If you've ever gone toe to toe with your architect over a floor plan, you're not alone. Design is one of the places where clients and architects clash hardest, right up there with budget and choice of finishes, and it's not hard to see why. You're paying for their expertise, but you're the one who has to live with the results.
But we work with architects because their insight is invaluable, and when they push back on certain decisions again and again, it's almost always for good reason. They've watched enough people live with a choice to know which ones age well, and which end up back on the table for a redesign five years later – something worth bearing in mind if you're still at the early planning stage of your own renovation.
We asked three experts to talk us through the design decisions clients push hardest for, why they hold their ground, and what to do instead if you've already made the call and are having second thoughts.
1. Design your kitchen for how you want to live, not how you live now
A layout call architects see clients make seemingly on autopilot is choosing to put their new kitchen where the old one sat. But more often than not, a reconfigured floor plan could work harder for their home. Sophie Chapman, Associate and Interior Designer at The Vawdrey House, sees the frustration play out often:
"Clients understandably tend to think about how they currently live in their home, whereas our role as architects and designers is to help them see how they could live differently, and potentially more efficiently once the space has been reconfigured," she says. It's a tension she sees at both ends of a project. Clients push back at the earliest layout discussions, then, months later, try to add back in the very things that were ruled out for good reason.
The cost of getting it wrong: Agree a kitchen relocation late – once first-fix plumbing and electrics are already roughed in – and the costs won't stop at moving cabinetry. You're now relocating waste pipes, gas and kitchen extraction too, which is how a "quick change of mind" spirals into a five-figure one. Our kitchen renovation mistakes piece has more on the services issues that catch people out.
What's the fix? Before you override your architect's layout, ask them to walk you back through the reasoning – rather than defaulting to the plan you already know. "Respect and trust need to work both ways," says Sophie. "We absolutely welcome clients' ideas, but equally there has to be trust in the rationale and experience behind the decisions we are recommending." If you're still not convinced, our guide to kitchen layout mistakes is worth a read before you insist on a change.
A founding member of The Vawdrey House, Sophie oversees the design team bringing her trademark energy & creativity to projects. With a BA in Interior Design & Environmental Architecture, Sophie develops unique furniture packages, styles projects and loves sourcing trips to antique fairs and French brocantes.
2. Weigh the trade-offs before you commit to going open-plan
"One of the most common regrets we see from clients is prioritising a dramatic open plan space without allowing for storage, acoustics, privacy or the practical realities of family life," says Zaeem Chaudhary, Director & Chartered Architectural Technologist (MCIAT) at AC Design Solution. The appeal is obvious on paper, but it's the things that don't show up on the plans – such as where the noise goes or where the school bags land – that tend to surface once you're actually living in it.
The cost of getting it wrong: Retrofitting soundproofing or storage solutions into a finished open-plan space can be costly. Features like built-in joinery, sound-absorbing ceiling panels and stud walls to reclaim a little privacy can run to considerably more than designing them in from the start, and you'll be living with the noise and the clutter while you save up to fix it.
What's the fix? A fully open plan layout isn't the only route to that light, connected feel. Our own guide to getting your open plan layout right makes the case for "broken plan" living instead, using partial walls, level changes or glazed screens to keep the openness while still giving you a door to close on the noise or clutter.
Zaeem Chaudhary, MCIAT, is director of AC Design Solution, a multidisciplinary practice delivering architecture, structural engineering, and party wall services across London and the UK
3. Consider the impact of expansive glazing
Many renovators dream of adding a fully glazed rear extension to their home, for that light-filled, garden-connected feel. But once it's built, that same glass can just as easily leave the room feeling too hot or too exposed.
"Large areas of glazing can become a regret where overheating, glare, cleaning and loss of wall space were not properly considered from the outset," says Zaeem Chaudhary. Yes, a glass box extension looks spectacular in a render on a mild afternoon, but less so when it's the one room you can't sit in for three months of summer.
The cost of getting it wrong: Retrofitting shading onto an existing glazed extension (via external blinds, solar control film or additional ventilation) is a real cost on top of the glazing you've already paid for, and it rarely performs as well as shading designed into the structure. You'll also lose wall space either way, so it's worth deciding upfront whether you actually need floor-to-ceiling glass, or whether a more considered mix of solid wall and glazing gets you the connection to the garden without the summer trade-off.
