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Chartwell Design and Build

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Chartwell Design and Build

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Chartwell are specialist design and build contractors.

We deliver upscale, high-end projects to private clients by combining premium materials and traditional craftsmanship across Sussex, Surrey, Kent and Hampshire.

29/09/2026

Lovely bit of detail on this one from Fired Earth. Warm, layered bathroom done for Binky Felstead, mixing their Light Umber paint with Medina Zellige in Cloudy White and Leather Pale, and Southwold Herringbone Walnut flooring adding texture underfoot. Calacatta Viola tiled niche gives it a bit of drama too.

Sometimes it really is the small stuff - cupboard k***s, botanical prints, a seagrass basket - that pulls a whole room together rather than any one big statement piece.

Worth knowing Southwold Herringbone Walnut is 50% off at the moment if you fancy recreating any of this yourself.

28/09/2026

Bit of a nice one to share today. Little Greene have just launched their refreshed 'Colours of England' and 'Colour Scales' cards - 26 new colours plus one returning from the archive, a shade called Putti.

Worth a look if you're at the finishing stages of a project. The new Colour Scales side of things is genuinely useful too - each colour comes as part of a graduated family, so you can pick a lighter or darker version of the same shade for walls, woodwork and ceiling without it clashing. Makes getting a tonal scheme right a lot less of a guessing game.

Always nice seeing paint brands actually think about how people use colour in real houses, not just how it looks on a chip. Anyone got a Little Greene favourite already?

27/09/2026

Lovely one from House & Garden here.

Not our project, this one's a London townhouse by Callender Howorth, but it's a story we see a version of a lot closer to home too - a Victorian property that's had all its original character stripped out at some point, then redone in a style that just doesn't suit the house.

Happens more than people think with period properties. Somewhere along the line the personality gets designed out in favour of something more minimal, and it ends up feeling like the house is fighting against itself. Getting that back - proper proportions, warmth, detailing that actually belongs there - takes a different kind of thinking to a straightforward renovation.

Worth a look if you're into period property transformations: https://houseandgardenuk.visitlink.me/vseq5-

26/09/2026

Good to see this one from Humber Architecture. This is exactly the kind of project where design and build working together really shows - the design side gets a Victorian terrace opened up properly, and Marben Construction's the ones actually turning that into real rooms on site.

We work closely with both teams, so it's genuinely nice seeing a project like this coming together stage by stage. Below ground drainage going in, steels and blockwork forming the new layout, brickwork picked to sit right alongside the original house - all the unglamorous groundwork that makes the finished result actually work.

Worth a follow if you want to see how this one turns out.

25/09/2026

What's actually included in our construction costs?

Bit of a follow-on from the planning permission piece the other day. A few people asked what construction pricing actually covers, so worth laying it out properly.

The pricing itself:

Construction is priced from £2,500 per square metre plus VAT. That's a from price rather than a flat rate, since every project's different depending on specification, site conditions and what's actually involved.

So what does that actually cover?

More than people usually expect. On the construction side itself, it includes:

- Demolition and foundation construction
- Below and above ground drainage
- Floors, roofs, windows and doors
- Plastering, tiling and joinery throughout the project-related rooms
- All stages of plumbing, heating, electricity and ventilation
- Hard and soft landscaping, including boundary fencing

There's a fair bit that happens alongside the actual building work too - we put together a tailored management plan covering things like site access, logistics, welfare, neighbour liaison, and any tree or heritage protection measures that apply. Sounds like admin, but it's the sort of thing that keeps a project running smoothly rather than causing headaches halfway through.

Once the build's finished, that's still not quite the end of it. Handover includes a professional post-build clean, return and unpacking of your furniture, and a proper walkthrough to agree any remedial works before we call it done. You'll also get a Home User Manual with guarantees, certificates and a set of as-built drawings to keep.

Full breakdown's on our website if you want to see it all in one place: https://chartwelldesignandbuild.co.uk/fee-structure/

Anyone gone through a staged payment build before? Curious how people found it compared to what they expected going in.

24/09/2026

What does planning permission actually cost?

Bit of a numbers one for today, but a genuinely useful one if you're at the thinking-about-it stage of a project.

