Good renovation advice is almost always retrospective. You have to make the mistakes first. Room by Room is Glassette’s series in which we ask designers and homeowners to walk us through their spaces: 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.

For the latest instalment of Room by Room, we spoke to interior designer and content creator Sara Charlesworth about the renovation of her 1913 bungalow. The house had been her father-in-law’s childhood home, and she and her husband bought it from him during Covid, after it had sat empty for a few years. By then it had collected decades of beige, outdated updates, including a kitchen and bathroom that had seemingly not been touched since the 1970s. Since then, the house has slowly been given its personality back: fifteen rooms reworked, from three bedrooms and a playroom to a mudroom and a dedicated bike space.

Five years in, and by her own admission possibly never finished, the project has had its share of surprises. There was a basement whose finish work added up far faster than its size suggested, a great deal of money spent on plumbing nobody will ever see, and a near-row over the mudroom cabinets, resolved by making new doors so her father-in-law could keep the originals. Along the way, she learned to trust her own vision, take her time, and build a home with materials meant to last, because, in her view, the best homes are the ones that feel “deeply personal to the people who live there”.

From painted seconds-grade hardwood floors to tile, marble, built-in cabinetry and a quietly growing rug collection, Sara takes us through the decisions, splurges and lessons behind a house that respects its history while feeling entirely like her family’s own.