Hardeep and Rupinder/Adam The £100k House: Tricks of the Trade

Houses across Britain don't fit our needs...

We're going to feel like sardines in a can.

..or our dreams.

This is what's known as miserable.

I'm Piers Taylor and I've hand-picked a team of experts

to transform everyday homes.

If you feel that, it doesn't feel like you think it would.

'From bold changes...'

Your room, as it is, would disappear.

'..to stunning interior ideas...'

I think it looks amazing, that.

'..and finishing touches.'

It's a bit of a focal point.

We will use every trick of the trade...

You want to give a bit of a wow factor.

..to prove a limit on your funds...

This stuff is free.

..does not mean a limit on your imagination.

This is amazing. I mean really amazing.

This time...

the owner of one of Britain's thinnest homes

is desperate for help.

You won't get lost in this place.

But how do you make a lot out of a little?

-What do you think?

-It's amazing.

A family of four have enormous dreams for their home.

I just love the grandeur.

But bigger isn't always better.

-This isn't architecture, this is just getting more space.

-Yep.

With house prices in London now averaging

over half a million pounds,

28-year-old Adam thought he had very little chance

of buying a home in the capital.

But then, he came across this extremely narrow property

and bought it for just £105,000,

but has he bought a dud?

Welcome.

There you go. You won't get lost in this place.

The estate agent didn't even bother showing me around at the time,

because they said they'd had so many phoney offers

and had been on the market for such a long time

they didn't really believe that anyone

would seriously be interested it.

Once nothing more than an alleyway,

this unique building is just five feet wide

at its thinnest point.

I can touch both sides of the wall.

Which, if you're sitting down, is quite useful,

cos you can grab things from the side without having to stand up.

This tiny one-bedroom house is a struggle for Adam

to live in on his own.

But social occasions are practically impossible.

He needs somewhere he can entertain.

It's OK to cook, but if someone else is here

it's not really OK any more,

because you'll be in the way, or they'll be in the way.

There is quite a lot of bumping into each other

and I find myself apologising quite a lot.

The cash Adam has invested in this home

means more to him than anything.

He is desperate for the house to work for him long term.

I'd come into an inheritance,

having sadly lost my parents,

and I knew they'd wanted me to invest into property

to keep a roof over my head, I think.

This house is the legacy

and this house is my future, as well.

Helping me transform these homes

is my hand-picked team of architects.

My own project comes later,

but taking on the challenge of Adams ultra-slim home

is Katy Marks.

-Hi.

-Hello.

-Hi, come in.

-Nice to meet you.

Wow, it's straight in, isn't it?

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

The stairs are quite prominent, aren't they?

It's almost half the width of the house, actually.

Yeah, and also that you have to

step to the side

-into what is your living space to go up there.

-I know.

And that is a small sofa.

Dark carpets and heavy wooden stairs all make the house feel

even smaller than it is.

Let's have a look through.

THEY TALK

While poor lighting makes the ground floor feel like a tunnel.

Yeah, it gets narrower and narrower

and darker and darker as you go

-to the end of the house, doesn't it?

-It does.

You can literally...

-stretch your arms across, can't you?

-Yeah, yeah.

I can see there is light at the end of the tunnel down there.

Adam wants to build out into his tiny backyard

to make a new dining space.

THEY TALK

-Wow.

-I know.

It's a bit of a scrapyard at the moment.

Compared to the rest of the house, you get a lot of light in here.

From the day I moved in,

I always thought, you know, this is a place

that's going to become something else.

Katy has re-imagined some of the country's best buildings.

She was part of the team that won the prestigious

Stirling Prize for the new Everyman Theatre in Liverpool.

She's also transformed parts of the Royal Court Theatre in London.

The bedroom is pretty titchy, isn't it?

But what can anyone do with a tiny house like this?

I can't even walk round the furniture.

Adam has taken out a £50,000 mortgage

to alter his home.

After overhauling just the electrics and plumbing,

he won't be left with much.

Getting extra space by going out would be incredibly valuable,

because the house is so small.

Improving this tiny house is a huge challenge.

Katy must find ways to help Adam with every element,

from where walls go, right down to fixtures, fittings and storage.

She wants to start by tackling the key architectural moves.

The first thing,

make the yard into an extra space.

You could make quite a dramatic space in there

that had walls on all sides,

but just a really big roof light.

Oh, OK.

I can just picture it now, with the amount of light,

it's going to be incredible.

But the thing that I'm going to suggest,

which you might think is a bit crazy...

is to suggest that we don't have a floor here.

What we are left with, then,

is a really big airy, double height space for a living room.

-Wow.

-You know, you can do a lot in here.

You can have a really high lighting

-and big pictures on the wall.

-Yeah, yeah.

And then what I've done here is

to build a dormer just on the back.

So that it is like a bed mezzanine.

Katy's plan would be a radical transformation to this tiny home.

Turning the yard into a glass-covered extension would give

Adam a dining space, where he can entertain.

Moving the living area to the first floor

and removing the ceiling above,

would create an extraordinary double height space,

with an open bed platform built in.

And key to Katy's design is stripping out the old staircase.

Building spiral stairs in the middle of the property

would connect it all together.

