From water towers to lighthouses, dream houses that swallowed fortunes to an eco-home that almost collapsed, Grand Designs has delivered some of the most emotional and gripping real-life stories on television.
For more than a quarter of a century the show has charted ordinary people’s triumphs and disasters, and the new 24th series introduces another couple of firsts – a project built on bereavement and a full-blown fortress being raised on a hilltop that will be visible for miles around.
At the heart of all these dramas stands Kevin McCloud, guiding viewers through the highs and lows experienced by Britain’s most ambitious homebuilders, and one project personifies the show.
‘We’ve got a chap building his own castle,’ said Kevin. ‘It’s fulfilling his childhood dream. That’s the stuff that makes Grand Designs what it is.’
But Kevin said the series’ most jaw-dropping build also offers a fresh lesson in hubris – that mix of pride and over-ambition that so often fuels the most dramatic projects. ‘It’s a monster of a building on top of a hill. It’s a proper castle and we’ve never had a castle before.’
Another story is that of Pep and Melina and their house shaped by loss and grief. ‘We’re dealing with bereavement in quite a powerful way,’ Kevin said. ‘The story is one of two women in love, who’ve been together for over 30 years and always wanted to build a home together.
‘The main driver is Pep but at the beginning of the film she’s already been diagnosed with a terminal illness. So there’s this great final flourish, this great act of giving that she wants to make for her partner Melina. It’s a beautiful film about human energy and how memory can be very important. We touched on money a little bit, but it seemed so irrelevant.’
Kevin said the word ‘grand’ in the title of the show ‘doesn’t refer to money or size, it refers to vision’. But with vision comes unpredictability. ‘You can never tell how a project will pan out,’ Kevin admitted. ‘Some start sooner than others, some take much longer. We never know what’s going to make up a series until three or four months beforehand.’
Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud (pictured) has shared his top tips for making the most of your home
So why does Grand Designs continue to resonate with us after all these years? ‘We keep finding new stories all the time,’ Kevin said. ‘Buildings are as diverse as the people that build them and there’s no such thing as a dull human being because everybody has a story. We all harbour a dream to go on this adventure. Even if we’ll never do it, it’s still the last great adventure we could imagine doing.’
So, Kevin and his co-presenters, architects Natasha Huq and Damion Burrows, have revealed the lessons they’ve learned from Britain’s most ambitious homebuilders and share their golden rules for anyone daring to create a dream home of their own, or simply extend their existing one…
Appoint a leader
Damion emphasised the value of a good project manager. ‘They’ll save you money because they’ll stop you making mistakes. They know what’s coming up, they know the order of things, and they’ll stop you changing your mind every five minutes. You could sum it up in three words: plan, fix and stick. Get it fixed then don’t change your mind unless there’s a really good reason because that’s when the budget starts to go up.’
Vet your builders
Never blindly trust a tradesman, said Natasha. ‘See what they’ve worked on before, talk to their clients. Then you’ve got a shared reference point.’
Damion echoed this. ‘Stand in each room with them and say, ‘Right, this is going here, it’s made out of this material.’ Do this for every single room, then tick them off on the drawing and get everybody to sign.’
Be real about your budget
Kevin (pictured) said people should treat their building as something that reflects who they are – not the neighbours, not friends or family, not the people they want to impress
Natasha warned that costs are never fixed. ‘There’s always the risk the budget is going to vary. You have to prioritise each decision and think, ‘Is this really important to me?’
Damion advised having a practical cushion. ‘Work on 25 per cent contingency, then just think how lovely that feeling will be when they give you 20 per cent back at the end.’
Use natural materials
Natasha sees architecture as sensory and prefers natural materials because they’re tactile and timeless.
‘Stone, timber, lime, clay – these are tried and tested materials that we know will get better with age. When you smell timber or stone, you really feel that. They’re timeless, they don’t date in the way that fashionable finishes do.’
Make it personal
‘Treat your building as something that reflects who you are – not your neighbours, not your friends, not your family, not the people you’d like to impress,’ said Kevin.
‘Make it autobiographical, make it idiosyncratic. Explore your own tastes. I’ve got a library at home and I love it – that’s my space and I don’t need much else. For me it’s about the things that matter to you, and making a home around that.’
According to Kevin, ‘Buildings are as diverse as the people that build them’ (pictured L-R: Kevin McCloud with owners Amy and Paul Wilkinson)
Natasha stressed that the small details matter too. ‘Being able to be really discreet about plug sockets and pipe boxing is the key to making a really lovely space.’
Damion believes in consistency. ‘In my house I’ve got four materials. One tile in different scales [hardness, or degrees of resistance to wear and tear], one flooring, one paint colour and one wood, and they’re used throughout the house. It gives that sense of cohesion and space.’
Let there be light
‘The biggest mistake people usually make with lighting is they only consider it at one time of the day,’ said Damion. ‘In the morning you want a much more intense light, in the evening you don’t. So you need tall floor lamps and little table lamps.’
Natasha completely agreed with that sentiment. ‘Just having one light from above in the middle of the room doesn’t work for me,’ she says. ‘There’s nothing worse than a harsh light in the room.’
Open plan or cosy
‘I like open plan,’ admitted Kevin. ‘None of us wants to be separated from those we love by a wall while we prepare supper.’
But Damion warns, ‘If you just do a big extension on the back of the house, you end up with this weird no man’s land in the middle that’s dark and echoey. People don’t think about how the light comes through or how they’ll actually use the space – they just think bigger is better. But unless you design it properly, you create a dead zone rather than a living space.’
According to design expert Kevin McCloud, the word ‘grand’ in the show’s title ‘doesn’t refer to money or size, it refers to vision’
Kitchens and bathrooms
Kevin said bathrooms are the trickiest. ‘They involve multiple trades so plan, plan, plan. Don’t expect them all to come on the same day.’
And fashion isn’t always best in the kitchen. ‘We’re all obsessed with the island, but in fact a galley kitchen is the most efficient,’ Kevin said. ‘It’s what ships have, it’s what professional chefs use. It works brilliantly well if it’s well designed.
‘Kitchens are about ritual as well – where you make the tea and coffee, where the jam lives. These make a kitchen work. If you’ve got a galley you don’t want people coming into your work zone to get to the kettle or the toaster, so put those outside the galley so everyone can get to them.’
Pare down the bedrooms
Keep them simple, said Kevin. ‘They should have a bed, a bedside table and maybe a chair. Ideally a wardrobe would be somewhere else because that’s really civilised for a partner if you have to get up at 5am.’
Take care with colour
Damion thinks confidence is key. ‘Take swatches of fabric and lay them over each other. Go with one strong pattern, then let everything else be the supporting cast.’
Kevin is cautious. ‘I like to start by painting a room white and then decide. Colour is super powerful. Sometimes what you want is subtler.’
Let the garden grow organically
Damion believes gardens need a rethink. ‘Garden rooms are outdated. Be in the garden, don’t be in a box looking at the garden. What I love is when the garden just melts into the house and there are no boundaries, just that sense of flow. You shouldn’t feel a hard stop when you walk out; it should all feel like one space.’
Grand Designs airs on Wednesdays at 9pm on Channel 4.