Renovation (also called remodeling) is the process of improving a broken, damaged, or outdated structure. Renovations are typically either commercial or residential. Additionally, renovation can refer to making something new, or bringing something back to life and can apply in social contexts. For example, a community can be renovated if it is strengthened and revived.

Home improvement, home renovation or remodeling is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home.

Remodelista

17 June 2026

  • An Architects’ Laboratory: A Self-Built Cottage in the Scottish Highlands

    In the conservation village of Plockton, on the shores of Loch Carron in the Scottish Highlands, architects Colin and Megan Baillie of Baillie Baillie Architects completed a compact holiday house that reinterprets the traditional Highland crofters’ cottage through a low-tech, plastic-free approach. Called Iorram, the 410-square-foot self-build occupies a tight infill site and takes its […]

  • 10 Easy Pieces: Glass Water Carafes

    A simple water carafe is a necessity on the nightstand—especially one with a glass that acts as carafe topper to keep water fresh and clean clean while you slumber. Here are 10 options to help you get your daily water intake morning and night. For more bedside essentials, see our posts: 10 Easy Pieces: Modern […]

  • Remodelista Reconnaissance: A Handmade Ceramic Basin

    A while back, I wrote about a thoughtful, eco-conscious remodel in Melbourne, Australia (see Retrofit Over Rebuild: An Architect and Interior Designer’s Sensitively Restored 1970s Home). The original home was hand-built—and so, too, were many of the elements inside the home, from the furniture-quality kitchen cabinetry to this hand-thrown ceramic basin I can’t stop thinking […]

  • A Once-Dormant Stone Barn in the French Countryside, Reimagined by Saba Ghobanalinejad

    Paris-based Iranian architect Saba Ghobanalinejad has an acute ability to reveal the inherent qualities of a building rather than overwrite them. Her renovation of a former working barn attached to a family country house in Montigny-Lengrain, an hour outside Paris, is no exception. Tasked with transforming the dormant 700-square-foot building into a flexible space for […]

  • Elsewhere: What Vacation Houses Get Right

    I’ve had an observation on my mind in recent years. It may have emerged in the lockdown era of 2020, when looking inward at one’s home and daily life took the place of outward travel and exploration. Once the world reopened and slowly returned to a regular pace of travel, swapping homes, and booking holiday […]

Retro Renovation

Ugly Duckling House

17 June 2026

Exterior Coating
Home Insulation
Roofing
Solar Energy