Ditching our kitchen extension plans:
Do we ever regret it?

The cost for our architect’s fees were going to be £3-4K, he explained to us. And he said “Yes, I’ll work around your budgets in the design I propose”.

We let a sharp gasp when we heard how much money we were parting with just on the drawings, but nowadays when we hear architect’s costs they don’t phase us one bit.

They’re an essential part of the success of a project and it was a fair price for the scale of the work we were planning. (I hope hearing that helps you feel a bit more assured about the money you’re spending).

Over the years we’ve learned that you often have to spend money on consultant’s support in order to understand the next stage of the renovation pie, so to speak.

But there are ways to easily explore your feasibility and costs which we dive deeper in through our courses.

Our architect diligently designed the whole house for us and did a great job.

He included the proposed extension and a loft conversion should we ever need drawings for converting it later in life.

This was the existing floor plan:

This was the floor plan the architect proposed (knocking down walls and rebuilding the sunroom as an extension):

But that’s when it all spiralled 🤯

Quotes started to come back from contractors. One design + build firm estimated £80K for ONLY the extension! 

The full extension costs were eye-watering!!

Our mission 🚀

We were adamant we wanted to get the whole house finished within our budget and not blow £80,000 on just the extension…

If we’d have gone ahead with the extension and spent our full budget on the extension alone, we’d have been left with one beautiful, large space but the rest of the house would have been unfinished and… pretty depressing if I’m honest!

We wanted to walk around the house and feel happy with what we’d achieved for our money, not frustrated with incomplete areas.

It was a hard decision but we came to terms with the fact that, an extension just wasn’t worth it for us.

We became adamant that we could make this house work and become our dream home within our budget and decided to ditch the dream 80K kitchen extension plans and go on a mission to use the walls we had for a more modest, but at the least beautifully finished renovation.

So we did just that 👇🏻

This is the floor plan that saved us thousands 💵

We knocked one load bearing wall down and insulated (to an extent) the sun room to become a separate utility room. Totalling approx £35K.

These are the results that cost SO MUCH LESS 👇🏻

Use the sliders ↓

The lessons we want to pass on to you:

Lesson #1: Understand what your budget can feasibly stretch to

I guess the first lesson is obvious. Don’t leave it up to an architect to decide how to spend your money – this was a big mistake for us and could have sent us seriously off track. Because the truth is, architects rarely know accurate renovation costs. It’s down to you to understand your feasibilty.

Before you hire anyone, you need clarity on what you can afford, what you want from your home, what you’re prepared to compromise on, and where your money will have the biggest impact. Without that, it’s very easy to spend well and still end up disappointed.

Our online course walks you through exactly how to do this before you engage an architect. It shows you how to pressure-test your budget, spot missed opportunities early, and make confident decisions from day one. Students regularly tell us this step alone has saved them thousands of pounds, and just as importantly, months of stress and redesigns.

Lesson #2: Slow down and consider every layout option

We know how much you want this to get started and be finished (Neil and I are sooo impatient to see results, are you the same?) but impatience can land people in tricky situations making rushed decisions that could stretch you financially.

Instead, itemise your renovation costs and explore all of your layout possibilities. Determine how much you’ll save by taking different layout routes, weighing up the pros and cons.

The numbers side can overwhelm some people, and others can find it challenging to visualise layout possibilities, that’s why our online courses help you develop your ideas, compare costs and options, and make decisions with confidence.

Lesson #3: Answer this question for me, with 100% confidence…

What’s more important to you: Extra space or a beautiful finish?

Sometimes it’s possible to obtain both within your budget. But sometimes it’s not. When funds are stretched, you have to prioritise what’s more important and do one of these well - and understanding what to compromise on without losing out on your dream home is hard.

Balancing your budget & design while making sure you get a good quality finish is a ballgame. We teach a Vision-First Method to students which helps them understand where to save money without jeopardising their vision and it’s saved a lot of projects from looking like a whole host of compromises while remaining affordable.

Achieve the right layout, prevent design regrets + avoid costly mistakes

If you’re not sure where to start or you’re feeling overwhelmed with the decisions ahead, our aim is to make your renovation planning easy. Our courses will show you a tried + tested process students are getting great results with:

Ask yourself this:

What are you doing this renovation for?

This is another important question to ask before committing thousands on your design plans.

If Neil and I had a family, we probably would have gone down the extension route to future proof the house and give us more space and storage.

But as there are only two of us and given the line of work we’re in (interior design) the extra space was just a nice to have, not an essential for us. Being able to experiment with design and finishes was more important to us and my work.

If we owned a smaller home or we had a family, this might have been different. Your needs will be different too.

Determine your goals and how best to spread your money to achieve them.

Take our Surrey project that we completed in recent years, as an example. This stunning property is a family home. You’ll have seen it before.

We supported the clients with the interior design, adding a double storey extension which had to work for the growing needs of a family of 5.

Extending the living space was a necessity to improve the flow and use of the house for our clients.

Is adding space to your property an absolute essential for you too?

The big question: Do we regret not extending our property?

I think about this a lot and it’s tough to give a straight yes or no because the mistakes and regrets we have about our own projects have enabled us to help new clients and students consider different approaches.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing, right?! Every lesson learned, we share with our community.

But what about on a personal, day-to-day level…?

Well, in one sense we don’t regret it because we have been able to get a much better finish in all the other rooms of the house within the initial budget we had (bar a little bit of extra savings for work we did in recent years to keep the property maintained well). Like these…

These developments have brought so much happiness to our lives and wouldn’t have been as successful had we have blown our budget going down the extension route.

But on the other hand, I’d be lying to you if I told you I’d never thought ‘I wish I could do this to our place’ whenever I’m working on client’s extension projects for them. It would have given us more floor space and I would have loved to have had the opportunity to make this property the absolute best it can be for us and future owners. Bringing better light, especially.

But money was just so tight, and we’re just two people. We chose to be sensible and prioritised the existing flow & finish.

Also - I would have made very different material choices if our finances were a little healthier at the time, too. That’s something I discuss a lot in our youtube videos. So if you’ve got a bit of extra time you could watch some of the advice I share over there.

I guess another elephant in the room is…

Factor in your ceiling price!

Believe me, one of the most discussed topics in our house is “where do we stop?”

With ceiling price to keep in mind, we spend a lot of time debating whether it’s worth doing more work to improve the house – such as improving the rear view, the garden and rebuilding the garage.

We’re always so mindful about ceiling price. It’s an area we address seriously in the renovation course, especially if you’re flipping properties. And while I’m talking to you about the extension we chose to ditch, I have to raise this topic because it fed into our discussions early on. Even now, when we consider further improvements to the house, we’re mindful of how we’ll make our investment back.

What can you learn from our story?:

You’re likely to be in the middle of making some important renovation decisions that you don’t want to get wrong. If our story can help you with anything it’s:

• Do the important prep work first. Don’t instruct an architect until you do this.

• If your budget is tight, clarify what you’re in this for. Extra space or a beautiful finish? Sometimes you can’t have both

• Give yourself a head start by understanding what your budget is, and what’s feasible within it

• Consider joining our online course and community where we show renovators the mistakes to avoid, the layouts to consider, how to phase & finance the work, ways to avoid costs spiralling & so much more. We’re opening a New Year enrolment imminently.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope our story has given you some food for thought about your renovation planning 🙏🏻

I’d love to welcome you in our next cohort of renovation students, click here for more information.

Alternatively if you have time to watch some of our youtube videos, it’s a great place to get immediate support and advice way ahead of your project starting.

Talk soon,

Fi (+ Neil)!