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Renovation Projects
A radically remodelled upside down bungalow in a suburban setting.

Houseplan for a new 2 storey home in the style of a traditional long house with 3 bedrooms

Design advice

Design Ideas for Home Offices

If you are one of the 3.9 million now working from home in the UK, you will need to consider your home office design carefully – from lighting to where in the house to position it – to make it a success, says Natasha Brinsmead.

All About: Kitchen Units

Your kitchen units are not only a practical essential, they also form the basis of your whole design, says Natasha Brinsmead.

Before and After Design: A Stunning Barn Conversion

A redundant apple-pressing barn is given new purpose — stripped back and rebuilt, it has become a stunning home.

Before and After Design: Transforming a Derelict Mill

A derelict mill – or rather its four basic stone walls – are salvaged and transformed into a charming, characterful home.

Buyers Guide to Baths

There is much more to baths than good looks — there are baths available in a huge choice of sizes, shapes and materials, and to suit any budget, says Natasha Brinsmead

How to Make Open Spaces Work

So many of us aspire to the benefits that open plan layouts bring – light, flow, informality – but don’t understand the practicalities. Natasha Brinsmead reveals how to make it work.

Conversions: Case Studies

Creating a new home from a disused non-residential building is one of the most challenging but rewarding projects you can take on. Here are a variety of different conversion projects, including barns, a church and an industrial building.

Remodelling Postwar Homes

Unfashionable and undervalued – but very much abundant – bland mid-20th century homes could be the perfect canvas for your dream home. Renovation expert Michael Holmes offers his advice, plus advice from some house designers.

Remodelling Postwar Homes: Case Studies

Unfashionable and undervalued – but very much abundant – bland mid-20th century homes could be the perfect canvas for your dream home. Here are some examples of postwar homes that have been remodelled.

Remodelling Postwar Homes: Design Solutions

Unfashionable and undervalued – but very much abundant – bland mid-20th century homes could be the perfect canvas for your dream home. Michael Holmes looks at the different design options for updating a postwar home, including windows, doors, roof coverings and wall cladding.

Before and After Design: Sustainable in Suburbia

Clever design transforms an ordinary 1930s end of terrace into the epitome of low-energy living — with no central heating required.

Inside Outside Spaces - Design Solutions

Create the perfect space for summer entertaining and make your home feel lighter and more spacious all year round by blurring the boundaries between inside and out. By Michael Holmes.

Getting a Coastal Look

Continuing her series on how to achieve interiors that do your new home justice, Natasha Brinsmead discovers why a coastal look is the ultimate in fresh, wholesome living.

Design Masterclass: Inside Outside Spaces

The idea of integrating indoor and outdoor space is far from new – it was an ideal of the Modernist movement in the 1920s – but recent developments in glazing technology have resulted in some spectacular new ways to expand the boundaries of the home, creating spacious feeling interiors and an almost seamless relationship with nature and the outdoors.

Sash Windows: Design Advice

Sash windows really are the only choice for many period and traditional-style homes, but getting the details right can be tricky. Natasha Brinsmead explains the options, including advice on designs styles and materials.

How to Create a Stylish, Green Kitchen

Despite the surge in popularity of eco homes and all manner of green, energy-saving products for the home, there remains a wariness of eco interiors, but kitchens can be stylish and green — and are widely available too, says Natasha Brinsmead

How to Build a Sustainable Home: Design Solutions

Renewables may grab the headlines but, in reality, the key fundamentals of a successful green house remain what they have always been — low-energy design principles and investment in the building fabric. By Michael Holmes

Before and After: A Modern Makeover

A 1960s self-build is remodelled into a family home fit for the 21st century – complete with a striking contemporary façade including white render and cedar cladding, flat roofs, new windows and decking.

Know Your Lighting

A good lighting scheme can really define a house and its interior design. Getting it right is all about planning at the early stages of a project — not leaving it as an afterthought, says Natasha Brinsmead.

All About: Lighting Design

Before and After Design: Renovating a Bungalow

This tired two bedroom post-war bungalow has been transformed into a spacious two storey, three bedroom home with instant character, thanks to its new steeply pitched clay roof, rear extension and reclaimed brick face cladding.

How to Achieve Instant Character

Period homes have got it, most developer homes lack it, and some self-builds have it in abundance, but just what is character — and how can you ensure your new home oozes it? Natasha Brinsmead has the answers.

Creating the Perfect Family Kitchen

What works for one family will not necessarily work for another when it comes to kitchens, but there are certainly several design rules that make sense when it comes to creating a great family kitchen area.

A Complete Guide to Choosing Internal Doors - Part One

Your internal doors are the very first point of contact on entering a room: you see them close up, you touch them, plus they form the background of any interior scheme, and as such their importance should never be overlooked.

A Complete Guide to Choosing Internal Doors - Part Two

It is surprising how many people go to great lengths to build themselves a fantastic home, stylishly furnished and decorated, then go and ruin it all by choosing mismatched finishing touches, including door handles and knobs.

Design Masterclass: Extending a Cottage

Cottages are the quintessential English house style, but their size often means they’re prime candidates for extension. Michael Holmes reveals how to get it right while preserving and even enhancing the cottage’s unique charm.

Extending a Cottage - Design Solutions

An important part of the appeal of the cottage is its proportions, and any new extension should seek to preserve this. The design of any new addition, therefore, should be subservient to the existing cottage.

A Modern Makeover

A bland, characterless 1970s house is transformed inside and out, to include a rear extension and a modern, low-maintenance façade for modern, more energy-efficient living.

Design Masterclass: Barn Conversions

Converting a barn is a chance to create a unique home in a rural location — so why do so many people get it wrong? Michael Holmes explains the key design issues, how to please the planners, and how to avoid the common mistakes.

Barn Conversions: Design Solutions

Converting a barn is a chance to create a unique home in a rural location — so why do so many people get it wrong? Michael Holmes explains the key internal layout design issues and how to go about extending a conversion, plus advice from architect Damien Blower, and five essential design tips.

From the publishers of Homebuilding & Renovating...

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