I'm slightly concerned about the size of the bedroom,

because we have lost some floorspace.

Really make sure that you keep it as open as possible.

Because it is so long and narrow,

getting rid of as many walls and doors as possible

is going to make the space feel bigger,

even if it's the same size.

It's a bold plan that could give Adam exactly what he wants,

but will he be brave enough to go for it?

When Katy was talking about cutting away flooring,

I thought, you know...

that has got to be the opposite of what, you know,

we should be looking for, to create more space.

But, looking at it actually down on the paper,

about how would all look and how it would feel, I...

Yeah, that was just, like, a total lightbulb moment.

Adam might see the benefits of Katy's plan,

but builder's quotes come back

at the top end of his £50,000 budget.

He's forced to have a rethink.

I realised that we were so close to being out of budget

that I've now taken away

the whole of the rear extension.

Having now taken that away,

I feel we've got...

we've got more budget to put into the interior.

I would have just been keeping my head above water before.

Losing the extension saves Adam almost 14 grand,

but it may be a compromise too far

for a home so severely lacking space.

Adam is wrestling with some tough decisions

to try and make his small space go a long way.

Over in Walsall,

Hardeep, Rupinder and their two children

and have plenty of space in their suburban semi,

but it's all in the wrong place.

Four years ago, Hardeep and his wife Rupinder

chanced upon this 1950s semi in Walsall.

We took a wrong turn, came down this road...

-Basically, yeah.

-About to turn the car around

and there were two properties on the road for sale.

Literally stumbled upon.

Having saved hard to buy the house,

they didn't have the money to renovate.

This home is riddled with problems.

The first issue is the tiny kitchen.

I mean, the kitchen

has not been touched since we moved into the house.

I can't find space to put my dishes on

or cook anything.

The next problem is the rabbit warren of disconnected rooms.

The family end up living in separate spaces.

There's not a communal area, where you can just sit down

and have a beer and cook food,

or women can just gas and cook at the same time.

The space is just not there.

Whenever we cook,

the children want to watch TV and eat their food.

-It's never in the dining room.

-It's not.

In the future,

Hardeep's elderly parents plan to move in,

so the house will also need to accommodate

an extended Punjabi family.

From a cultural point of view,

having family around and eating together

is just part of the fun

and the culture that we live in.

They think the solution is a two-storey extension

on the back of the house.

They've borrowed £40K to build it

and Hardeep's got grand ambitions for their home.

When we go around to look at places like Warwick Castle,

I just love the grandeur of everything like this.

Just having the open fire spaces, the traditional metalwork.

I would love to have something like that says, wow.

Overall, 1950s homes tend to be generously sized,

compared to modern builds,

but, rather than boxy rooms,

nowadays we want open-plan, flexible ones.

'Hardeep and Rupinder want spaces for their in-laws

'to come and stay, or come and live with them.

'They want a bigger kitchen, they want a bigger living room,'

And I'm wondering already whether they just want too much.

Looking forward to seeing your house.

-So are we.

-LAUGHTER

So, already, I can see the model that is laid out here,

which is two rooms, front and back,

and a little kitchen there.

Correct.

It's interesting that, if we were building this house now,

this space would be the most important space.

-Yep.

-This is probably where most of the issues are,

-for you, as a family.

-Yeah.

Having a kitchen that is tiny

-and separate from the rest of the house.

-Yes.

And also separate from the garden.

So it seems to have been planned without any sense

of having any quality - any qualities of space,

or any quality in terms of light and view

-and all those sorts of things.

-Yeah. Yeah.

It gets very frustrating,

because my dishwasher is not in the kitchen.

Where is your dishwasher?

My dishwasher is outside, in the lean-to.

Like homes across the country,

it has a lean-to built on the side.

Rupinder's using it as an overspill kitchen.

-It's like an oven out here.

-It is, it is. It's too hot.

-But this isn't a dishwasher.

-Yeah.

-This is a fridge/freezer,

a dryer and a washing machine in a passageway.

Currently, it's just dead space.

But you have to wonder why anyone would have ever built this.

Not quite sure if it's a conservatory, a greenhouse...

It's even worse than I thought, when we were in there.

-Yeah.

-LAUGHTER

And I thought it was bad. Now, I think it is a disaster.

It is a relief, actually, to be outside, isn't it?

But what's interesting about coming out

is that this feels so big.

It feels so spacious and feels so wide,

whereas the house is set up to be

these very long, thin areas.

It strikes me that, actually, this is a really good space

and, if nothing else, all of these spaces should just...

-you know, open out onto this.

-Yeah.

Hardeep and Rupinder should ditch their ambitious

two-storey extension.

Instead, they should improve their key living spaces,

and focus them on the garden.

They need better space, not just more of it.

£40,000 is a lot of money,

but I'm worried that,

if they spend it badly,

this'll be a disaster.

In my mind, if I was to build up a picture

of how you could live here,

I would quite like to extend all the way across.

-Yeah.

-Build one simple thing, so that your kitchen

goes from a space that is that size

to, really, that size.

Then, somewhere in this zone,

is a table and that being the centrepiece of the room,

where you live as a family.

Interesting.

-OK.

