We commission writers who carry a tape measure
Interior design guides with the dimensions, sequencing and cost realities in them. If you can explain how a room was actually built, there is a commission here.
What we publish, and what we turn down
The distinction is simple: does the piece change a decision a reader has to make in a real room?
Yes, please
- Room planning with real dimensions, drawn at real room sizes.
- Sequencing pieces: what order the work goes in, and what it costs to get that order wrong.
- Material and finish comparisons where you have actually handled both.
- Small-space problem solving that survives a tape measure.
- Post-mortems on a job that went sideways, written honestly.
- Regional practice notes, clearly labelled as to which market they apply to.
Not for us
- Trend round-ups with no numbers in them.
- Listicles, and anything whose structure is a number in the headline.
- Product write-ups for items you have not seen or used.
- Pieces built around affiliate links or a client you work for.
- Text generated by a language model and lightly edited.
- Reworded versions of guides that already exist elsewhere.
Write it the way a good builder talks
1,400 to 2,200 words
Enough room for the numbers and the reasoning, not so much that the guide stops being usable while you are standing in the room.
Metric first, imperial in brackets
Write 1.2 m (4 ft), not one and a bit metres. Round clearances down and openings up, so the conversion never costs the reader a millimetre they needed.
Real dimensions, every time
Say how wide the walkway is, how high the rail sits, how far the table clears the wall. A sentence that could apply to any room usually applies to none.
No listicles
Structure the piece around the decisions in the order a reader meets them. If the outline only works as a numbered list, the piece is not ready.
Costs as ranges
State the currency, what is included and roughly when the figures were gathered. Never a quote, never a single national number.
Sources with the draft
Send the standards, spec sheets or measurements you worked from. Nothing gets published until a second person has checked them.
Four stages, no black box
You will always know which stage your piece is at and who has it.
- 01
Send the pitch
One paragraph on the decision the piece helps a reader make, a rough outline, the dimensions or sources you will build it on, and two links to previous work. Full drafts are not read unsolicited.
- 02
Editorial reply
An editor reads it and answers either way. If it is commissioned you get a scope, an angle, a word count and a deadline agreed with you, plus the fee in writing before you start.
- 03
Draft and edit
The first edit is structural: does the argument hold, are the numbers doing work, is anything missing that a builder would ask about. Expect one substantive round of notes, occasionally two.
- 04
Fact check and publish
Every dimension and material claim is checked against your sources by someone other than you, so supply them with the draft. Then it publishes under your name with an author page.
Your byline is yours
Published contributors get a named byline, a short biography, an author page collecting their work and a link to their own site. Articles are edited for accuracy and clarity rather than rewritten into a house voice, and you see the substantive changes before the piece goes live.
Before you pitch
- How long should an article be?
- Between 1,400 and 2,200 words. Shorter than that and the numbers get squeezed out; longer and the guide stops being usable on site. If a subject genuinely needs more room, say so in the pitch and we will discuss splitting it.
- What is the house style?
- Metric first with imperial in brackets, for example 900 mm (35 in). Real dimensions rather than adjectives. No listicles and no numbered-headline formats. Costs as ranges rather than quotes. Plain British-neutral English, second person, and a short closing section covering the decisions that actually change the outcome.
- Do I need to be a designer or a tradesperson?
- No, but you do need to have done the thing or measured it. We commission designers, joiners, architects, surveyors and writers who renovate their own homes. What matters is that the guide is grounded in something real rather than assembled from other articles.
- Do I get a byline and an author page?
- Yes. Every article publishes under the writer's name with a short biography, and each writer has an author page collecting their pieces. We do not publish contributed articles anonymously or under a house byline, and we do not ghost-write for brands.
- Can I include a link to my studio or portfolio?
- Your author page carries a link to your own site. Links inside the body of an article are editorial: they go in where they help the reader, and they are not part of the deal. Pitches that are primarily about placing a link are declined.
- How long does a decision take?
- Pitches are read by an editor rather than sorted automatically, so a reply takes as long as it takes to give you a real answer. If you have not heard back and the idea is time-sensitive, send a short follow-up through the contact form.
Ready to send something? Use the contact form and choose Pitch an article as the reason. That routes it straight to an editor.
Read a few guides before you pitch
The quickest way to land a commission is to notice what the journal is missing and offer exactly that.