Tips for Planning and Budgeting
Taking on a renovation project is an opportunity to create a home that suits you and your lifestyle perfectly.
It’s exciting, nerve wracking, at times stressful but as everyone will tell you, it’s rewarding when you see your vision come to life.
Before all of that there’s some steps you could choose to follow that will help you make decisions, save money and give you clarity. Using experience from developing my own homes and those of clients, I’ll share my top steps and tips.
1. Firstly, before you do anything you need to get to know your property like the back of your hand.
I know it will be ugly, cold, unsettling and maybe even have furry tenants but as the well known song says…fools rush in. So take a little time. Where’s the light? Are there any dark or cold areas? What views are you missing out on? What works in the route you take through rooms? What doesn’t work for your lifestyle?
2. Next, identify how you want to live and feel in your home right now, in a year and in five years. If it’s your forever home, think beyond that too. By doing so you’ll begin to create priorities. The non-negotiables in your brief. For example, do you need a space to work from home? A room for children or elderly relatives? Would you rather sleep at the front or the back of the house? When you’re taking time off work where do you see yourself? What will you be doing? How do you want to feel in each room?
3. With knowledge of your house before any changes, and your dream lifestyle clarified, you’ll be able to identify the pain points. In turn you’ll be able to write your brief for the project. For example: the spare room size/layout doesn’t allow for adequate furniture, therefore the window needs moving and the fitted wardrobe needs removing to allow for a more appropriate size and shaped room.
4. After your brief has been determined you can begin to play with the floorplan and consider if the footprint needs to increase to fulfil what you need. This isn’t always required, sometimes minor structural changes and a flexible approach to room purpose can make the difference you need. For some advice on reconfiguring your floor plan you can read a previous blog: How to Start Designing Your Home
5. You’ve possibly started spotting pictures of homes you like in magazines, on Pinterest and Instagram. If you haven’t created an organised way to refer back to your inspiration now is the time to do it. Create a Pinterest board with sections for each room, save images to a folder on your camera roll and create collection folders on Instagram for saved posts. These are all effective ways to collate your inspiration (which you will need to keep you going through the stressful and super ugly times), but my favourite way to catalogue what I’m working towards is to have a huge pin board up on the wall where I can look at it every day. An in your face reminder of why you’re doing this. I actually have four pin boards taking up a whole wall in my creative space, currently one for ‘Kitchen’, ’Living Diner’, ‘Master Suite’ and ‘Outside’. You’ll begin by saving loads of images, revisit your folders/boards weekly to refine what you really like until you have your style crystal clear.
6. If you’re feeling creative you can make mood boards to bring together the look and feel of each room. Note the later, keep returning to the way you want to feel in a room. That way you’ll move away from trends that you like because you’ve seen it look fabulous in someone else's home and instead get closer to what suits you. Take a look at One Method to Moodboard to get started.
7. With these steps taken to solidify what you love and need you can confidently approach architects (if needed). You’ll be able to share what you’ve learnt about the property so far, write a brief of your non-negotiables and be able to explain how you want to live in your new home.
8. If you’re intending to be supported by a garden designer or interior designer now is the time to build the team. It’s far better to have everyone on the same page, at the same time to maximize the potential.
9. As you combine your brief, proposed floor plans, your catalogue of inspiration and mood boards, remember to share it all with your architect. Nobody is a mind reader and the easiest way for them to present you with what you need is to know you really well. That way the plans they propose will be tailored to your very requirements.
10. Finally let’s get down to specifics. You’ve done the leg work, research and scheming and my final step to be prepared for project kick off is to create an organised reference system for every single ‘thing’ you will need to bring together your new home. Costing your project is perhaps the scariest part, it’s rare to have enough money in the pot so a full picture of what it’s really going to cost can help you to plan your timeline and set your expectations. I use a detailed spreadsheet (I used to hate the things), which sets out everything needed for each room. Leaving me feeling more equipped to move forward knowing I’ve thought everything through and can handle those renovation surprises without a severe case of decision fatigue. If you’d like to get a copy of the spreadsheet for your planning and budgeting you should (if I’ve done this correctly), be able to download it from this blog.
P.S. If you need any help at all, please message me with your design dilemma.
