Why home retailers need to think beyond single rooms

But after 15 years of renovating and 3 years building Reno, I've noticed a pattern: homeowners rarely just plan a replacement kitchen. They extend, knock through or reconfigure. Our customers talk about “extending rather than moving”, “knocking through to create an open-plan space”, “reconfiguring to make the space work better” and “making the house more energy efficient”. Kitchens and bathrooms are often key components, but they form part of a much bigger project.

• 65% of renovationscovered more than one room type, averaging 2 rooms per project
• The average projectincluded items from 10 different home categories
• 71% of userscreated more than one plan or design, averaging 3 each
• Planning typically lasted 3 months,with the top 25% of projects extending to 7 months or more

While this data reflects Reno users, the consistency makes me wonder if the industry has underestimated how interconnected modern projects are.

“A homeowner buying a bathroom isn't just buying a bathroom. They're thinking about heating and insulation, choosing flooring, planning lighting, decorating the bathroom and the room next door, coordinating purchases from multiple suppliers, managing budgets and trying to keep everyone involved aligned - all while navigating one of the most expensive and stressful projects they'll ever undertake.”

Retailers who only see the bathroom purchase are missing everything else the homeowner is juggling to get there.

That means understanding what else is happening around the purchase - the other rooms, the other decisions, the other suppliers - and building the kind of planning support that reflects how homeowners actually work, not how the industry is organised.

I'm curious whether others are seeing the same pattern. Are your customers arriving with a wider project already in play, or does the traditional room-by-room journey still hold?