How To Renovate

EP77 Planning a Renovation Next Year? Start Here.

• Tash South

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This time of year always brings a certain pressure to our homes; guests, dinners, family staying over.
And suddenly, those little niggles about layout and functionality become glaringly obvious. 

In this episode, I talks about how to harness that end-of-year reflection to kick off your renovation plans the right way. 
In this episode, I go over the method I’ve developed over many, many years of renovating both for myself, and for my clients.
I want to help you make a confident, stress-free start to your dream home. 

If you happen to have a few free days during the holidays, it is the ideal time to start planning, and for this part, you don’t even need an architect, designer or contractor.
Just download my free Renovation Checklist and start 2026 with a strong renovation plan!

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Hi I'm your host, Tash South I'm an Interior Designer and Renovation Consultant, and I'm here to help you design, renovate and style your home better. Let's create your dream home together.


Each episode of How To Renovate is short, but brimming with practical advice to help you manage your renovation project with confidence and success.

Grab some more renovation advice & free resources and become part of the South Place Studio Renovation Community at
https://www.southplacestudio.com/freebies

Everything I teach about renovation falls within my Five Pillar Process for A Successful Renovation, to learn more about the process, head to
https://www.southplacestudio.com/pillars


Or if you want to get social, you can find us here:

Instagram: @southplacestudio

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/south-place-studio

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/southplacestudio

Tash South:

