Interior Design Clinic

UK Renovation Costs 2026: Kitchens, Bathrooms and Budgets

Two in three British renovations went over budget last year. Not the ambitious ones. All of them. Renno surveyed 300 UK homeowners in April: 65.6 percent over budget, 60 percent behind schedule, and over half of those projects were budgeted under £25,000 to begin with. Hana and Marcus go through what things actually cost this year and why the overrun is predictable enough to plan for. The numbers: a kitchen is £10,000 to £20,000, a bathroom around £6,000, a loft conversion about £50,000, extensions £1,800 to £3,000 per square metre. London and the South East run 25 to 35 percent above the national average for identical work, while the North East, Wales and parts of the Midlands sit 10 to 20 percent below. Add £18,000 to £35,000 if a Victorian terrace has to reach EPC C. From the 2026 Houzz UK study: 49 percent renovated last year, bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms tied as the most common project at 27 percent each, and 86 percent paid out of savings. Planned spending for this year has halved, from £14,000 to £10,000. Underneath all of it is one figure that explains the mood better than the spending does. One in five homeowners would move and can't afford to, up from 13 percent two years ago. People are improving because they're stuck, which changes what a renovation is for. Also: what's actually being specified — walnut and truffle oak kitchens, curved cabinetry, pantries, banquette seating, built-in baths over freestanding, full-stone vanities, living finishes on taps. And where the extra 30 percent really comes from, which is rarely the builder. 00:00 65.6 percent 01:40 The Houzz numbers, and the halved budget 04:00 Which rooms, and the wishlist 06:10 What a kitchen, bathroom, loft and extension cost 07:40 The 25 to 35 percent London premium 09:00 One in five would move and can't 11:00 Warm dark kitchens, banquettes, and why they're a space argument 13:00 Built-in baths, stone vanities, living finishes 14:20 Budget the overrun, and where it comes from Mentioned: Houzz & Home UK 2026, the Renno survey, Wickes, MyBuilder, Tom Howley Hazelwood, Davonport, Part L and EPC C. The podcast comes from the Interior Design Clinic app. If you want to see one of these trends in your own room before you pay for it, you can upload a photo of the room and try it in 26 different styles at interiordesignclinic.com Got a room you're stuck on, or a trend you want us to price up? Tell us and we'll take it on the show. New episodes every five days. Following the show in your podcast app is what tells the app to show it to other people, so if this was useful, that's the thing that helps. This show is made by Interior Design Clinic. If you want to see a trend in your own room before you pay for it, you can upload a photo of the room and try it in 26 different styles at interiordesignclinic.com Got a room you're stuck on, or a trend you want us to price up? Tell us and we'll take it on the show. New episodes weekly. Following the show in your podcast app is what tells the app to show it to other people, so if this was useful, that's the thing that helps.

Midimalism and Texture: The 2026 Interior Design Trend

Midimalism is a terrible word for a real thing. It's the middle ground between Scandinavian minimalism and full maximalism, and the phrase the trade keeps using is comfortably imperfect. Hana and Marcus work out whether there's anything underneath the word. The strongest evidence is Etsy, which this year named a texture of the year rather than a colour, for the first time ever. It's washed linen. Zulufish's Caroline Milns says the thing that now dates a room is a flat, one-dimensional wall, rather than the colour on it. Then the materials: wool, jute, bouclé, hide, and slubby linen, where the lumps used to be a mill defect and are now the expensive option. Burl wood, which John Lewis called first, and which Hana thinks is a disaster on anything larger than a lamp base. Curved everything. Rattan and cane used structurally rather than glued on as trim, which is also how you tell what a piece of furniture cost. The British half of the episode is about doing texture in a small room without it turning into clutter: furniture on legs so you can see the floor, vertical storage, using the alcoves either side of a chimney breast, and one big mirror instead of a gallery wall. It's the cheapest trend of the year to try, at about £150 in textiles, and the most expensive to commit to. The deep-seated curved sofa is where people lose four figures, usually by measuring the wall and forgetting the depth. 00:00 A word we've both been resisting 01:30 Why minimalism photographed better than it lived 03:10 Etsy names a texture of the year 05:00 The materials list, and why the lumps are the point 06:40 Burl wood, and where it goes wrong 08:00 Structural cane against glued-on cane 09:30 Texture against clutter in a small room 11:20 One good piece instead of three mediocre ones 12:40 What it costs, and the sofa mistake Mentioned: Etsy texture of the year, John Lewis burl wood, Caroline Milns of Zulufish, Decorex, FSC, Cradle to Cradle and GreenGuard Gold certification. The podcast comes from the Interior Design Clinic app. If you want to see one of these trends in your own room before you pay for it, you can upload a photo of the room and try it in 26 different styles at interiordesignclinic.com Got a room you're stuck on, or a trend you want us to price up? Tell us and we'll take it on the show. New episodes every five days. Following the show in your podcast app is what tells the app to show it to other people, so if this was useful, that's the thing that helps. This show is made by Interior Design Clinic. If you want to see a trend in your own room before you pay for it, you can upload a photo of the room and try it in 26 different styles at interiordesignclinic.com Got a room you're stuck on, or a trend you want us to price up? Tell us and we'll take it on the show. New episodes weekly. Following the show in your podcast app is what tells the app to show it to other people, so if this was useful, that's the thing that helps.

