How to Start and Complete a Home Renovation
If you have ever had the experience of entering someone’s professionally designed home, you will have instantly sensed how seamlessly polished and “put together” it feels. While it may look effortless, I can guarantee that there were hundreds (if not thousands) of intentional design decisions behind it all…and it’s nowhere near as quick and simple as those one-hour home renovation shows make it seem.
So, where and how do you start a home renovation? What can you expect during the process?
Today, I’m taking you through each step of how we transform your goals for your home into a place you love and feel proud to share. The first step is understanding how the design renovation process works. The second is making it as enjoyable and peace-inducing as possible by letting us guide you through it! Come take a look…
P.S. Be sure to check out one of my favorite trade partners and wholesale suppliers, Prosource, featured at the end of this post. If you’re at the beginning stages of renovating your home, you’ll definitely want to look into them, especially if you’re making design decisions on your own.
Step 1: Set Your Vision
It all begins here. “Vision” means taking a look at your home and making a real assessment of how it fits with your current lifestyle. Be honest with yourself and your family, and consider what’s working and what isn’t.
For example, maybe the layout and furniture in the living room were perfect years ago when the kiddos were little, but maybe now that the kids are a bit older, you’re ready for something more updated and refined. Or, maybe you’re working from home more frequently now, and the dining room just isn’t cutting it as an office. You be the judge.
Once you’ve decided what you like and dislike about your home, it’s time to think about what you really want to and prioritize! What are the most important updates that would help your family? If your mudroom is functional, but you’ve been dying for your dream kitchen for years, then go ahead and put that kitchen at the top! Then, make your final wishlist of amenities and features you’d like included in your new design.
Finally, pull everything from this step together into one place. Create a Pinterest board, a shared photo album, or even a file folder for magazine pages, and add your inspiration pictures to it. Get your family members on board, too! Together, all decision-makers should collaborate on this visual representation of your vision.
Be sure to get clear on your desired overall investment as well. In Step 2, we’ll compare the numbers to your wishlist to decide how best to allocate your funds to various aspects of your project. Smart.
So, to recap Step 1:
Identify what you like and dislike about your current home
Set your biggest goals for overall updates and prioritize them (e.g. a more functional kitchen layout)
Create a wishlist of features and amenities (custom built-ins, open shelving, etc.)
Use Pinterest to organize and visualize your goals, define your style, and get inspired!
Get clear on your desired overall investment
Step 2: Consult with a Designer
This is where I come in (and I can’t wait to meet you!). From here on out, our work together will be a partnership. In our initial consultation, I’ll get to know you, your family, your lifestyle, and everything that’s crucial in order for us to make the best design decisions for you and your home.
We’ll go through your goals together carefully, talk about your style, and ask questions about how you use the space. It can sometimes be easy to get stuck on problem areas in your home, but keep in mind that our approach is not one-size-fits-all. I’ll be there to help you come up with creative solutions — some of which you may never have considered before! Keep an open mind and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the potential of your home to meet your needs…even if it’s fallen short so far.
Rounding out Step 2 is an Action Plan (I can hear your sigh of satisfaction, my Type-A friends!). I’ll take a comprehensive look at everything we’ve discussed and create a unique plan for moving your project forward.
Step 3: Make Design Selections
The step we’ve all been waiting for, am I right? This is definitely a fun part of the process, but it can also feel like you’re floating in a sea of millions of options without guidance…unless you’re working with us, that is!
The benefit of working with us is that you don’t have to sift through thousands of options. We do that for you, selecting and presenting you with only the best options for your home, aesthetic, investment, and lifestyle. We select everything from tile to flooring to countertops to paint colors and furnishings.
If you’ve been dreaming of custom features in your home, like built-ins in your living room or a kitchen island with seating for the kids (and all their friends who seem to live at your house), this is when we’ll help design those features, including precise construction documents that your future contractors will be able to use when creating them.
In other words — we design everything you need, present it to you, and make sure it’s perfect before any construction is done or products ordered. That’s how you get designer-level results and a home that fits your family in every single way.
Step 4: Hire Contractors & Renovate
One of the benefits of working with us is that we have a trusted network of contractors whom we can recommend. You won’t have to scour the internet for talented people, make phone calls, and try to generate trust out of thin air. You can rest easy knowing that we already trust them, stand by their level of service, and that we work well as a team together. Done and done!
Note: If you are working through your remodel on your own, I recommend researching and vetting a few contractors before selecting one. Trust me, the time spent on this task upfront will be worth the peace of mind, comfort, and quality of work down the road.
Once your contractors have been enlisted on the team, we’ll share our design selections, plans, and documents to get bids for the scope of the project. This is why it’s so important that we’ve solidified all design selections — your vision is close to becoming real, and we want accurate quotes to compare to your investment goals! But, there’s even more that our design team will do for you during this stage…
We’ll take the reins at this point by overseeing the construction process for you. We’ll be your eyes and ears, ensuring that everything is going according to our design plan. Best of all? You won’t need to be onsite to answer questions or worry about the project schedule.
We also will manage the ordering and delivery of materials so that they are onsite and ready to be installed when the construction begins. This keeps contractors working efficiently so time isn’t wasted and your project is always moving forward. I know designers are infamous for the beautiful spaces we create, but if you ask me, our role in bringing the project to life for you is half the magic.
Step 5: Finishing Touches that Feel Like Home
We often spend so much time thinking about the BIG and obvious parts of a renovation — the living room layout, the wall color in the dining room, the countertops in the kitchen — that it’s easy to get caught up and forget about furnishings! But…let’s say you’ve just put a lot of time, investment, and effort into renovating a few rooms in your house, and then you move all your old furniture back in. It feels like your old home again. Cringe.
If you choose to work with us, this won’t be something you’ll have to worry about. I work with families during both the design and construction stages to help choose and order new furnishings, and blend them with existing favorite, loved pieces. Again, timing comes into play here, and I do everything in my power (pandemic allowing) to ensure furnishings are delivered and installed right when construction wraps up, so you have a brand new home that’s ready for you to move in.
P.S. This is the exact process we used for our recent Platwood Remodel! You can see how the furnishings were an important part of our overall design in creating an outdoorsy yet elevated and comfortable space.
Welcome to Your Amazing New Home
Can you picture it? Breezing through dinner prep in your kitchen after work, thanks to your new, more functional layout? Curling up with a hot cup of coffee on your cozy new chair in the bright corner of your freshly updated living room? Design changes enhance your current lifestyle, and they bring you closer to how you want to live, too. That’s the real beauty of design.
No matter how big or small, breaking a renovation into manageable pieces really does simplify the process and results in a final product that is cohesive and worthy of your time and energy.
If you’re considering an update to your home, I hope this was not only informative, but also inspiring — you can do it! If you’d like an experienced guide throughout the process, you’ve come to the right place. Contact me here and let’s talk about bringing your vision for your home to life!
