HomeNotes co-founder Jane Middlehurst, spent years of her career identifying and understanding the problem upon which her startup - currently part of the Cooper Project - is based.

As a residential architect, Jane has helped many homeowners navigate complex renovation and custom-build projects. Along the way, she’s repeatedly encountered the same challenge: critical design decisions often being made long before anyone had a clear understanding of the costs involved. She comments,

“I’ve spent years working closely with homeowners, consultants and contractors, gaining first-hand insight into the challenges of budgeting, specification and project coordination within the renovation industry.”

Those insights eventually became the foundation for HomeNotes, the renovation planning and specification platform Jane co-founded with Amy Dohnalek, also an architect.

Being immersed in the world of design, construction and client management gave Jane a detailed understanding of the pressures facing both homeowners and small architecture practices. Renovation projects involve making many important and connected decisions, based on fragmented information.

As Jane explains, “homeowners are expected to make hundreds of interconnected decisions across construction, finishes, sustainability upgrades, consultants and procurement, often using disconnected tools like spreadsheets, Pinterest boards, emails and notes apps.”

The result is often uncertainty, duplicated work and costly surprises later in the process. For small design practices, the administrative burden can be equally challenging, with project documentation, compliance requirements and client communication taking up increasing amounts of time.

Jane and her cofounder began thinking about how these frustrations could be addressed through better systems and better access to information.

Alongside her architectural practice, she has taught architecture at university level and developed a growing interest in how technology can support decision-making within the built environment.

“My work increasingly sits at the intersection of architecture, technology and systems design,” she says.

It was this combination of broad expertise and thinking that shaped the development of HomeNotes.

The platform brings budgeting, product selection, project documentation and cost tracking together in a single workflow. Users can define project scope, generate realistic early-stage budgets, build specifications using real products and keep track of decisions throughout a renovation project.

“By structuring decisions earlier in the process, HomeNotes helps reduce budget uncertainty, improve communication and create clearer documentation for procurement and construction.”

The approach is already gaining recognition. In 2024, HomeNotes won a £50,000 Innovate UK Creative Catalyst Grant, supporting the development of the platform and validation of its approach. The company is now in the process of securing further grant-funding, which will enable Jane to focus full-time on growing the business, accelerating the next stage of growth and steering it towards the duo’s wider ambition.

“Our long-term vision is to become the central source of truth for residential renovation projects - connecting design decisions, cost data and sustainability insights in a way that makes complex projects easier to manage and deliver.”

It's a vision built on deep sector knowledge rather than assumptions. By drawing directly on the realities faced by small residential design practices and home renovators, Jane and Amy are creating tools designed around genuine industry and consumer needs.

You can find out more about Homenotes on the website, Instagram and LinkedIn, where you can also connect with its founders, Jane Middlehurst and Amy Dohnalek.