Grand Designs

Grand Designs magazine is essential reading for anyone who is building, renovating, or improving their own home. In each issue you can expect to find 40+ pages of inspirational real homes complete with in-depth project details and exclusive tours of new TV houses. Up-to-date information allows you to stay abreast of the latest architecture, design and construction ideas and innovations. Practical project features include advice from industry experts on a wide range of challenges such as building on an awkward plot, overcoming a lack of light or space, or working with a tight budget. And, as designing a kitchen or bathroom is one of the most complex – and expensive – room transformations to tackle, every month you’ll find a project feature on each, along with beautiful real-life case studies.

Colophon

Welcome

Architecture update • Original projects to inspire your own self-build or renovation

Kevin McCloud • There’s an ever more pressing need to start mining untapped sources of energy, says our editor-at-large

An oasis in the city • Behind and beyond this home’s handsome brick façade is a tapestry of colour, texture and greenery

Just around the river bend • An ingenious prefab system was key to creating this flood-resistant home on a picturesque but hard-to-reach site beside the River Thames

In black and white • A monochrome colour palette puts the emphasis on the fine bones of this renovated Regency home

When simple is best • This home is deliberately pared back so there are few distractions from the dramatic scenery

GRAND DESIGN

How to raise funds for your project • Up-to-date advice on successfully financing a self-build

10 Inspiring hillside homes • From architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, USA, to Hill House by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Helensburgh, Scotland, some of the world’s most famous homes have hillside settings. Building on a slope often presents design challenges and practical complexities, but the following projects demonstrate that such projects can reap rewards, whether by incorporating dramatic drop-offs or nestling unobtrusively into the topography of the site.

Guide to creating an annexe

Electric car chargers • At-home models vary in terms of size and design, features, speed and connectivity

KITCHEN UPGRADE

Quick and easy updates • Ways to ring the changes without ripping out your entire kitchen

BATHROOM EDIT

Shaping the future • Forward-thinking design and product innovations revealed

SEPTEMBER ISSUE

MY GRAND IDEA • Architect Mark Smyth incorporated a change in floor level in his design for this extended home