Renovating your home has jumped to the top of many of our to-do lists following the last year. Despite the current DIY buzz in the air, it can be an intimidating process fraught with difficult decisions. However, Julian Mcintosh, Your Home Made Perfect's newest architect has a three-word mantra he relies on to make the home renovation process easier.
Related: Building an extension on a house – what to do, where to start and planning permission, explained
You Home Made Perfect returns for its third season this Monday presented by Angela Scanlon. The BBC show turns the typical home renovation show on its head, pitting two architects against each other to fulfil a brief. While that might not sound groundbreaking, to help the clients decide, each architect's final design is bought to live via the magic of VR.
Sadly not all of us will have access to VR technology, and be able to step into the plan for our home when renovating. So ahead of the new series, Julian Mcintosh, the latest addition to the Your Home Made Perfect family, shares his top tip for homeowners planning a home renovation.
Your Home Made Perfect renovation tip
'A big renovation should always be motivated by wanting to make a big change to your home and lifestyle. My mantra is to always consider 3 things: layout, light, and flow,' he explains. 'This simplifies the choices in your design decisions and reduces the pressure homeowners put on themselves to get the design perfect.'
In a renovation it can be easy to quickly become overwhelmed by decisions especially when working within a budget, so keep your cool by keeping Julian's three-word tip in mind. You might find the decisions are less challenging than you realised.
'A well-considered layout is key to achieving a well-designed home. The layout must reflect your habits and behaviours, such as your need for storage, extra bedrooms, designated social/rest spaces and your outdoor space. From there you can look at where you can maximise the space available within your budget.'
For more information on how to curate a well thought out layout explore our kitchen layout guide.
If there is one thing you should really be prioritising in any renovation project it should be natural light. 'Natural light in an architectural space is proven to help improve our everyday life and wellbeing. I would encourage homeowners to ensure there’s as much natural light coming into the spaces that they use most frequently to help enhance daily activities.'
'Natural light can also be a wonderful way to highlight unique material finishes, colours, and forms of a space, helping to bring alive an architectural design,' Julian adds.
Out of Julian's three-point mantra, flow is likely the most intimidating one to tackle, fortunately, he has an insider tip for getting your head around that too.
'Architectural flow is used to help homeowners create a seamless transition from space to space. A useful tip when thinking about flow is imagining all the doors of your plan being left open and evaluating if there is graceful, efficient flow.'
So if you're considering tackling a big home renovation bear this mantra in mind, better yet tape it to a wall where you can see it next time you start to panic about decisions.
Related: George Clarke's extension planning advice – including his brilliant tips for sticking to a budget
Your Home Made Perfect returns to BBC2 at 8pm on Monday, 24th May.
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