I’m planning my first renovation and feel completely out of my depth. Where do I even start?

It’s one of the most common questions we hear. And honestly, it makes complete sense — renovations are genuinely complex, and most people go into them with very little prior experience and a lot riding on the outcome. The good news is that feeling out of your depth at the start doesn’t mean you’ll stay there. No one was born knowing how to renovate! A bit of early groundwork goes a long way.

Here’s what Henry, our Co-founder, would tell you if you asked him directly.

It depends on what you’re taking on, but prep is everything

The first thing Henry says is that the right starting point varies depending on the scale and type of renovation you’re planning. A bathroom refresh and a full-home renovation are different animals entirely. But whatever the scope, one principle holds across all of them: the more thinking and preparation you do before a single tool is picked up, the better, smoother, and quicker the result tends to be once work actually gets underway.

That might feel counterintuitive when you’re itching to get going, but the homeowners who struggle most during renovations are almost always the ones who launched in before they were really ready.

Get clued up on the basics that build your reno foundation

Before you start approaching builders or getting quotes, speak to someone who can give you an impartial view on what type of professionals your project will actually need. This sounds obvious, but it’s a step most first-timers skip entirely, usually because they don’t know who to ask.

Why does it matter? Because understanding your project’s professional requirements early helps you prepare mentally and practically for what’s ahead: how long it’s likely to take, how many different tradespeople and specialists you can expect to have moving through your home, and in what order. Even on smaller projects, that can be quite a lot of people. Knowing that upfront means you won’t be caught off guard.

The other foundational step is working out your budget ceiling (the maximum you’re genuinely willing to spend) before you get anywhere near quotes. Having that number fixed in your head, and ideally on paper, gives you an anchor for every decision that follows. It’s far easier to manage your spending and make trade-offs when you have a clear framework to work within from the start.

Establish what your role is going to be

This is the part of renovation planning that Henry describes as the trickiest to work out, and the one most people underestimate. Once you understand what your project involves, the question to sit with is: how involved do I actually want to be?

There’s no universally right answer. Some homeowners want to be across every decision; others want to hand things over and trust the process. But you do need to think it through consciously, because getting it wrong in either direction has real consequences. Overpay for management you didn’t need and you’ve eaten into your budget unnecessarily. Underestimate the coordination required and you risk the project running over time and over budget – sometimes significantly.

Knowing your role before work begins means everyone (you, your builder, and anyone else involved) is working from the same page from day one.

See what’s possible

If you’re still in the early stages of imagining what your renovation could look like, it helps to see what others have already achieved. Take a look at our transformation stories! From single bathrooms to full home renovations; get a feel for the range of what’s possible and start building a picture of your own project.And if you want more renovation insight from someone who’s just lived through a full home renovation himself, Henry has recently moved into his home after 14 months of renovating! You can follow his journey and find plenty more advice over on Henry’s LinkedIn.