Common Renovating Mistakes

Avoid making these Renovation Mistakes

Over the years we have worked on a wide variety of projects and have gained a thorough understanding of how to best execute a renovation. Here are just some of the most common mistakes people make when undergoing a renovation.

Budgeting

One of the most crucial things to tick off your list before you’ve even started renovating is to establish a solid budget. Without a budget, it’s very easy to go overboard, which can mean you get stuck with unexpected costs in the end. Setting a budget helps everyone involved in the process as we can work to it and help you make decisions that best fit within the budget.

 

Existing issues

A renovation is a great way of fixing any issues that may have popped up over the years. However, many people may ignore these issues or not even know they exist. If they aren’t addressed during the renovation stage, it could become worse, potentially becoming more costly and ruining the efforts made during the renovation. 

 

Using a Friend

We all have a friend or friend of a friend who knows how to do the job, but this can be risky. Unless they are a professional, we strongly advise against recruiting a friend to do the job. Things can become awkward when it comes to organising payment and timeframes. It’s easier to establish expectations with a hired professional.

 

 

DIY

It can be tempting to undertake some of the work yourself in order to save money, however, it is often the “easy” jobs that people choose to do themselves. We say “easy” because more often than not, it’s these jobs that require plenty of skill and expertise, such as painting the walls or installing shelving. There’s nothing worse than completing a renovation and stepping back to realise that the paint is streaky or a shelf is uneven. So it’s best to leave it to the professionals and save money on other aspects.

 

The Existing Home

People often rush to renovate the entire home and assume that because the paint is crumbling that the whole wall must go. It’s important to properly examine your home and find out what can be incorporated into the renovation, sometimes this can mean reusing elements that get knocked down, or perhaps a simple rearrangement can solve any problems. It’s great to be able to work with the existing home rather than against it. 

 

Trends 

One of the most common mistakes we see people making is the following of trends. It’s all well and good to incorporate trendy elements into a renovation, however, basing an entire makeover on a trend can lead to the home dating quickly and needing another renovation. We recommend making classic and timeless construction decisions and focus on making flexible elements more trendy, such as furniture, art work or colour schemes.

 

Appliances 

Appliances may seem like something to be decided on towards the end of the project, however, if you ended up finding a stove or oven that you love and is perfect for you, it’s possible that the measurements might not add up to what has been placed in the kitchen. So it’s crucial to get these larger appliances picked early so you can have a made-to-measure kitchen filled with your dream appliances.

 

Unrealistic Expectations

Just because that interior designer has an incredible home on Instagram, doesn’t mean that the same results can be achieved on your home. Things like budget, the original home and available materials, will all affect the results of your renovation. So make sure you set realistic expectations for your renovation. We can help you do so by discussing all options for your renovation project, plus we can show you examples from our previous projects to help you gauge our skillset. 

Comments are closed.