From the outside, it appears to be a fairly traditional detached suburban home in one of Salford's most sought-after neighborhoods. But inside, this Worsley family residence has undergone a dramatic open-plan transformation. TV viewers will witness the home's extensive refurbishment from start to finish in just four months on Channel 4 tonight, when it appears on George Clarke's Beautiful Builds. The show features architect George and gardener Luke Millard assisting families in maximizing the use of their home spaces.
For Katherine Fenna and her partner Andrew, the experience has been a whirlwind—Katherine applied to participate in the show before they had even fully completed the purchase of the four-bedroom detached house in Worsley. Just a week after moving in, the Channel 4 team contacted them to say they wanted to proceed with filming their building project, and within a month, architect George arrived to review their designs and provide feedback.
Katherine, 48, an auditor, and Andrew, 54, a financial advisor, first found the home in 2024, hoping to create their "forever home" for themselves and their two sons. They moved from a Victorian semi-detached to the detached property in February 2025. The couple enjoy watching TV renovation shows, so when Katherine saw an advert on the Channel 4 site seeking participants for kitchen and garden makeovers, she seized the opportunity.
Katherine says: "I applied before we had even moved in, just hoping we got the house really, and the production company got in touch to say yes, we like the look of your property. So when we did move in last February, the first thing we did when introducing ourselves to neighbors was tell them about the filming! They were really interested, had lots of questions, and obviously everyone wants to know what George Clarke is like."
While George Clarke assisted with their design, Katherine and Andrew organized their own builders for the project, setting a budget of £120,000 for the full works. Incredibly, they completed the entire design in just four months—and Katherine believes the filming deadlines helped keep everything on schedule. She said: "We started in the first week of July and finished in four months. It's our money, our builders, all the stresses were on us. What the program does is help with the design concept, and it drives it through. When you give them a date for filming, you've got to stick with it. But our builders were great."
Katherine said of first finding the property in Worsley: "When we first saw it, it wasn't the curb appeal that sold it, it was what it could be. It was the fact that it was detached, with more privacy, and at the back we've got the fields, the countryside. The house was definitely in need of an update, and we knew we could make it our own."
The new design completely transformed the traditional downstairs layout, becoming almost entirely open plan. The old kitchen areas and utility were knocked through to create a huge, light, and airy living and dining space at the back of the property. New glass doors lead out to the garden, which has been landscaped with a new decked terrace, making the most of the stunning views. They changed the pitched roof extension at the back to a new modern flat roof with VELUX windows, allowing light to spill across the new living spaces, with the quirky addition of beams across.
Katherine said: "Because we live in Manchester and have lots of changeable weather, we wanted to maximize the amount of light coming in, which is why we decided to add the VELUX windows. The beams we installed purely for aesthetic reasons; we like the look of them. They look really pretty against the windows, and with the light coming through, they make lovely shadows across the room."
The results have been spectacular. The design now gives the family a more sociable, open-plan living space. The design brief called for neutral tones, clean lines, and an understated style. Katherine laughs: "I don't like flashy things! It was definitely going for the natural look." It turned out more perfectly than they could have imagined a year ago. Katherine said: "It really means a lot to us as a family that we can communicate in the same space without having to shout around the house all the time. It just means we can spend quality time together as a family. This space now, I really like to come down with my laptop and sit at the table, take in those views outside while I'm working. I feel more productive; it's lovely. When I'm not working, I like to sit in the lounge area curled up with a book and just relax."
"Not only did we do the inside, we went into the outside as well. We've had new decking outside, the raised platform section which gives us new space. It brings inside and outside together. We've had some landscaping as well, some new lawn put down to give us a nice aesthetic feel. What we've achieved I'm just so happy with. I can now see it being our forever home."
While the downstairs features in the TV show, the family is now saving up to continue renovations upstairs. Katherine says: "Definitely it's the bathrooms we need to do up next. Updating the whole property is probably going to take another 10 years, but we think maybe one project every year."
Katherine says they are so happy they were able to get the expertise of George and Luke in designing their new spaces. She said: "We wanted to create a big open plan downstairs, but we wanted someone to tell us yes, you can knock these rooms down. We didn't want to get to the end of renovation and wish we'd done something differently. We didn't want to make bad decisions, so it gave us the confidence to say this is what we're doing. Without the TV show, we'd probably still be umming and ahhing about it now."
The listing for tonight's show says: "In Worsley in Greater Manchester, George helps Katherine and Andrew to renovate their new home's awkward extension and split-level living space, and reveal the home's stunning view, while landscaper Luke tackles the steeply sloped, hazardous rear garden." The Worsley house features in George Clarke's Beautiful Builds on Channel 4 on Thursday, June 11 at 8pm, and will also be available on Channel4.com. The family also worked with VELUX on their extension, with more on their website velux.co.uk/projects/extension.
