5 things you should think about

Before Renovating Your Home

If you love the area you live in but are not as in love with your home, then renovating your home may provide you with the perfect solution. Remodeling your home gives you the opportunity to turn a house which has become tired and outdated into a home which is fresh, vibrant and homely, without the need to move locations.

While renovating a property can be exciting, there are also a number of factors to think about, from creating a viable budget to designing a home which is cost effective to run. If you are considering undertaking your own renovation project, here are five things you should think about before renovating your home.

   1. Knowing your Budget

Knowing your budget is the most important aspect of any large project because you don’t want to find yourself in a difficult financial situation. Before you can even begin your renovations, you need to sit down and look at your finances. Work out how much of your savings you are willing to spend, and decide whether right now is the best time for you to be making big changes in your life.

Not only do you need to account for any unforeseen expenses, such as having to secure parts of the home which become damaged, but you also need a contingency sum to fall back on in case of future money troubles arising. While companies like Bonsai Finance offer instalment loans to cover smaller sums, you don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you have spent thousands over your budget and put yourself into debt.

   2. Basic Design Ideas

Before you can start renovating your home, you need to have a clear design idea, including what you want to get out of your renovation project. Whatever you decide on doing, just make sure that you don’t need to get any further permission to go ahead with your plans, especially for larger projects like extensions. Go through each aspect of your home, and decide what works for you; it’s not just about how your house looks aesthetically, as you also want to consider how it functions ergonomically. For example, if you have children, although you might like a designer staircase with clear glass steps and no handrail, it isn’t particularly safe for younger children, or practical for a family home with high foot traffic.

   3. Repairing, Restoring and Upscaling

When looking around your home, you need to evaluate everything from the ceilings and walls, to the old furniture which fills the rooms. Come up with a system to label and categorize aspects which you want to remove and replace (these will either have to be chucked away, given away or sold), keep and restore, or keep in their current condition. For example, if you have an old roof on your house, you can either decide to completely tear it up and lay a new one or to just patch it up in places where it is particularly damaged. While both are viable options, it is important to take into account the opinions of the experts, as fixing a roof, rather than replacing it, can actually lead to further costs in the long run, if areas are missed, or if older tiles start disturbing the safety of the new ones. 

When it comes to furniture in particular, upscaling can be a great way to turn old items into something which is fit for your new surroundings. For example, if you have basic wooden drawers in your bedroom, painting them and adding some patterned drawer knobs onto the handles can really give the piece a fresh new feel. However, while you might like the idea of upscaling items, rather than replacing them, you need to take finances into account, as sometimes it can be more expensive to restore an item than it would be to just get a new one.

   4. Thinking about External Aesthetics

If you are putting a lot of effort into creating the perfect home inside, then you don’t want the outer appearance of your home to ruin the finished product. Before you start thinking of lots of big design changes which you could make, remember that it is often the simplest changes that make the biggest difference.

For example, if the exterior paint of your home is rain-washed and stained, then simply giving a fresh coat of paint can make the outside of the house seem rejuvenated.

Alternatively, you can easily clad a home for minimal cost, giving the appearance of whatever finish you would like, from tiles to bricks. Another simple change you could make would be landscaping your garden and front lawn, as this will instantly make your home feel cleaner, and adding a driveway gives an element of luxury to any home.  

   5. Making your Home Eco-Friendly and Cost-Effective

When renovating your home, it is a great time to consider making changes to the way in which your home is run, in order to make your house both more environmentally friendly, and cheaper to run. There are several aspects to consider for this, such as choosing to use local and sustainable materials in your building work and décor. You can also make your home less expensive to live in by insulating the walls and loft well, so that heat does not escape from the home during cold weather. In terms of making your home more sustainable, you could consider adding touches such as solar panels, or smart home features. While solar panels can initially be expensive, they will save you money in the long run as you will have to pay less in utility bills.

Plus, adding smart home features, where you can access things such as your heating and lighting remotely, means you have full control over your home, and can cut back on costs (for example, by turning off lights you have accidentally left on after leaving the house). You can also make your finishing touches and décor more environmentally friendly, and help out the local community by going to tradespeople in the immediate community to help you with your renovation, and to source furnishings.

I hope, these 5 tips will help you when it comes to renovating your home, 

Klaudia xx

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