-LAUGHTER

All framed by this incredible view

you've got of the garden and you are not using.

I feel having a table there in that much space

feels a bit of an eyesore.

How is that an eyesore?

What I mean is, if you're sitting on the chairs,

or you're lounging in this area here,

you've got this...

what I'd say is an obstacle there in the middle,

whilst you're sitting and watching TV.

But, in a stroke, you stand to make an amazing space.

Actually, the bones of it is beautiful and uplifting

and amazing and flexible.

And I would love to have all glass looking into the garden.

So that wants to be fully glazed,

-if possible.

-I like that.

'I've got one more idea that would create a room

'for Hardeep's parents in the future -

'a simple conversion to their garage.'

That could be a beautiful little stand-alone project

and it means your parents can have their own access,

their own entrance, their own autonomy,

that's separate from you.

But I think that can be converted

for £7,000 to £9,000, sometime in the future.

-Mm-hm.

-But the chunk of 40 grand you spend

sorting out the bones of the building, so it works for you.

-Hm.

-And you get a much better house.

'My simple plan is a world away

'from their ambitious two-storey extension.'

'I'm a bit speechless, to be honest.'

SHE LAUGHS

What we thought, this is going to work for us

and now what we've got is just something that has been

totally spun on its head.

Yeah, and I really liked his idea

about putting glass all over here,

so that we can just directly look into the garden,

which I love, which I miss now,

because there's walls all around me.

Rupinder's on board with my plan,

but Hardeep's less convinced.

I want them both to see how just remodelling the ground floor

to focus on the garden could drastically improve their home.

I've gained exclusive access to a home in South West London

which I hope will do the trick.

Hardeep and Rupinder do have an amazing opportunity to make

something incredible with the house.

But I think, at the moment, they are just so focused on getting more

space they are forgetting what it means to make a really good space.

How are you getting on?

Erm...OK, struggling.

We made some slight changes to your plans.

You still want to do a two-storey extension, don't you?

-It just makes more sense to do it now.

-Yep.

The garage, we are leaving the garage.

-That can wait.

-Yeah.

Hold that thought, because what I want you to do is just enjoy

this house for what it is.

And behind what looks like an very ordinary exterior is

an amazing interior space, so let's go and see it.

The ground floor of this Victorian terraced house

has been radically remodelled by architect Paul McAnearey.

He's created an extraordinary three-sided extension,

orientated around a courtyard.

-Wow.

-Absolutely beautiful.

It sort of beats the UPVC that we are thinking about.

LAUGHTER

Your house is organised differently,

because it's wider and not quite as long.

But, actually, the way this key kitchen space

relates to the garden could be something you could do.

All the spaces here have a different job,

but are linked using simple design tricks -

the same colour palette, flooring and lighting.

The lighting works really well in this house,

because, in a way, you don't see the lights.

There are no fittings to look at.

There's light that is incorporated into the fabric of the building.

I mean, there's a slot that goes from there,

all the way down the ceiling and turns down at the end.

And that is just a recess with a concealed LED strip.

And you don't really see the light, except for one place, which is...

the lights that you do see, that define this as a space

you want to linger and sit.

What we looked for was a chandelier here,

hanging on top of our dining table.

But it's really interesting for me, as an architect, to hear that

people do what you always do,

which is look in a catalogue for stuff you can add to your house.

Whereas here, you can't go shopping for this stuff.

-That is exactly what we are doing.

-Yeah.

-Looking in a catalogue.

You need to stop doing that.

You need to stop and resist going shopping for stuff...

-I said to Hardeep, we need to calm down.

-Let the architecture...

The investment is in the space and the quality of the space

and the way that the architecture deals with storage,

deals with lighting, deals with organisation of all of this stuff.

-Yeah.

-And you can't get that in a catalogue or from a shop.

Another thing I really like here

is that there is such a limited palette of material

and there aren't just unnecessary chops and changes

in things like floor surfaces.

This is one floor surface that is used everywhere.

And these cupboards are storage that's really incorporated

into the fabric of the building, rather than being something else.

And these are just...

bespoke door fronts,

over standard, high street carcasses.

The door fronts that face onto the garden

were spray painted in French Grey.

Darker shades of grey are then used in the kitchen,

but the spaces still all tie together.

There is this amazing

-hidden space in it.

-I love this!

-Isn't it beautiful?

-It's beautiful.

A little moment of joy here.

-Look at that. It's priceless, isn't it?

-Ah!

-That's what I want in my house.

-You'd think...

Oh!

The window seat was constructed from MDF

combined with leftover oak flooring used as a backrest.

A useful design trick,

this material adds warmth and texture.

But it shows you how

spaces need to do more than just provide

basic functions and be well organised.

They actually do need to have these moments of real delight.

And it doesn't cost much to make something like this.

This is a sea in a set of standard carcasses,

-with some bespoke fronts on and some nice cushions.

-Yeah.

And it's about where it is placed. That's where the architecture is.

-Yeah.

-How it places you in this garden.

One thing I really want to encourage Hardeep and Rupinder

to invest in is glazing.

Big glass openings across the whole rear of their new extension

will give them this same experience.

This glazing system is incredible,

because there is nothing at the head that blocks your eyes.