Why Grey Is Over: Warm Neutrals and Colour Drenching

Britain painted everything grey for about twelve years. That's ending, and what's replacing it is harder to get right. Hana and Marcus go through the warm neutrals coming in — greige, mushroom, clay, chestnut, terracotta — and the green nobody has mentioned, which is up 22 percent year on year and has moved into the slot grey used to occupy. Jane Landino of Taylor Howes calls the palette sun-baked, which needs some translating for a Leeds semi. Then why grey took hold here harder than anywhere else. Small rooms, poor light, and a country that thinks about the next buyer from the day it moves in. Grey photographs well on a property listing and nobody can criticise you for it, which matters if you're not sure you're staying. The technique half of the episode covers colour drenching, which works better in small British rooms than a feature wall does, and is also considerably faster to paint. Then material drenching, and the two surfaces almost nobody touches: the ceiling and the floor. Farrow & Ball's Joa Studholme calls painted floors cost-effective and transformative, and most floors under British carpet are exactly the kind you would never sand and varnish. Also: what cool grey does under northern light by four o'clock in January, why greige goes pink on people, and why lime plaster on a solid wall is a damp question before it's a decorating one. A box room drenched floor to ceiling is under £200 in materials and a weekend. 00:00 Four flats, four landlords, all grey 01:30 The replacement palette, and what sun-baked means here 03:20 Green is up 22%, and what that number actually counts 04:40 Shades you can ask for by name 06:00 Why Britain took grey further than anyone 08:10 What cool grey does by four o'clock in January 09:30 Why warm neutrals are harder, and the plaster-cast wall 11:00 Colour drenching, and why it's faster to paint 12:30 Material drenching, the ceiling and the floor Mentioned: Farrow & Ball Scallop, Hay, Sardine, Mizzle and Sap Green. Little Greene Ashes of Roses. Pantone Cloud Dancer. Sources: House & Garden, the Telegraph, Livingetc, Ideal Home, and the 2026 UK paint guide at getmaster.co.uk The podcast comes from the Interior Design Clinic app. If you want to see one of these trends in your own room before you pay for it, you can upload a photo of the room and try it in 26 different styles at interiordesignclinic.com Got a room you're stuck on, or a trend you want us to price up? Tell us and we'll take it on the show. New episodes every five days. Following the show in your podcast app is what tells the app to show it to other people, so if this was useful, that's the thing that helps. This show is made by Interior Design Clinic. If you want to see a trend in your own room before you pay for it, you can upload a photo of the room and try it in 26 different styles at interiordesignclinic.com Got a room you're stuck on, or a trend you want us to price up? Tell us and we'll take it on the show. New episodes weekly. Following the show in your podcast app is what tells the app to show it to other people, so if this was useful, that's the thing that helps.

Blue Paint Trends 2026: Dulux's Three Colours of the Year

Dulux has named one Colour of the Year every year since 2004. This year it named three, and all three were blue. Hana and Marcus go through whether that means anything. Etsy, Pinterest and Lick landed on blue as well. Searches for moody blue kitchens are up 325 percent. Ideal Home's bathroom editor thinks sky blue is still standing in 2027. Then Pantone named an off-white, the first in the history of its colour of the year, and used almost the same reasoning about a frenetic world wanting calm. The rest of the episode is about whether any of it works here. Blue is a cool colour and this is a country of north-facing rooms, so the trade advice is to put chocolate brown and warm wood next to it rather than white. Dusty blues also read differently on plaster than on lining paper, which is why the same colour can come out flat in one room and not another. Also covered: why Dulux shipped a white alongside its blues, why dark colours work better in small rooms than feature walls do, the swatch test that costs one sample pot, and which of the three blues belongs in a downstairs loo. Farrow & Ball Modern Emulsion is £64 for 2.5 litres, so a small room done properly is about £150 to £200 in materials. The cheap version is painting the woodwork only. 00:00 Dulux named three Colours of the Year 01:20 The reasoning, and the white they shipped with them 03:30 Etsy, Pinterest and Lick reach the same answer 05:10 Pantone names an off-white instead 07:00 Green is up 22% and nobody mentioned it 08:10 North-facing rooms, and what to put beside blue 10:30 Plaster against lining paper, and the nine, twelve and four o'clock swatch test 12:00 Where blue works: cabinetry and tile 13:40 Costs, the woodwork-only version, and renting 15:00 What to do before buying a tin Mentioned: Dulux Free Groove, Mellow Flow and Slow Swing. Pantone Cloud Dancer. Farrow & Ball Modern Emulsion, Scallop, Hay and Sardine. Little Greene Ashes of Roses. Sources: Dulux, Ideal Home, Pinterest Predicts 2026, Pantone, Farrow & Ball, and the 2026 UK paint guide at getmaster.co.uk The podcast comes from the Interior Design Clinic app. If you want to see one of these trends in your own room before you pay for it, you can upload a photo of the room and try it in 26 different styles at interiordesignclinic.com Got a room you're stuck on, or a trend you want us to price up? Tell us and we'll take it on the show. New episodes every five days. Following the show in your podcast app is what tells the app to show it to other people, so if this was useful, that's the thing that helps. This show is made by Interior Design Clinic. If you want to see a trend in your own room before you pay for it, you can upload a photo of the room and try it in 26 different styles at interiordesignclinic.com Got a room you're stuck on, or a trend you want us to price up? Tell us and we'll take it on the show. New episodes weekly. Following the show in your podcast app is what tells the app to show it to other people, so if this was useful, that's the thing that helps.

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