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In the first episode of Grand Designs: House of the Year, host Kevin McCloud is blown away by a ‘remarkable’ transformation using cheap materials.
The Channel 4 Grand Designs spin-off showcases 20 projects all competing to be crowned RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) House of the Year, which will be awarded to the best example of a one-off house designed by an architect in the UK.
The four-week series, which begins tonight, will see seven houses shortlisted for the award before the winner is announced in the final episode.
In tonight’s episode, titled Houses That Take You by Surprise, Kevin explores five of the houses in the running, each supposedly hard-to-build, including one pink beach house.
In an exclusive clip, we see Kevin looking around a kitchen which has been transformed with the help of cheap materials.
The kitchen has a neutral theme (Picture: Channel 4)
Builders cut the doors out for the design (Picture: Channel 4)
‘Plywood doors and cupboards which I imagine you’ve just bought,’ he begins in the clip, with the homeowner replying: ‘We ordered a pallet of douglas fir and used standard carcasses and the builder cuts all the doors out of that which made it much cheaper to do.’
As well as the doors, the concrete worktop was made by a builder too, stunning Kevin.
She explains: ‘It was a builder who did all of that work himself, so he shattered it all, and then cast it all and ground it all on site and then sealed it.’
Kevin was stunned by the transformation (Picture: Channel 4)
‘You can create an amazing home within a tight budget’ (Picture: Channel 4)
‘That’s remarkable!’ he replies, looking around the open plan kitchen living room next to wooden stairs, with planks across the ceiling, matching the neutral brick walls.
‘You can create an amazing home within a tight budget. It doesn’t have to be a bog-standard, up two-down house, we haven’t used expensive materials, it’s just being honest,’ she adds.
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Kevin explains: ‘So cheap brick, standard section timbers, four by four posts, but actually then all lifted with oil, clever pointing, with a nice finish, care and bit of craftsmanship, and all in the same pallet as well.
‘It’s very nicely done.’
Grand Designs: House of the Year airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.
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‘You can create an amazing home within a tight budget.’