So, if you look into that space there,

there's no glazing bar over the top. You just see open space.

And, even when the window is shut, you see open space.

So the challenge for you guys is not just to get a really clunky

glazing system, like UPVC or something, because then you will

have a complete separation between the garden and your living space.

It does worry me, about the cost of something like this.

Maybe it doesn't need to open everywhere, like this does.

You can get expanses of glazing

far cheaper than using systems like this.

A large fixed pane set into a simple frame

costs far less than high-end sliding doors.

Here, they've also brought light into a potentially dark room

by installing an oversized skylight.

What about the idea of using your garage?

-What happened to that, for your parents?

-At the moment,

that project is going to be...

-benched.

-Why?

We are going to leave the garage as it is.

We believe that it is too small.

And we'd would rather spend the money

-on the second floor extension.

-Yeah.

-But this space used to be a garage.

-Oh, this space used to be a garage?

Ah!

-This space.

-This space used to be a garage.

What about doing this for your parents,

other than that first-floor extension?

That's food for thought. That's food for thought.

I worry that, if you invest that money

in the second storey extension,

-it will compromise the way the building looks.

-Mm.

It will compromise the way that your parents live with you.

What I'm trying to do now is really interrogate your decisions

and what I need you to do is to go away with a sense

that you are hanging onto the big vision

of what you're going to do at your house.

Actually, I really do believe they can achieve this

quality of space on their budget.

Sure, they may not be able to afford this glazing system,

but, actually, just a sensible use of storage and floor finish,

all of those sorts of things are achievable to them,

if they really interrogate every decision that they make.

Three weeks later and back in Walsall,

the old lean-to is being ripped out.

All building work we do to our homes needs to be approved

and signed off by building control.

So, in consultation with the relevant authorities,

Hardeep and Rupinder have made some big decisions about their build.

Against my advice,

they are planning on doing everything

the double height side extension,

the ground floor extension

and converting the garage.

We should, at the end of this project,

have three double bedrooms upstairs.

Downstairs, a en suite bedroom/flat area

for my parents to move into,

plus...a open space

that incorporates the garden.

We had the finances ready for downstairs,

but now we are looking at borrowing

additional money from my bank,

which is a worry,

because I will be the last person on this earth to take a loan out.

That just worries me. I will get sleepless nights.

I'm worried they are

seriously overstretching themselves financially,

but, also, in trying doing so much,

they run the risk of impacting on the quality of the final design.

Back in London,

with an agreed design in place,

work has begun on Adam's home.

The builders have ripped out the ceiling

to create the double height space.

Katy's transformation is a dramatic one,

but Adam's struggling to see if it will give him what he wants.

Just trying to figure out how far

the bedroom is going to come out.

Cos it's going to have a lowered ceiling.

So it's about sort of balancing

the size of the bedroom with

how much of the living room is going to have the full height,

which is tricky, cos I want both.

The big structural work is underway

but Adam is still mourning the loss

of Katy's courtyard extension.

I would have loved it as well,

but it just was too difficult

to fit it within budget.

It's just a complete nightmare.

We need to analyse the impact of Adam's decision

and find a way to help him move forward.

This house is crying out for this fantastic, big,

generous dining space at the back of it, isn't it?

And Adam isn't going to do that. So what are we going to do?

It's really, really disappointing,

because he is going to have a real challenge to regain a space

that feels as sociable and that he is as proud

to welcome his friends in.

So we are going to have to go back and really think hard

about how we use materials

to define different zones within the house.

We try and find ways in which we can inspire him

to think about very narrow dining and living spaces.

It's going to be a challenge.

THEY TALK

I'm taking Adam to this former carpenter's workshop

in East London, where they've found a radical solution

to the problem of small and narrow spaces.

I guess I want to show you that the best houses

don't necessarily have conventional spaces.

And I think your house would really benefit

from not having conventional spaces.

Yep.

I think we should go in and have a look.

It's amazing.

At just 45 square metres,

this house is about half the size

of an average new build.

Studiomama have managed to fit in two bedroom pods,

two living areas, a kitchen and a bathroom.

FOOTSTEPS

Oh, wow!

I love this. They've got the double height as well.

Just like my place.

-You can see why I brought you here.

-Yeah, absolutely.

I really like the way this house is lit,

because, up there, there is a really generous roof light,

and, if the sun was out, there really would be a shaft of light

going through that glass panel into the ground floor.

And then, up here, there is a standard fluorescent strip,

-which runs along the roof line.

-Oh, right, yeah.

-That has a really big impact on it.

-Huge.

These are super cheap. These are nine quid each.

The bedrooms in this house have been built into the living room,

one dramatically hanging from the ceiling.

I can't believe they've got two beds here.

LAUGHTER

This sort of thing won't be possible in every home,

but it maximises space in this double height room.

I think it is really playful, isn't it?

-This whole space.

-Absolutely.

'Cladding made from red cedar wood separates the bedroom pods

'from the living area and adds texture and colour to the space.

'Certain wall and ceiling finishes may need to be treated

'to prevent the spread of flame.'

This wood is wrapped around

and made into a wardrobe and a seat.

Using a material everywhere, like this,

means that you will end up with minimal wastage.

