed an inspirational balcony space for the Chamber’s offices in Hove and used a beautifully bold pink artificial grass. Apparently it’s a bit of a talking point!

We’re really looking forward to being more active in our local business community and the Chamber provides a terrific medium for us to do this. As well as helping local businesses to grow and prosper, they represent members on the larger political and economic stage too, working closely with local agencies on issues like business legislation, building programmes and regional transport.

Ultimately we believe our membership will help us provide an even better service for our customers by having the opportunity to network with other local businesses, and to share ideas and best-practices.