How we design
A placeholder for the longer version — what we reach for, what we avoid, and the handful of rules we keep coming back to.
Replace this with the real thing — it's just here so the page has shape.
This is the page for the part that isn't a before-and-after: the taste underneath the projects. Why we keep choosing the materials we choose, the mistakes that changed how we work, the rooms we measured and stole ideas from.
What this is for
Write it however it comes out. Long paragraphs are fine. The four principles above come from the frontmatter of this file — edit, add, or delete them there, and they'll re-render as the numbered list at the bottom of the page.
Notes to fill in
- The first house, and what we got wrong in it
- Budget rules that actually held
- Trades we'd use again
- The stuff we'd never do twice
- 01
Live in it first
Nothing gets decided in the first month. Where the light lands, where things pile up, which door never gets used — the house tells you before you guess.
- 02
Fix the bones
Wiring, damp, insulation, drainage. Unglamorous, invisible, and the only part that is genuinely expensive to redo.
- 03
Few materials, used well
A short list repeated through the house reads calmer than a different feature in every room.
- 04
Old things next to new
One salvaged or inherited piece per room stops a renovation from looking like a showroom.