So it is a really good use of material.

But, also, it does make this small space seem big.

Yeah, I'm going to take some notes on this one.

'Adam needs to keep searching for design tricks

'and space-saving techniques,

'if he is to make the most of his narrow home.'

I really hope that Adam, going away from here,

is encouraged that he doesn't need to dumb his house down

and make it like an ordinary developer house.

I think he chose it, because it's special

and I think, if he stays with that, he'll end up with spaces

that may be unconventional, but they'll be delightful.

In Walsall, building work is progressing and Hardeep and Rupinder

have now spent over 20 grand of their 55K budget.

But there's no sign of the fully glazed extension

I designed for them.

I urgently need to find out what's going on.

So, basically, kitchen sink here...

-Hi, Hardeep.

-Oh, hello, Piers!

How are you getting on?

Really well.

As you can see, it's taking shape.

-We've had a few challenges along the way.

-Sure.

So there's a few things that we've changed about.

So that sounds worrying.

'By building more and more house,

'Hardeep's had less money to make the key moves.

'They've gone from a wall of glass

'to two standard patio doors.

'The design of the extension is seriously compromised.'

The way this thing was conceived

was as a singular thing of beauty

on the back of your house, that stood apart from it,

was made out of something completely different.

-Yeah.

-And didn't have the language of the building,

with a set of patio doors in it and a pitched roof on it.

-Hm.

-It was completely different.

Whereas, for me, you had the opportunity to make something

truly, exquisitely beautiful.

Kind of once in a lifetime beautiful.

-This isn't architecture.

-Yep.

-This is just getting more space.

I get that.

-What we've had to do is within our budget to make it stretch.

-Yeah.

It comes down to pure, hard cash.

As I feared, the pressure of trying to do too much on their budget

means they are ending up with an ordinary extension,

rather than a thing of beauty that could have totally

transformed the way they live.

'I need to accept that my vision for their ground floor has gone,

'but I still want to make what they have built special.'

My task now is to help you still make these spaces feel amazing,

and how do you think I can help you now?

We have now got a kitchen on order,

but we now need something magical for our island.

We'd like some inspiration on the, sort of, one, continuous flooring

all the way through.

What do we go for there that still gives us that wow factor?

I need some help in these areas.

Great, well, I think what I need to do is come back

when you have built this big space and we can look at it together

and walk around the shell and see the spaces again.

Fantastic, yeah. I look forward to it.

Hardeep and Rupinder must do all they can to press on with

the build and ensure there are no further changes of plan.

In London, the next stage of structural work

is underway at Adam's house.

The roof is off and the builders begin to work on the dormer

space to create his open-bed platform area.

Adam has spent almost 40,000 of his £50,000 budget already.

Even the contingency is disappearing quite rapidly,

so we need to be really careful.

I am having to, sort of, start putting

the brakes on things, as I can't really get any more budget together.

Adam has got just £10,000 left to spend on the interior

and the spiral stairs.

But he has made another change to Katy's plan.

She has rushed back to see what this means for the finished building.

The thing that I am really worried about is that the staircase

has moved right to the front of the house,

which is effectively the widest part of the house.

It is the only part of the house that actually

feels like a normal room.

Adam's decision to move the spiral stairs has got far-reaching

consequences for one room in particular.

-That open square is where the staircase will be.

-Yes.

And that will be the sliver that's left over.

You haven't got any room left.

Ah... Um...

I think the staircase in that location

is a bit of a problem, on this floor particularly.

The thought of that being wasted...

Yeah, it's really horrible. I...

It is something that is essential to what I want.

Adam only has one chance to make the most of the limited

space in one of Britain's thinnest homes.

What I have just been experimenting with,

is going back to having a more orthogonal, right-angled staircase,

a dogleg stair.

Right-angled staircases take up less space than spiral stairs,

as they can be fitted tighter to a wall.

Hopefully, we are left with an area,

right up against the window, that you can actually use and enjoy.

All of this is left as a kind of proper room.

That does make much more sense.

Katy's new stairs could even give Adam the opportunity for storage.

The success of this whole project rests on getting this right.

So I think we need to think of some really cost-effective

ways of incorporating bespoke furniture.

The design of the furniture will be key to making the most

of this unusual home.

But properties this restricted are few and far between.

So, Katy's found somewhere as thin and narrow as his home,

only this one floats.

Wow.

It feels so spacious.

At 56 feet long and less than 7 feet wide,

this barge, designed by Lee Thornley,

incorporates bespoke and fitted furnishings to save space.

What's really clever here is...

that they've created something that's incredibly simple, really.

I mean, it's just shelves but because it fits exactly,

it's just managed to streamline the whole thing in a very simple way

and I think that's what you need to try and do in your house.

Yes, everything is designed to fit

and everything is in its right place.

But it certainly feels very spacious in here.

Bespoke furniture may sound expensive, but you

can build it from cheap wood like ply or even reclaimed timber.

I absolutely love the textured wood.

It helps bring out some of the other things.

It's interesting because it's textured.

But it is also quite subtle and in the background

-because it's a light shade.

-I think you're right that

finding particular places in your house

where you would pick up on a texture

as much as a colour or a material is really important.

