Good renovation advice is almost always retrospective. You have to make the mistakes first. Room by Room is a new series from Glassette where we ask designers and homeowners to walk us through a single space: what wasn't working, what they spent too much on (and whether it was worth it), and what they'd tell you before you pick up a sledgehammer.

We're starting in the lower ground floor of an East London Victorian townhouse, where interior designer Laura Parkinson of Palmer & Stone (@palmer_and_stone) transformed a dark, damp warren of rooms into a kitchen and dining space that opens onto a garden terrace. It took six months, stretched the budget more than once, and produced some hard-won lessons about lighting, decision fatigue, and why you should never underestimate the cost of digging.

Each instalment goes room by room, question by question - the real numbers, the near-rows, and the one thing guests always comment on. No polished retrospectives. Just honest accounts from people who've been through it.