Grand Designs returns as Kevin McCloud shares home makeover tips ahead of series 24

Grand Designs is back on Channel 4, with Kevin McCloud guiding one of television’s most enduring matrons of aspiration through a new set of ambitious builds and deeply human stories. The 24th series arrives as the show remains a cultural touchstone for dream-home enthusiasts, tracing everything from ambitious towers to intimate transformations, and teeing up two notable firsts: a project born from grief and a fortress-like home that rises atop a hill and will be visible for miles.

At the heart of the return is a mix of high-stakes construction and personal narratives that illustrate the show’s evolving balance between spectacle and emotion. “We’ve got a chap building his own castle,” McCloud said, underscoring the project’s childhood-dream appeal. “It’s fulfilling his childhood dream. That’s the stuff that makes Grand Designs what it is.” The castle, he added, is “a monster of a building on top of a hill. It’s a proper castle and we’ve never had a castle before.” Another featured project centers on Pep and Melina, a couple navigating loss and love as they pursue a home together. “We’re dealing with bereavement in quite a powerful way,” McCloud said, describing a story that follows two women who have been together for more than 30 years and who want to build a home in memory of their shared life. Pep, McCloud noted, has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and the film follows a final, meaningful act of giving to Melina that resonates beyond the design itself. “The main driver is Pep but … there’s this great final flourish, this great act of giving that she wants to make for her partner Melina. It’s a beautiful film about human energy and how memory can be very important.” McCloud stressed that the word “grand” in the title refers to vision rather than wealth or size: “The word ‘grand’ in the title doesn’t refer to money or size, it refers to vision.” He cautioned, however, that even with bold aims, the path from plan to build is unpredictable. “You can never tell how a project will pan out,” he said. “Some start sooner than others, some take much longer. We never know what’s going to make up a series until three or four months beforehand.”

The show’s enduring appeal, McCloud said, lies in its ability to surface new chapters in the lives of the people who build, and the belief that “buildings are as diverse as the people that build them.” He and fellow presenters Natash Huq, Damion Burrows, say the series offers a distillation of hard-earned lessons for anyone daring to create a dream home or extend an existing one.

The trio lays out a practical playbook that reflects both the drama of major builds and the everyday realities behind them. “Appoint a leader,” Damion Burrows emphasized, noting the value of a strong project manager who can keep costs in check and prevent constant course-corrections. “They’ll save you money because they’ll stop you making mistakes. They know what’s coming up, they know the order of things, and they’ll stop you changing your mind every five minutes. You could sum it up in three words: plan, fix and stick. Get it fixed then don’t change your mind unless there’s a really good reason because that’s when the budget starts to go up.” Natasha Huq added a cautionary note: “Vet your builders. Never blindly trust a tradesman. See what they’ve worked on before, talk to their clients. Then you’ve got a shared reference point.” The same practical approach is echoed in the budgeting advice from the team. “Be real about your budget,” Kevin McCloud said, describing a project as a reflection of its owners rather than a display to impress others. Natasha warned that costs are rarely fixed: “There’s always the risk the budget is going to vary. You have to prioritise each decision and think, ‘Is this really important to me?’” Damion urged a financial cushion: “Work on 25 per cent contingency, then just think how lovely that feeling will be when they give you 20 per cent back at the end.”

The design credo extends beyond governance and cost to materials and personal identity. Natasha champions natural materials for their sensory appeal, noting that stone, timber, lime and clay are “tried and tested” and only improve with age. Kevin pushes homeowners to tell their own stories through their spaces: “Treat your building as something that reflects who you are – not your neighbours, not your friends or family, not the people you’d like to impress. Make it autobiographical, make it idiosyncratic.” Damion reinforces the need for cohesion across a home; he describes a deliberate approach of using a small set of materials consistently to create a sense of space.

Light, flow and layout also define Grand Designs’ philosophy. Damion cautions that lighting should respond to the time of day, with “tall floor lamps and little table lamps” complementing natural light to avoid harsh, one-note illumination. Natasha agrees, arguing against a single overhead light. When it comes to spatial strategy, McCloud favors open plans but warns against over-extending a home: “I like open plan,” he said, but Damion warned that a back-extension can yield a dead, echoey zone if not integrated with how the space will be used. On kitchens, McCloud points out that a galley layout can be more efficient than the much-coveted island, noting that kitchens are about ritual and that design should consider how residents actually use the space.

Bedrooms come in for a simpler treatment, with Kevin advising restraint: “They should have a bed, a bedside table and maybe a chair. Ideally a wardrobe would be somewhere else because that’s really civilised for a partner if you have to get up at 5am.” Color choices invite nuance, with Damion recommending a strong, singular pattern while allowing the rest of the palette to stay as supporting cast. “Take swatches of fabric and lay them over each other. Go with one strong pattern, then let everything else be the supporting cast,” he said; Kevin counters, explaining that color can be a potent tool and that starting with white can help determine the right choice.

The garden, too, should feel like an extension of the living space. Damion argues against rigid garden rooms and advocates blending the outside with the inside so that movement between the two feels seamless. “Let the garden melt into the house and there are no boundaries, just that sense of flow,” he said, adding that “you shouldn’t feel a hard stop when you walk out; it should all feel like one space.”

As the 24th series unfolds, the show’s voice remains clear: Grand Designs is about more than architecture. It’s about human ambition, memory and the power of place. McCloud, Huq and Burrows say the project catalog will continue to surprise with both its grandeur and its intimate, personal stakes, reminding viewers that the greatest designs are often the ones that endure long after the last brick is laid.

Grand Designs airs on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Channel 4.