Arranging materials horizontally,

like here, makes a space feel wider,

while fitting it vertically would make it seem taller -

a useful design trick you can use to alter how a room feels.

The shapes of things are kind of echoing other parts,

like the round plates, the round window, the round lights

and I think there's quite a lot we can do with working with the shapes.

Absolutely.

You've got this very, kind of, truncated triangle.

-Yes.

-But you could do all kinds of things with that.

The shape of the table echoing that

because you need a long thin table in a long thin room.

Co-ordinating shapes adds a connection between a room

and the stuff that fills it.

-Wow.

-What do you think?

-Yes.

It's amazing.

While floor-to-ceiling tiles in a small area, like a bathroom,

can add drama and character.

If this was a larger room and you had these tiles everywhere,

it would be completely dizzying.

Overwhelming.

But in a small toilet, it's just enough to feel like

there's a bit of quirkiness in it

and you actually smile when you open the door

because it just looks a bit different

and it has a bit of personality to it.

Another fairly subtle touch you might barely notice

is this curtain.

When you draw it across,

it obviously gives some privacy to this bedroom.

Compared to sliding doors or partition glass,

curtains are a much cheaper and softer way to separate spaces

in open-plan homes.

Your bedroom is like a mezzanine loft to the space below,

-so there's no door.

-Yeah.

But you still might want to create a little bit of privacy, especially

if you had a guest staying on the sofa downstairs or whatever.

It could also be really interesting to have, like,

a strip of colour, you know, from both sides of the curtain, actually.

It could be quite nice visually.

To stop fixtures, fittings and furniture dominating his home,

Adam should embrace bespoke elements used on this barge.

Coming here today has really

refocused Adam's mind to get him now

fired up for the next stage of the project, which is fun, because

I think it's so idiosyncratic

and unusual that we can really make something that reflects his

personality in a big way, I think, and that could be really special.

Back in Walsall, rather than pushing on with the interior,

Hardeep and Rupinder have expanded the scale of their work again.

They decide to remove all the old plaster from the stairs...

..but it doesn't stop there.

We're having a sunken living room.

Because I found out when we moved into this house,

it's all wooden flooring but there is a hole in the ground

and the idea came into my mind,

why not knock the wooden flooring off,

concrete it all,

fill it all up and then have some kind

of steps going down and make the living room a sunken living room?

That area is going to be one level,

with the new extension,

and this is going to be sunken.

So the idea is that we go at least 24 inches down.

Their revised budget was £55,000,

but at this rate, the build will run on and on

and risks costing even more than that.

Our builder has given us the price of £64,000 now,

so we need to find the rest of the money.

I don't see us finishing but I want to stay positive.

In London, the new interior of Adam's house

is starting to come together.

The bed platform has been built

and the walls have been plastered.

His carpenter is now hard at work constructing the new staircase.

Inspired by the barge trip,

he's building a bespoke seating area on the first floor.

And there it is.

It's quite interesting seeing it at the moment while it's just

got one back, because it looks like a bed going that way.

All the new joinery is costing Adam £3,000

but bespoke upholstery could easily run into hundreds more.

He needs a cheap way of finishing the new seating area.

The budget is really strapped.

So yes, things are pretty tight at the moment but hopefully,

we can find something that's going to fit into the incredibly

tight budget I have.

Upholstery fabrics like felt, velour or silk can be expensive,

but Katy has an idea for a cheaper alternative.

If you choose the right materials,

you can achieve something

that can be just as good as the standard material, if not better.

OK, so I've brought you here to what is, you know,

a good standard fabric shop.

This is called mattress ticking.

You'll probably recognise it from your granny's mattress.

People don't really consider it as an upholstery material

but actually, it's incredibly hard-wearing.

Ticking is distinctive, striped cotton or linen textile,

traditionally used to upholster mattresses and pillows.

When you have lots and lots of narrow stripes,

over a large area, that can be a bit distracting to the eyes

but you can imagine in a small house

or with a small sofa like yours,

it might really add a lot of character.

Starting at around £20 a metre in this shop,

some wholesale factories offer ticking

for as little as six quid a metre.

You can also use it to make cushions, curtains and blinds.

I don't think it's likely I'm going to have

many sort of patterns elsewhere,

so I think this is a really good opportunity to make those

bits of furniture stand out and become a feature of the room.

But upholstery isn't made of fabric alone.

So this place specialises in domestic scaled upholstery foam.

And they've got a huge range that we can sit and bounce on.

HE LAUGHS

-Look at this one. It's like a big loaf.

-Yes, it's amazing.

This factory cuts and sells over 10 different types of foam

for commercial and domestic use.

It comes in all sorts of different weights and densities.

Memory foam.

That's got to be the best one.

-That's pretty firm.

-So that's probably a bit too much.

This medium density refresh foam is ideal for back or seat cushions

and starts at just over £9 a square metre.

This is quite firm, actually, but I can feel myself sinking.

Just bear in mind that it is a sofa

so feeling slouchy and a little bit luxurious is actually

a good thing and it doesn't need to be too firm.

The trick to create seat cushions from foam

is to wrap it in wadding,

to smooth out creases and stop it losing shape over time.

