Committed home renovators David and Andrew Harrison-Colley (better known on Instagram as The Home Boys) are part of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing their thoughts on making a home together and living through the tricky parts. See the rest of their articles here.
Nothing will test your patience quite like living in a house that has rooms which are 95% done. The skirting boards are leaning against the wall. The paint samples are still taped up. And that one kitchen drawer? Handleless. For three months and counting.
There’s a particular kind of chaos that comes from living in a half-finished home. It’s not the obvious kind - not rubble and plaster dust (although there’s plenty of that too) - but the quieter frustration of walking into a room that’s almost there, day after day, and never quite getting round to that final push.
The domino effect of one finished space
When we finally wrapped up our shower room - pictures hung, door architraves on and painted, skirting boards finally in place - we couldn’t believe how much lighter we felt walking past the door. It made the rest of the house (still very much in progress) feel a little less overwhelming.
Finishing a room, start to finish, closes a chapter. It clears a bit of mental space. You’re not constantly thinking “we still need to…” or “don’t forget the…”. And it shifts your energy towards what’s next, instead of what’s still nagging at you.
We hadn’t realised how much that unfinished shower room was hanging over us. But once it was done, we found ourselves diving back into the kitchen with a lot more focus (and fewer emotional meltdowns).
It also made us realise something else: finishing a room doesn’t have to mean doing everything. Sometimes, it just takes a few small jobs to tip a space from “work in progress” to “actually feels nice to be in here.”
Unfinished rooms breed quiet resentment
When you’ve been staring at the same unpainted door frame for six months, it becomes less of a to-do list item and more of a personal attack. We joke - but also, not really.
One of the biggest boosts of finishing a room is that it lets you stop resenting it. Because those last 5% jobs? They’re never glamorous. They’re fiddly, boring, often low-priority - until they start quietly driving you mad.
A finished room, even a small one, gives you something to feel good about. It says: hey, we got something over the line. And that’s worth celebrating.
It’s never “just” a small job
We’re very good at saying things like “we’ll just hang the mirror at the weekend” or “it’ll only take five minutes to grout that last bit in the corner.” Lies. These are lies.
Those finishing jobs always take longer than you think - and half the time, the tools you need are buried under a pile of, well, other tools in the garage.
But here’s the thing: when you do finally hang the mirror (even if it took a few attempts to get it level), it transforms the space. That’s the magic of the last 5% - the difference between a functional room and one that feels intentional.
We had a similar moment in our guest bedroom. Everything was technically finished - walls painted, bed in, curtains up - but it still didn’t feel right. It wasn’t until we added a rug and finally hung the vintage prints we’d had stashed under the bed for months that the room suddenly felt done. The radiator hasn’t been fitted yet, but we’ll call that a 2026 problem!
Finish line fixes
Here are a few small jobs that can instantly make a room feel more ‘done’:
- Swap bare bulbs for actual light fittings
- Caulk the gaps - around windows, stairs, skirting boards - anything that’s feeling unfinished.
- Hang the curtains or blinds (and hem them if needed!)
- Touch up scuffed paintwork (you don’t need to repaint the whole wall)
- Put up a piece of art or a mirror
Done doesn’t mean perfect
We used to think we had to get everything just right before calling a room finished. These days, we’re much more relaxed. Done, for us, means “working, comfortable, and doesn’t stress us out anymore”.
Maybe the walls still need a final coat, or the perfect wall light hasn’t been found yet. But if the space makes sense, feels calm, and can be lived in properly? That’s good enough.
A room to breathe
So if you’re deep in the messy middle and feeling stuck, here’s our advice: pick one room.
Finish it completely - whatever that means for you. Style it. Use it. Light a candle and sit in it with a brew (or something stronger). Let it remind you why you started.
Sometimes, finishing a room isn’t about showing it off. It’s about giving yourself a space to breathe - even if the rest of the house is still chaos.
And then, when you’re ready… roll up your sleeves and start all over again.
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