Penny Andrews
Why every renovator ends up being an accidental project manager
Last updated: August 19, 2026
We talk a lot about the stress of renovating, but how much of that stress comes from the fact that most renovators are effectively taking on the job of project manager themselves? In the UK, it's still pretty unusual to hire someone specifically to project manage a home renovation - most people don't feel they can justify the cost.
We might pay an architect to design it structurally, a kitchen company to help design and configure the kitchen, a bathroom company to plan out the bathroom and individual trades to do the work. But someone still has to make every decision and coordinate all of it.
Someone has to keep track of what is being built, which decisions have been made, what needs to happen next and whether a decision in one part of the project impacts another.
A job nobody trained for
They're coordinating architects, builders, kitchen and bathroom companies, electricians, plumbers, tilers and decorators. They're juggling drawings, measurements, specifications, scopes of work, product choices, purchases (and returns!), quotes, budgets and hundreds of minute decisions.
“Project managing a renovation is hard even when it's your full-time job. It's even harder, to say the least, when you're doing it with little construction experience, not knowing what you don't know, without the right tools, squeezed around a full-time job and a couple of kids.”
There's a reason good project managers and interior designers who take on project management are invaluable. Yet most homeowners are expected - or expect themselves - to figure much of this out on their own.
An opportunity for the whole industry
This makes me wonder whether there's an opportunity for all of us involved in the renovation journey to get better at working with homeowners in the way they are actually trying to coordinate their projects, and with the tools they already have available to them.
If a homeowner already has an architect's drawings and a Reno plan, do they really need another set of drawings from every other company involved - using a different tool, different scale, different symbols and a different set of conventions?
Perhaps we should be thinking more about how the tools, information and expertise we provide can fit into the wider project they're already managing, rather than creating another silo for them to coordinate.
Because when we understand more about the wider project and what the homeowner is actually trying to achieve, we can also provide much more valuable input and support. And ultimately, make what is already a pretty difficult job a little easier for the person who has to pull it all together.
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