You can see when the foam is cut,

-it has these very sharp squared-off corners.

-Yeah.

So having this wadding over the top just softens the edges

a little bit and makes it look more natural.

Using this material

and the fabric that we looked at where we're thinking

of a material cost of sort of £5-£6 a square metre,

and you're looking at getting a good two-seater sofa

that's made bespoke to you in your choice of fabric

that is exactly how your bottom likes it...

LAUGHTER

..for less than £100.

-And that's really, really good value.

-Amazing, yeah.

Over seven months since my first visit,

I'm back in Walsall to see what progress there's been.

Hardeep and Rupinder's project has been a nightmare,

for me as an architect, but also just in terms of them spiralling off

and doing all sorts of things

that I told them categorically not to do.

I know they're struggling to finish it

and usually this would be the bit

where I come and see a finished house.

Hardeep and Rupinder haven't finished and not only that,

I know they haven't done the things I really wanted them to do

'and they have done the things that I told them not to do.

'I want to see what they have managed to achieve and, importantly,

'try and help them to finish it.'

-Hello. How are you doing?

-Hello.

-Not too bad at all.

-Great to see you.

-Same here.

So look at this. We're...

it's really big, isn't it?

-Really spacious.

-Yes.

And I think what does work is that you come into the house

and you walk straight into this big space

and there's a relationship to the garden.

-And that really works, doesn't it?

-Yes.

'They increased the scope of the work more than once

'and this has become a huge project. No wonder it's unfinished.'

I think it's much more complicated, in some ways, than I had imagined.

It's gone up, it's gone back and it's gone down and actually,

it looks like you've had lots of ideas

that you've kept adding to this.

And I think that's one of the reasons why the project has really...

gone onwards.

It's called creeping enhancement.

You keep adding more and more things in.

And actually, there's an incredible discipline just saying "No,

"I'm just going to do this."

So a sunken sitting area.

-That wasn't in the original scheme, was it?

-No, it wasn't.

It was actually my idea.

I mean, the danger about building things like this in

is that it makes it slightly less flexible because actually,

if you decided to have your table down here

and have your sofas there, you can't do that as easily, can you?

Importantly, I want to ask you, I mean,

are you really happy with the spacing?

-Yes, we are.

-Definitely.

I can actually visualise where my kitchen will be

and how I'm going to interact with my family

with this new open-plan idea.

They've spent 50K so far

but there's still a long way to go to finish this build.

What you've done is have lots of ideas

sort of in isolation from other ideas.

You have an idea about this, you have an idea about this

and you have an idea about this, rather than one big idea.

-Yeah.

-I think now it would be really good to have a strategy to

tie your ideas together so when you walk in, you see a really

consistent building, not just lots of things in the same house.

'I won't get to see this project completed any time soon,'

but I do want to give them a vision

of how they can finish their house on the few thousand pounds

they've got left.

I've brought them to Harlow in Essex.

Newhall Be is an award-winning scheme of over 80 homes.

All the properties here are full of low-cost interior tricks

which the couple could employ.

Now that you're piecing your own house back together,

it's a really good time to have a look at one of these.

This isn't far off what your main living space is like, really,

in terms of its layout and size and so on, is it?

It's absolutely beautiful

and exactly the same layout we are thinking.

Way back, I remember really trying to convince you to do

one big bit of glazing all the way along the back but actually,

this is more like what you guys have done.

I told you it would work!

But actually, correct me if I'm wrong

but yours is a little bit smaller.

'Alison Brooks Architects designed this whole housing scheme.

'Key features like these oversized windows

'have been installed economically in all the houses.'

Usually, big openings are expensive but here,

because this side is fixed, it makes it affordable

because you're not paying for things

that move more than just a standard door here.

And also because it's fixed,

there's a very narrow frame and it's much nicer

than having chunky frames which are really

intrusive in your view and I think the overall effect

is that the outside is just part of this room, rather than having

a room and a garden with a pair of doors separating it.

This is just part of the space, isn't it?

What I do like is that you see the wood here.

-It blends naturally.

-With the timber outside.

Yeah, with the timber outside so it's just wood and wood.

The kitchen worktop and splashback are both basic melamine,

which is a cheap, hard-wearing material.

Using it on both surfaces stops it being fussy.

And the flooring is made from black porcelain tiles,

costing less than £20 per square metre.

So this floor is really key here.

I mean, this isn't a super-expensive floor.

This is a fairly generic porcelain tile that is used

everywhere in the ground floor.

And actually, it's great, isn't it,

having this really beautiful dark floor everywhere.

I quite like the idea of having one floor all the way

through from your living room on to your hallway.

This isn't a super-expensive one-off house.

This is a generic house

and what's clever about it is that

everything is pushed and pulled to make it better than normal.

All these materials that are used in this house,

it's working really well as well.

This seems as though it's affordable within our budget.

Little tricks like don't have

a door strip, just let it continue and flow through.

Little tricks like that that we've picked up on...

I think we'll employ.

Hardeep and Rupinder have had a really tough time with their house

and part of the reason for that is that they've taken on too much.

They've been too ambitious.

But coming here today and seeing these beautiful,

simple, straightforward houses,

I think that they

will take some of these lessons and finish their house for good.

