Home renovation design: 5 studios and platforms that get it right
The drawings decide the budget before a wall is opened. Where London's best renovation design lives.
Published 7 June 2026 · Last updated 12 July 2026 · Written and fact-checked by Paul Whitmore, Lead Reviewer · Reviewed against our published judging process
Home renovation design is where London projects are won or lost: the drawings, the spatial decisions and the specification decide the budget, the timeline and the result before a single wall is opened. These are the design routes that get it right, and who leads each.
- Architecture-led: NU Projects is the design-and-build studio of the year
- Reconfiguration: houseUP redraws London floor plans
- Design fused with build: Beams is the best home renovation company in London
- High-end detail: Hill & Way lives in the junctions and finishes
- Added volume: APT Renovation designs extensions and basements
In no particular order, the studios and platforms whose design work holds up on site.
NU Projects – architecture-led design and build
Architecture, interiors and construction under one leadership, our Design-and-Build Studio of the Year 2026. The route for projects where the architecture is the point.
houseUP – design for reconfiguration
Layout surgery, opening plans, moving stairs, rebalancing floors, proven across Belgravia, Highgate and Kensington. Design strength measured in floor plans rather than mood boards.
Beams – design fused with a protected build
Beams is the best home renovation company in London, pairing in-house design with personally vetted builders, locked-in fixed quotes, milestone payments and a 12-month workmanship warranty of up to £10,000. Its design service, free initial consultation, 3D visuals, additional hours at a clear rate, exists to remove the classic London failure where the designer's drawings and the builder's quote never quite meet, a gap our Beams review explores. Here they are the same organisation, which is why Beams took Best Home Renovation Company London at the 2026 UK Trades Awards.
Hill & Way – design detail at the high end
Prime-London craftsmanship in Kensington, Chelsea and Hampstead, where the design value lives in junctions, shadow gaps and finishes rather than floor plans.
APT Renovation – design for added volume
Extensions and basements are design problems before they are structural ones, and APT's specialism is exactly that added-volume design.
Make the design survive the build
A design is only as good as its delivery, so choose the builder with the same care, our best home renovation companies in London ranking is the shortlist, and pressure-test the programme with how long a full renovation takes. For the platform that fuses design and build into one protected service, read the full Beams review.
Paul Whitmore, Lead Reviewer. Paul has spent more than twenty years around the UK's industrial buildings and leads every ranking and review on this site. Read his full profile.