Hey my lovely listeners, I'm just dropping in to let you know that this will be my last episode for 2025, and I hope you think it's a good one. It's going to help you start to plan your 2026 renovation like a pro. And while you're doing that over the holidays, I'm going to be doing some planning of a different sort. Now, usually I make the episodes all the way through December, but this year I'm signing off a little bit early because I have two quite big projects I'm working on at the moment. All will be revealed in 2026. I just don't want to jinx anything just yet. But I would love to take this opportunity to wish you a fun-filled and hopefully restful holiday season ahead. And I cannot wait to get back to the podcast in January 2026. I'll see you then. Hi everybody, welcome back to the How to Renovate Podcast. It's Tash here, and I cannot wait to get into this episode with you. So this time of the year, I don't know about you, but so many people are thinking about that extra pressure on their homes. Having guests over, possibly having family stay the night or a few nights, hosting parties, hosting dinners. And so that puts a lot of extra pressure on our homes. And I think this time of the year is when people kind of realize that their homes might not be working for them as they wish them to. And so for this episode, I thought I would talk about if you're planning a renovation, where to actually start, where to start first. So this episode is called Planning a Renovation Next Year, Start Here. I find that this is a time that people just kind of naturally reflect on their homes, the functionality of it, and if it's working for them. We're just all spending more time indoors where the weather's not as great, and we're just a bit more within our four walls and questioning if it's working for us. And I think especially with the pressure of the festive season as well, we're all kind of looking around thinking, oh, I wish that was a bit different, or um if that wall wasn't there, perhaps the flow would be a lot better, or we can accommodate more guests for dinners or get-togethers. And then that kind of usually brings people on to thinking about renovating. And I find that when I'm speaking to people who are just about to renovate, one of the top questions they ask me is where do I even start? So that's why I thought I would do this episode. There's also a very valuable resource for you, which I'll talk to you about throughout, and at the end as well, that's going to help you with where to start. So let's get into the episode number one: the mistake most people make. So I find the mistake most people make when they are about to renovate is to just start in the wrong place. So many people kind of start when they just decide that they're ready to renovate, and that's almost too late. So what you need to do first is start with some planning. And now is a great time to start with that because perhaps you've got some extra time, you have a few days off over the holidays, and you've got time to actually be in your home and think about your home and start planning for how you can improve it and what you really want it to do for you, not just at this time of the year, but throughout the year, really. Perhaps you're having some changes happen in your family or in your life over the next 12 months, or starting over the next 12 months that you want to accommodate. So it's a really good time to kind of think about your home, think about what you need from it, what you really, really need and want from it, and how you can plan for that. And I find that when people make that decision to renovate and they suddenly think, Oh, I need to find an architect to help me, sometimes that's the wrong decision as well. Because if you haven't thought through what you really, really want from your project and how it needs to function for you, then getting an architect involved straight away is not necessarily the right decision. Of course, it depends on the architect as well, but I find that so many people go to architects first and then find that that's not always the right place to start. So I want to show you where you can start before you even start contacting architects or any professionals, which brings us really nicely on to number two, which is renovating well is all about laying the right foundations. And the way I've done that and all the projects I've done and all my client projects is to work through my five-pillar process. So if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you'll know that everything I teach and everything I talk about falls within my five-pillar process that I've developed and created over my the past many years of renovating. And I find that breaking a renovation down into these five pillars, these five sections, really helps you to plan really well, to clarify every single section, to help you get the right people on at the right time. And so that is where I would start. And I would just emphasize that these five pillars, they're not just steps that you follow through. Each pillar is really about kind of drilling down into what you need to do at every stage of your renovation. It's also about learning to plan well, it's also about knowing when to get which professionals involved so your project runs smoothly. It's about getting a really solid budget together so that you know what your project is going to cost you and there's no nasty surprises. So the whole process, all of those five pillars, is really going to help you plan your renovation well, and you can really make a start now. So while you might have some time now, some extra time off to think about your home and think about planning your renovation, this might be the perfect time to start working on these five pillars. So my five pillars are pillar one planning. So that doesn't necessarily mean your planning permission stage. It's all about the planning, all about thinking about what you want from your home, the dreaming phase, which I love to talk about. It's when you start dreaming what your home could be. What do you want it to do in your home? How do you want it to look? That's all within pillar one in the planning stage as well. It's where you start experimenting with layout and floor plans and your style boards and your mood boards, that all forms a really good foundation for moving on to the next pillar, which is pillar two preparation. So pillar two is all about familiarizing yourself with a renovation process because there's a lot to know. But I find that if you're ready, if you know what's coming, even if you've just done a little bit of research, looked into you know the sequence of a build process, the sequence of planning permission, all of those things, starting to get some recommendations together for your team, your architect, your contractor. All of that happens in pillar two. This is also where you start looking at the actual planning, whether you need planning permission for your project, whether you don't, if you live in a house, if you live in an apartment, they all have different rules. So this is all where you start to discover all of those things, and then that sets you up really nicely for the next pillar, which is pillar three. And pillar three is all about the people, your team. So pillar three is where you really try and find the best people you can for your project, and there are systems for this. I have lots of information in my Reniversity course on how you can interview for the best designers, architects, contractors to make sure that the people you're working with are trustworthy, they are good at what they do, they are good at time management. There's lots of questions and things you can do to do the best you can to get the best team together. Now, I'm fully aware saying this that things happen, things always happen, where perhaps you get someone who is not working out as you wished, or you're not working well together with. But this pillar is all about trying to mitigate as much as possible