In London, it's the final push to complete the interior

of Adam's narrow home.

Determined to keep the space sleek and clutter-free,

he's invested over £4,000 on a contemporary kitchen.

Still quite a bit to do.

It's nice to see the kitchen sort of coming together but...yeah.

Oh.

Soft!

But with new flooring costing £800

and unforeseen building work to replace floor joists,

he's blown his budget,

spending 52 grand.

As of last night, I've got quite worried about money...

..which is not a particularly comfortable feeling

but getting it to those next steps is also going to be

a sort of another challenge altogether.

But Adam's not going to give up on his dream

of a stunning home

and has some ideas for cheap lighting for the ground floor.

So I've got these, like, four light points all in a row.

I was going to have these... I mean, these are so cheap.

They are like 20p and having spent hardly anything on the fitting,

I can spend a little bit more on the bulb

so all in all, that's probably about £3.70 wall light.

But with all floors needing decorating

and plenty left to do,

there's a long way to go

before this house is complete.

One week later, Katy and I are back to see

just how far Adam has come.

When Katy Marks first met Adam, she faced the enormous challenge

of creating a sense of space in one of Britain's thinnest homes.

Desperate for a foot on the London property ladder,

Adam bought a home which was just five feet wide in places.

It was cramped, awkward and starved of daylight.

Ordinary items of furniture swamped the house,

which was also dominated by a heavy-set staircase.

'So with Katy's help,

'has Adam overcome this seemingly impossible challenge

'and created a bright and practical home?'

-Come on in.

-I'd love to.

-Come in.

-Wow.

-Wow!

I can't believe how much you've done!

I mean, this was a really dark, dingy space

and it feels light and airy

and so much bigger than it was before.

Yeah.

The new layout allows light to pour into the heart of the ground floor.

A streamlined kitchen sits along one wall

and the new bespoke stairs no longer dominate.

Before, you were opening the front door

and literally falling into a sofa.

Adam learnt lessons from the barge

and put them to good use with his floorboards.

And the fact that you have laid it across the space rather

than along the space gives it a little bit of elbow room

and pushes the walls out and it genuinely feels a little bit bigger.

It does.

And this is just super-cheap pine, isn't it?

Actually, the cheapest material

did work out genuinely to be the best.

No space has been added here,

but the reorganisation and the combination of materials

makes it feel far bigger.

A nook for dining has been created

under the staircase -

another efficient use of space in a tiny room.

-Shall we have a seat?

-Yes, yes. Come on in.

So what does it feel like to have a table

that you can actually have people around for dinner at?

I can't tell you. It's such a difference.

I was previously sort of cooking here and passing things,

-you know, on a rotation.

-You can be the host.

-Exactly.

That's the thing. We can be the host with your guests.

So what are we having for dinner?

Well...

'Upstairs, there was only room for a tiny bedroom

'and a long, narrow corridor.'

Wow. It's incredible to be able to see to the top of the house.

And this light flooding down makes such a big difference.

-It's great, isn't it?

-It's also incredibly beautiful.

I mean, this is a beautiful space, isn't it?

Using that loft,

taking down the walls has just completely transformed this space

-and it feels sociable and you can actually sit down!

-Yeah.

Left-over ply from his stairs has been used

to make a bespoke seating area, tying everything together.

Were you ever unconvinced about Katy's plan to do this?

There was some scepticism about losing space.

About losing space in such a small house.

You know, there are people who think, you know,

why would you possibly want to reduce the full

-amount of floor space that you can have?

-This is why.

Exactly.

There's still work to do to finish the new stairs

and Adam will also raise the backrest on the bench seat,

but he does now have a bed platform at the top of the house.

It's amazing to come up the stairs into what used to be a dark,

low loft and suddenly you've got an amazing space that feels

really cosy and intimate.

You've managed to get this incredible

-view down into your living space.

-Yeah, I love it.

And it's giving you this really beautiful framed

view of a tree outside

that almost perfectly fits the width of the bed.

Positioning a window to frame a view

connects you with the world beyond.

That's a real bonus.

I don't think I could have really planned for that.

All corridors and clutter have been removed,

activating every inch of his house.

Bespoke furniture and storage

has been incorporated into the way you cleverly access each part.

The whole home has been utterly transformed

but I want to know how much it has cost.

So, Adam, tell me, how much money did you have to start with

and how much have you spent?

Well, I started off with £50,000

but I have probably just crept over that to around 54.

I don't think I really factored in things like the kitchen

but the overspend is negligible, basically.

I love the fact that here is a house that most people wouldn't

think could be a beautiful,

light-filled generous spacious house.

And here it is, the thinnest house in London,

probably, and it's amazing.

I can't wait to start living in it.

I mean, you can see now, as we're talking,

the sun is just streaming in here in a way that you never

could have imagined.

It's really beautiful.

I'm really amazed and proud

that it's come off like this... and relieved.

At the end of the day, he's had the kind of sense of poise

and not panicked

and everybody has held it together.

Great.

In the era where we're constantly told

there isn't enough space to build houses in cities,

this is an amazing lesson for everyone.

And yet, it's beautiful and uplifting

and generous and full of light.

I mean, what could be better?