EDITOR’S LETTER

Claire Lloyd has been a member of the Homebuilding & Renovating team for 15 years. She’s currently in the midst of another renovation.

To welcome in the new year, we have compiled our ultimate list of home ideas and innovations which will be big news in 2023 and beyond. This is not about trends that will come and go — there’s not a hint of Viva Magenta (the bold Pantone colour of the year that we apparently need in our homes) or talk of beige making its big comeback in this article. From addressing challenges like rising energy costs and conversely, overheating, to creating healthier homes and making more sustainable material choices, this is all about those concepts which will come to underpin house design and homebuilding in the coming years. (Turn to page 72.)

On a similar theme, given that material price rises and labour shortages impacted many of our projects in 2022, we tasked builder Andy Stevens to assess the current lay of the land and provide his build predictions for what the rest of 2023 may hold. His verdict makes for interesting reading on page 103.

Elsewhere in the issue, and on a very different note, we turn our attention to our fourlegged friends with a guide to designing a pet-friendly home (page 110). We’re certainly not advocating making your cat, dog, house rabbit or perhaps goldfish the centre of your design brief, but there are certain design and build considerations which can make life a little easier (and lower maintenance) for those of us who share our homes with pets.

And on a final note, a date of your new diary — our experts will be on hand to answer your building, planning and design questions at the South-east Homebuilding & Renovating Show in Farnborough between 14-15th January.