What's the fix? The answer isn't less glass, it's better-planned glass for an extension. Our guide to why extensions overheat in summer puts a number on it: if a room's glazed area is more than 25% of its floor footprint, you're in overheating-risk territory, and the fix is shading designed in from the start (a brise soleil, solar control glass, roof overhangs, cross ventilation) rather than bolted on after the first heatwave.
It's also worth asking your architect to walk through orientation with you specifically, since south- and west-facing glazing behaves very differently to a north-facing wall of the same size.
4. Don't cut the rooms that don't photograph well
On a floor plan, a utility room or a boot room can look like dead space, a box that isn't the kitchen or the primary bedroom, easy to shrink or drop when you need to find room elsewhere. In practice, it rarely reads that way once you're living in the finished house.
"Clients also sometimes reduce utility rooms, entrance storage or circulation areas because they appear less valuable on a floor plan," says Zaeem Chaudhary. "After moving in, these practical spaces are often the ones they miss most."
The cost of getting it wrong: This isn't really about construction cost, since it's usually cheaper to build a smaller boot room or none at all. It's a cost you pay after the fact, in kitchen storage that fills up with cleaning kit and outdoor wear because there's nowhere else for it to go, and in the far more expensive job of reconfiguring a finished house to carve out the space later. It's worth deciding this one on paper, at the point where moving a wall costs nothing, not after you've moved in and are already short on space.
The fix: Before you sacrifice a utility room to gain a few extra square metres elsewhere, work out what it's actually doing for you. Our guide to whether a utility room adds value suggests you need at least 4.5m² for the basics (washing machine, tumble dryer and some storage above), or closer to 15m² if you want a sink and proper storage too. If you genuinely don't have the space, a combined 'bootility room' can do both jobs in a much smaller footprint rather than losing the function entirely.
5. Give every decision the time it needs, not just the big ones
Some regrets are about what gets decided, but this one is about when. "Home renovations involve an incredible number of decisions," says Theo Jones, Director at FYNN. "While your architect or designer might make a good number of them for you, there is always an element of pressure, particularly during construction, where you have to make a decision you haven't fully evaluated in your own mind. These are the ones that sometimes end up being a regret."
The most common version of this, he says, is starting on site too soon. "The situation I see most often is when clients are very keen to push forward and start construction without enough decisions having been made. Where this is most likely to show up is in structural changes that weren't allowed for, discovered during the messy demolition works. Typically there isn't a fix for this. You prevent it by avoiding a rush to start building before you're ready."
The same pressure can also show up on a smaller scale, in design decisions made under time constraints. "Another recurring issue is selecting finishes based only on appearance without considering maintenance, durability and how the material will age," says Zaeem Chaudhary.
A flooring choice made on how it looks in a photo, rather than how it holds up to daily use, is the same rushed decision at lower stakes. Our own flooring mistakes guide makes the point well: an oil finish that looks beautiful on day one needs regular maintenance to stay that way, so decide upfront whether that's a job you'll keep up with, not discover the answer eighteen months down the line.
The cost of getting it wrong: Structural surprises found mid-demolition, and finishes that need replacing early because they were never right for the room, both cost more to fix after the fact than waiting to decide would have. As Theo Jones puts it: "You might lose some time by delaying construction, but you will likely save money, so it's a decent trade-off in my book."
The fix: Build slack into your decision-making timeline the same way you'd build slack into a budget. If you're not ready to start on site, don't. Our guide to how long a renovation really takes is worth reading before you set a start date, since a delay agreed upfront costs you no more time than you were probably going to lose anyway.
Theo Jones is an award-winning architect and interior designer based in London. He is the director of Fynn Architects, a practice specialising in sustainable architecture and interiors.
Every regret in this piece comes back to the same underlying fix: choosing an architect you trust enough to listen to when they push back. The best design relationships are the ones where you've picked someone whose judgement you respect enough to sit with a "no" for a moment, at least until they've walked you through why. And one that equally gives you the support you need when decision fatigue kicks in and you put yourself at risk of rushing, or making the wrong choice.