First thing worth knowing - planning application fees aren't set by the council, they're set nationally by government. So whether you're in Eastbourne, Lewes or Uckfield, the actual fee you pay to submit an application is exactly the same.

So what's the actual fee?

A standard householder application - the one most people need for an extension, loft conversion or similar - is £548 as of April this year.

Where our fees come in:

Worth being clear that the £548 above is just the council fee - it's not what it costs to actually get a project designed and ready to submit.

Our own Planning Consent stage starts from £3,500 plus VAT, and that covers:
- A measured survey of the site
- Drafting of existing and proposed drawings
- Finalising and reviewing the proposed drawings
- Preliminary costs prepared with our build team
- A planning statement, design and access statement, and sustainability statement to support the application

So really you're looking at two separate costs sitting alongside each other: what the council charges to process the application, and what it costs to have the application properly designed and prepared in the first place. Full breakdown of our side of things is here if you want it: https://chartwelldesignandbuild.co.uk/fee-structure/

Anyone recently been through this in Eastbourne, Lewes or Uckfield? Curious how long yours actually took start to finish.

23/09/2026

Bit of a listed buildings one for today. Comes up more than you'd think, especially round here with all the older properties.

Grade II is the most common listing by a mile, around 92% of all listed buildings in England fall into it. Doesn't mean it's not taken seriously though. If a building's listed, that covers the whole thing - inside and out, not just the front you can see from the street. Fireplaces, staircases, internal walls, all of it can be protected, not just the obvious stuff like windows or brickwork.

Where people sometimes come unstuck is assuming planning permission and listed building consent are the same thing. They're not. You can need both, separately, for the same piece of work. And doing anything without the right consent isn't just a slap on the wrist, it's actually a criminal offence.

Genuinely though, most applications do get approved. It's more about doing things the right way round - talking to a conservation officer early, rather than starting work and hoping nobody notices.

Anyone here own a listed building? Curious what the process was actually like for you.

22/09/2026

Bit of a different one for today. Thought it was worth properly introducing the two of us behind Chartwell, since most of what goes out on here is about the building side rather than who's actually doing it.

I'm Aaron - I handle the design side, architectural drawings, all of that. Member of the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists, and I care a lot about buildability, meaning designs that actually work in real life, not just on paper.

Mark's the other half of Chartwell. Proper trades background, knows construction inside out, and he's the one who spots a problem before it becomes an actual problem. Funnily enough he didn't start out in construction at all - spent years at Mercedes, first as a technician then in management, which is honestly where a lot of his approach to customer service comes from. He's a member of the Federation of Master Builders too.

Between the two of us it works well - I focus on getting the design right, Mark makes sure it's actually buildable and runs smoothly once it starts. Different skills, same standards.

Anyway, that's us. Feel free to say hello if you see us out and about locally.

21/09/2026

Bit of news to go with this one. This week we're knocking the price of our feasibility study down for the first 10 people who get in touch - £349 plus VAT instead of the usual £499, and if you decide to go ahead with us afterwards, that cost comes straight off your design fee anyway.

Feels like a good way to take the guesswork out of a project without committing to the full cost upfront. Once the 10 are gone though, that's it, back to normal price.

Full details on the feasibility study itself below - get in touch if you want to grab one of the spots.

20/09/2026

Building 6 of 6: Bit of a windows and doors one for today. Sounds simple enough on paper, but there's more to it than picking a style you like.

Any new or replacement window has to meet a minimum U-value under building regs now - basically a measure of how well it keeps heat in - and needs to be fitted by a FENSA-registered installer, or you'll need to go through building control separately. Doors are covered by similar rules.

If you're in one of Eastbourne's conservation areas though, it can get more complicated. Local authorities can restrict window style, materials and even colour on the front of a property, so what you're technically allowed to fit under building regs and what you're allowed to fit under planning rules aren't always the same thing.

Worth checking both before you order anything, rather than finding out after the van's turned up.

Anyone had a nightmare getting windows approved on an older property? Curious to hear what people have run into.

Address

Chamber House, 49 Gildredge Road
Eastbourne
BN214RY

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5am
Tuesday	9am - 5am
Wednesday	9am - 5am
Thursday	9am - 5am
Friday	9am - 5am

Website

http://www.chartwelldesignandbuild.co.uk/

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