Renovating a small space comes with some big decisions. Where should you spend your money? Which jobs deserve the biggest budget? And how can you make the most of every square metre?
We asked architect George Clarke to share his top rules for renovating a small space, from choosing the right-sized furniture to making room for clever storage.
George is back on TV with George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces: First Homes, which follows prospective homeowners finding creative ways to get on the property ladder, with projects ranging from a tiny house to a converted refrigerated lorry.
Having seen his fair share of clever small-space renovations, George knows how to make every inch work harder. We’ve distilled our conversation into five key rules to help you spend your renovation budget wisely and create a home that feels bigger, brighter and more functional.
1) Take the time to design your space properly
When we asked George about the small-space renovation mistake he sees most often, he pointed to a lack of planning.
‘If I'm honest, it's not spending enough time on design,' he says. 'To build something takes a lot of money, it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of skill – and if you've get it wrong, correcting that can be a real nightmare and a headache.'
What to Read Next
For George, this means having detailed drawings made and taking accurate measurements before any building work begins.
'Literally, get the measuring tape, get masking tape out and put it on the floor and mark out exactly where everything's going to be, and walk it through time and time again,' he says, sharing the advice he often gives people starting out. 'Don't just do it on paper, but do it in reality in the space.'
2) Become a ‘bargain hunter’
When renovating on a small budget, George recommends looking online for affordable materials and furniture. 'It's kind of unbelievable, the stuff online these days, where you can pick things up for next to nothing,' he says.
'I think you need to be a bit of a bargain hunter, and be really inventive about how you might use those things. For instance, there might be some relatively ordinary materials that someone wants to get rid of, but with a bit of creativity, you could do some fantastic things with them.'
If you’re looking for low-cost secondhand furniture, Facebook Marketplace, Emmaus and eBay are good places to start. For reclaimed materials, you could also try websites such as SalvoWEB.
3) Don’t be afraid to keep things minimal
When asked about excess furniture taking up too much space in a home, George had a simple solution. 'Minimal living is no bad thing,' he says. 'You don't want too much [furniture] and you don't want it to be too big, which sounds like a really obvious thing to say, but it's true.
'What I'm amazed by on Amazing Spaces, is how people do live in a relatively simple way. They don't have the budget to buy loads of furniture and they don't have the space to put lots of furniture anyway, so in some ways, you're decluttering before you've even cluttered.'
He describes this as a form of ‘design reduction’, which means being intentional about the things you buy or choose to keep.
'Minimal living means minimum running costs, minimum amount of materials, minimum number of light fittings, minimum number of walls to be built,' George adds.
4) Don’t compromise on comfort when budgeting
We also asked George about the budgeting mistakes people often make during a renovation. His advice was to prioritise the features that will make a home warmer, more comfortable and cheaper to run.
'I think you don't want to compromise on things that are going to make the house really comfortable. Things like insulation, making sure that it's really warm, making sure it's sustainably built, because what you don't want is expensive running costs,' he warns.
George emphasised the importance of investing in the fabric of the building – the insulation, structure and materials that help determine how comfortable and energy-efficient it is.
'People might say that's really dull because you don't see it, but my God, you're going to feel it. You're going to feel it physically in terms of your comfort levels, and you're going to feel on your bills when you have to pay for energy costs during the winter,' he says.
5) Save on internal finishes you can upgrade later
While George advises investing in the fabric of the building, he says internal finishes can be updated later when your budget allows.
'You might put in a slightly more affordable kitchen, for example, and use that for 5 to 8 years, and then when you get a few more pennies together, you might upgrade it,' he says. 'Obviously you would do it all to a great standard at the very beginning, if you could, but not everyone's got the money to do that. Accessories and finishes are easy for you to upgrade at a later point if still you wanted to.'
