a We’ve makeover... had

In the same way lockdown made us all reassess what we want from our homes, here at Ideal Home we realised we needed to adapt our pages to make sure we’re delivering exactly what you want (and need) from Britain’s best-selling homes magazine in 2021. The creative process has been much like renovating a house: lots (and lots!) of planning, a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, but ultimately, hugely rewarding in the end.

We went through each one of our pages, asking a lot of the same questions you might ask when redesigning a room. Does it work hard enough? Is a quick lick of paint all it needs, or are there some structural issues to address? How can you add character but make sure that the changes will stand the test of time? Reworking Ideal Home hasn’t just been about filling in the cracks. We’ve given the whole magazine a thorough revamp to bring out its best features, and we hope you love our new look as much as we do.

Refreshing Ideal Home has been very much like the pr ocess of renovating a house

This has been a real team effort, and we’ve welcomed some exciting new faces into the mix. Ideal Home (est 1920) was one of the first magazines to bring the advice of leading industry experts into readers’ homes, and we’ve celebrated that long tradition with our IH Panel. Charlie Luxton shares his know-how on renovation (p131), Kalpana Fitzpatrick is here to help us keep our finances in order (p155) and Nicky Phillips is our go-to for decorating dilemmas. Our homes have recently become a place of sanctuary, so Fearne Cotton’s on hand for a dose of wellbeing in her monthly Happy Home column (p159). Plus, one of our favourite writers, Hadley Freeman, is keeping us entertained on page 17.

Now it’s time to throw open the doors for the grand tour. Welcome to our new Ideal Home...