so that you do get a team together that you love, that you can work with, who is going to create your dream home for you. And this pillar is also really about setting out what your requirements are. It's about making sure that whoever you're going to be working with know that you know what you want and that you know each person's responsibilities and that you are going to be there supporting them to get to the best outcome for your new home. And then pillar four is practical management. So this pillar is all about when you're on site, when the your build is actually happening, and you're having to deal with builders and architects and your team every single day, trying to get your project to the finish line. So that's what pillar four is. It's really again familiarizing yourself with what's going to happen, when are your foundations laid, what comes next? Is it damp proof? Is it brickwork? At what stage is your project deemed watertight? All of these things, if you just know, if you just have that knowledge, then it really will help you run your project a lot more smoothly, be on top of things, help you with your timings, help you with your budget, help you with managing your team and your people as well. So knowing that information and being prepared is so important in this particular pillar as well. And then we have pillar five, which is the last pillar, and it's all about just getting everything right for you to move in. So it's about snagging, making sure everything's done properly, making sure you're communicating anything that needs to be done to your team properly. It's about the boring stuff as well. It's about making sure you've got all your certificates, all your sign-offs, all your build-in regulations, everything done and dusted, you've got all the paperwork, everything's filed, and then it's time to open the champagne. So that is the system of follow through in every project I work on, and it really has worked so well for me so far. And I guess that's why I do everything that I do. That's why I do this podcast, that's why I create all the content I do, all the freebies. It's because I would like to share that with you, and so you then know how to take on your renovation and do it successfully because it can be really stressful, it's really expensive, and so of course you want it to go well, you want the best home that you can get at the end for your budget, for your life, for your needs, and so I'm really, really passionate about helping people make the best homes for themselves, no matter what their budget is. Which brings me really nicely on to number three. It's what you can do now, these next few days, where you might have some time without a designer or an architect. These are things that you can do to get your project off to a great start. So, this is where I'd like to mention my checklist that I have created just for you. It's completely free and it's going to help you plan your renovation within my five-pillar process. So, this checklist is basically a summary of my five-pillar process that I've prepared for you, and it lays out really clearly how you can work through your renovation within my five-pillar process. So, this is one of the things you can start to do now while you have some time without the help of an architect or designer at this stage. You can go and download the checklist at southplacestudio.com forward slash freebies, and it's the very first freebie listed at the top of the list on the page there. So you can download that and you can make a start over the holidays. So this is really going to help you define the why of your project. It's going to make you think about what you really need from your home, why you are choosing to do this renovation. There are lots of questions throughout the checklist that's going to question you and kind of guide you to these answers to ask yourself what why are you doing this? What do you need from it? And it's also going to really help you see in a really clear and simple way the overall process of renovation from the very start to the very finish via these five pillars. So as you move through the checklist, it prompts you to do different things, it prompts you to answer some questions, it prompts you to explore your layout, it prompts you to start a renovation binder, or perhaps it's a folder on your computer where you're starting to save ideas. So as you move through the checklist, you'll start building up what will actually become your brief, which you will then be able to talk to architects, designers, and contractors about. It's a really great way of just helping you to make a start so that you know the direction you're going in. It's got all these great prompts for you to kind of gather everything you need before you start talking to professionals. So do go and download it. If you're thinking about renovating, go and check it out completely free, and it's really going to help you start to plan your renovation for next year. And developing this process and this checklist has really made me see how many people it's helped, and it's helped me as well. It's how I work through every single project I do, whether it's for myself or for a client. And I've seen how it not only saves time and money, but it also kind of saves your sanity because it gives you a plan. So you're not making rushed decisions. Whether that's a rush decision on choosing a designer or an architect or a contractor, or whether it's a rush decision on a material or a tile you have to choose. Working this way really sets everything out so beautifully, so that every decision you make as you move through your renovation, and also because you know what's coming, because you've done some research and you've looked into it and you've done some reading, or perhaps you've done a course like Reniversity, so you know what's coming, and then that automatically makes your renovation run so much smoother. It makes communicating with your team so much smoother, and it makes what can be a really, really stressful thing, a really really stressful process in your life run so much better. And renovating is sometimes a very tough thing to do, especially if we have a family, everyone has got budget constraints, everyone has got work commitments, all the things going on. So taking on a renovation on top of all of those things can be a really big deal, a lot of extra stress to take on. And so I find that just having a system, having a process to work through, knowing what's coming, knowing what you're spending, all of those things just takes the pressure off immensely. So let me help you, let me hold your hand throughout this renovation process. I'd love to help you through to create that dream home. If you go and download the checklist at southplaystudio.com forward slash freebies, it's right there. You can download it there. It's really simple to work through, and I really hope that it gives you some clarity and some confidence to take on your renovation project next year because you need to start planning in advance. There's a lot to get through, there's a lot to decide, so many decisions, lots of people to hire. So it's good to make an early start and to start planning now. Even if you're thinking about renovating in a year or so, it's a great time now to start thinking about how to start the process. So don't worry, you don't need to fully plan your renovation just yet. But this is a really, really good place to start. But that brings us to the end of this episode, everybody. And I hope you found it valuable. I hope you'll find the checklist even more valuable. But if you downloaded it or if you don't need it right now, why not share this episode or share the checklist link with someone who is about to renovate? Because I truly believe that this is going to help their renovation or your renovation run a lot more smoothly. So I hope you go and check it out. It was a pleasure talking to you today, and I can't wait to see you in the next episode. Bye for now, everybody.