Journal
Notes on the industry.
Studies, regulation and trade news for kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms — read closely, and read from a Cheshire workshop floor.
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The most common kitchen regret is the floor
Which? asked 415 members what they would change about their kitchens. Nothing on the list scored above 4% — and almost every item was decided at drawing stage rather than chosen from a brochure.
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Green either way
Dulux named Soulful Sage its Colour of the Year 2027 on 8 September — a soft, silvery, light green. Three weeks earlier we wrote up UK search data showing bedrooms going dark. Both are right about the hue. Only one of them is measuring anything.
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Twelve litres a minute
NHBC’s guidance on tiling showers turns on a single flow rate. Above 12 litres a minute the wall behind the tiles has to be waterproofed before a tile is laid; below it, it doesn’t. The shower is chosen in a showroom — the wall build-up is decided in the same moment.
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Seven per cent were selling
Nationwide put its house price data to the question every renovator asks, and found it could not answer the kitchen and bathroom part of it. What it could measure turns out to be more useful than the answer people wanted.
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What Which?’s 2026 kitchen tests tell you — and what they can’t
Which? bought 21 kitchen ranges from nine big brands, put them through 19 lab tests and asked 4,580 owners how theirs are holding up. The spread — 89% to 54% in the lab — is the most useful number a kitchen buyer will see this year.
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The small print is about air
The Future Homes Standard becomes law for new homes in England on 24 March 2027 — heat pumps, solar on most roofs, 75% less carbon. Read past the headlines and the part that reaches a Cheshire renovation is the new ventilation rulebook that arrives with it.
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Three of forty
Forty companies hold FIRA Gold certification. Three of them hold anything to do with bedrooms. That gap says something useful about how fitted bedroom furniture is assessed in this country — and about the two British Standards worth naming when you next talk to a supplier.
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Bedrooms go dark, and traditional
Houzz’s 2026 search data shows a 4x rise in ‘traditional bedrooms’ and black bedrooms up 79%. For fitted furniture, that raises the fifteen-year question: which parts of a dark, period-leaning scheme belong in the joinery, and which belong in the paint tin.
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Three droughts in five years
England has just had its driest July in 190 years, and 71.3% of the country is in drought — the third in five years. Cheshire is the exception, for now. What the water numbers mean for anyone specifying a bathroom this year.
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The last winter of the vented dryer
From 19 January 2027, vented, condenser and gas-fired tumble dryers can no longer be sold new in Great Britain. Nobody is coming for the machine you already own — but if a utility room is on your drawing board, the appliance you are designing around is about to change.
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What a kitchen renovation actually involves
Houzz’s 2026 UK kitchen study publishes no spend figure — but its scope data explains where the money goes better than any average could. Nearly four in five projects replace every cabinet, and half move the walls.
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The average hides the plumbing
Official statistics published on 5 August put materials for repair and maintenance work up 5.7% in a year. Underneath that average, rigid pipes and fittings rose 12% while cement fell 4.5% — and which basket your project draws from decides what happens to the quote.
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Nineteen per cent, or fifty-five
Which? asked 1,544 people whose fitted bedroom furniture was five to ten years old whether it showed damage or wear. On average 38% said yes. Between brands the figure ran from 19% to 55% — and the spread is the useful part.
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Decide the threshold before the tiles
Searches for accessible bathrooms rose 408% in the first quarter of 2026. What people actually fitted moved by two percentage points. The gap is worth understanding, because a level threshold is decided once — before anything is tiled.
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Three per cent came in under budget
Houzz asked more than a thousand UK homeowners what they actually spent. Thirty-eight per cent went over. Three per cent came in under. A quarter never set a budget at all.
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