Advice

The conversation pit is back in 2026. Here is why the sunken living room returned, what it really costs to build, and the cheaper trick that gets you the same cosy feeling without digging up your floor.

Garden rooms keep selling despite tight budgets. Here is what a garden room actually costs in the UK in 2026, where the money goes, and who should skip it.

This piece has been folded into our fuller, regularly updated guide to the same topic: Keep Your House Cool in

Cornwall is broken. The Cotswolds are crowded. Our edit of the seven best UK hideaway hotels under £200 a night for 2026 – inns, coaching houses and pubs with rooms where the food is honest and the price holds the line.

After two decades of selling open plan as the only modern way to live, British homeowners are quietly admitting it does not work as well as the magazines promised. The broken plan kitchen is the correction – and it is becoming the dominant kitchen brief landing on UK architects’ desks this year.

The shift from a clipped lawn to a wildflower lawn in the UK has stopped being a fringe gesture and quietly become a mainstream design choice. Here is what is actually driving it, what it costs, and where it absolutely should not be tried.