Our Home Renovation Secrets You Never Knew
Are You Making These Home Renovation Mistakes?
Recently I shared on Instagram our home renovation. This post contains the same images with bonus material about our home renovation secrets you never knew. In addition to what you read if you follow me on Instagram, I start off with the 6 Biggest Home Renovation Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid. Not only that, I conclude with the 6 Best Things About Our Renovation. I hope you enjoy this look at our home project.
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Topics
Mistakes To Avoid: Learn from Us
1.Hiring the contractor from h___.
Avoid hiring a contractor with a personality that clashes with yours. While I did meet the contractors, my husband insisted on taking charge of hiring. We didn’t exactly agree on who to hire, and in hindsight, I should have insisted that we continue to interview. This holds especially true if you plan to live in your home during the renovation. Remember, the contractor and his crew will be in your home 8 hours a day or more, 5 days a week, for months on end. Both of you have to get along with the contractor. Take the time to find someone that is trustworthy and has a personality that you will be able to handle.
2.Skimping to save money
Avoid skimping to save money. There were items that I planned to have in our renovation that my husband vetoed in order to save money. We are now having to go back and fix those “mistakes.” One of the mistakes and only having one lighting fixture over our large kitchen island. If you are in doubt, consult a designer such as myself.
3. Doing what is most convenient
Avoid doing things only out of convenience. I caught the contractors several times before they did what was most convenient for them. (Our first renovation I made the contractors re-do the ceiling they put in because they made it too low.) I am weaker when it comes to my husband. You’ll see below that I allowed him to arrange the living room furniture in the way that he believed was most convenient for him, however it doesn’t work for the room. The TV blocks our large picture window.
4.Starting with paint color
Avoid the mistake of picking the paint color first. When it comes to decorating to complete the renovation, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to start with the paint color. Since I wanted my husband to be happy in our home, when he asked to pick out the “den” paint color I said yes. However, I should have asked him to wait until we had decided on all the decor and furnishings for the room first. It’s much easier to pick a paint color based on the co-ordinated decor plan than to force decor to fit a paint color. If you need help coming up with a paint scheme for your home, inquire about my online design package for this service.
5. Neglecting curb appeal
Avoid neglecting curb appeal. It’s about 4 years since our renovation, and we are still working on our curb appeal to get it back to half of where it was pre-renovation. We had lived in this home for 14 years, so our front landscaping had bushes, hydrangeas, and flowers. Neither of us have green thumbs. The first year, my husband just concentrated on growing the grass back. The second year the plants did not take (our front is all shaded). Last year, we decided to try hydrangeas again. We had them in early, and all was going well. Then the drought happened, and we went away for a week for a wedding on the North Atlantic coast. When we returned, the hydrangeas were a shriveled mess. I managed to bring a bit of life back before the end of the growing season, so time will only tell if the hydrangeas will bloom this year or not.
6. Lack of communication about expectations
Avoid not communicating to each other about your expectations for the end result. As a designer, I took it for granted that my husband would let me finish decorating once our renovation was complete. However, he was so stressed from the whole project. When the contractors swept up, and our furniture was in place, my husband wanted to think nothing more about our home for at least a year. Granted, we did purchase some new furniture, however, my vision was not complete. We had not communicated our expectations for the end result. His expectation was to be rid of stress, and my expectation was to add the polishing touches. If you think at the end of this blog post that I let my husband get his way too often, let me tell you what he told me. “I just gave you the $(insert cost of renovation) that you wanted.”
The Renovation: Kitchen Concept Board
When we renovated our home several years ago, I had yet to re-enter the design field. I had never put together a digital concept board together before. This concept board was just for our personal use, so it's not fancy. Still, it shows that we (I) intended to use copper accents on our painted blue cabinets (white uppers), the counter, and the backsplash, as well as the chandelier. Our significant disagreement was whether to use one or two crystal chandeliers. Finally, I let my husband win that argument, going with one chandelier over the island. I absolutely regret that decision. Since then, he's almost come around to changing it to two, and of course, now I am ready to change the light fixtures altogether.
Countertops
Everyone who comes into our home thinks our countertops are marble. Back in 2016, when we renovated our kitchen, I researched my options for countertops extensively. While I love the look of marble, it stains and is soft, so we went to the showroom @rockymountaingranitemarble looking for a quartzite, and 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐳𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞.💖
We kept looking, however, and just kept coming back to this because we loved it so much. If you want a NATURAL surface, quartzite is the most resistant. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘻 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘴, which are "man-made, engineered countertops made of 90% ground quartz (a natural hard mineral) with 8-10% resins, polymers, and pigments." -(kitchn.com) Quartzite, on the other hand, is taken right out of the side of the mountain. It begins as sandstone and undergoes a natural transformation while deeply buried. If you want to know about the process, look up Quartzite on Wikipedia.
𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘇𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗲: ✨It resists UV radiation, keeping its color like on the first day. ✨ The surface of this Natural Stone from Quartzite resists high temperatures.✨With its low porosity, this material is stain-resistant and boasts anti-graffiti properties. (It does need to be sealed.) Now, if the cost is a prohibit-er, you can find several marble-looking laminate options for your countertops as a super budget-friendly option.
Backsplash
One of the favorite features in my kitchen is our backsplash. It is Mother of Pearl herringbone backsplash. I had to plead with the contractor to install it the correct way, as he wanted to run it sideways because it was going to be easier for him! 😡 (My husband insisted we use this contractor.) It's a good thing that design school, and my design background has taught me to have a backbone when it comes to dealing with contractors. As interior design professionals, we sometimes have to ask them to do things over if not done correctly. My husband can't believe I have no qualms about it! Just a day in the life of the designer.
Updates - Refresh: New Counter Stools Planned
These are the custom counter stools I would love to get for our kitchen island. You'll see when I reveal the new color scheme below that they go perfectly with what I have in mind. These chairs have a weight capacity of 400 lbs., just in case!
Renovation: Applique Mouldings on Cabinets
This is the part of the sketch I created to sell my husband on the idea of adding appliques to our kitchen cabinets after we had them painted during our renovation.
On the quick drawing I made, I have titled it so you can better visualize what I am talking about. (Now the *whole* sketch was the full elevation of our kitchen wall, not just these two cabinets. I cropped it for interest.) ⠀⠀⠀⠀
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This is drawn as if we are standing in front of the sink, looking at it straight on. The sink faucet is at the top. Below the counter are two drawers with pulls (those are the half-moon shapes), and then the cabinets with knobs. You can see my intent to have a circle type applique (which is the wreath), and a swag applique above. The drawing also shows two "drops," but it turns out that the design didn't need them. A few of the cupboards were too narrow to have the drops fit while keeping consistent spacing.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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You can find these online, Etsy, eBay, or I can help you select appliques as well. Below is an image of similar mouldings to the ones that I used.
(Or if you are super crafty, you can make them yourself with #iodmoulds from my friends at Iron Orchid Designs.)
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They are made of resin and adhered to the cabinet. First, the cabinet door is painted, then you paint the appliques before attaching them. It's much easier to get all the little nooks and crannies that way.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I chose not to put appliques on every single door, to give the eye somewhere to rest. Drawing it out helped tremendously to figure out which cupboards/cabinets they would go on.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Renovation: Living Room Gallery Wall Concept Board
Concept boards are a critical stage in the design process to show clients the vision of the design. Here is the concept board I created back in 2016 for our home renovation. I was making sure that the gallery wall would look good with our sofa, and with another large painting in the room. I remember asking my sister's opinion, and she said that she'd love to use the photo art of the dock in her office. Sorry, Dana! @dm_gowiththe_flo The painting above it reminds us of the shore of our beach, and overall, we just love every piece on this wall.
I am planning many changes to this living room, beginning with a new floor plan. Following the renovation, I grew tired of arguing with my husband about where the furniture was going to go. If it was a client that would be different, I could be professional and persuasive. However, in our own home, with my own husband, it's much more personal, and for our marriage, some battles aren't worth it. Since 2016, when this photo was taken, my husband has come around to allowing me to change the furniture around, and doing my thing! You can see the changes that were made during the renovation. The entrance to our home changed (behind the wall with the guitars on it). Instead of to the far left, the front door is now in the middle. That wall with the guitars, then coat closet, and the wall diving the living room and kitchen are all removed for the open floor plan. It had been a dream of mine since we moved here in 2002. The new changes coming are basically a refresh: new rugs, new pillows, furniture rearrangement, new counter stools (most likely upholstered), new chandeliers, new end tables, new console tables, and possibly new window treatments. Maybe even some wallpaper!
This photo was taken before the gallery wall was installed over the sofa.
Look above at the “before” shot. You’ll see that behind the guitar wall is the entrance to our home with the coat closet. The photo below shows our new entry and coat closet in the center of our home.
Even though this is an older photo (below), our living room hasn't changed much except for the wall art. Since our front wall (the wall on your left), is the longest one in our living room, my husband insisted that he put his "gigantic" speakers on that wall. With the TV in the middle obviously. It's tough to argue with a musician over the need to have massive speakers. As I said previously, one needs to pick their battles in marriage, and I've found that if I wait long enough, my husband usually comes around to my side. He's now ready to allow me to change this floor-plan. I can't stand having our TV in front of our picture window! 😕 (Who does that?) 𝐈 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭-𝐢𝐧𝐬 on the wall where the loveseat is currently, which can house/hide his speakers with perforated panels to allow sound to come through. The bookshelves of the built-in will have a dark wood backing to tie in the chocolate leather sofa. I envision a much larger area rug in blue. I wish to place the couch where the blue chair is, bring in our second blue chair from another room, and both go where the sofa is, or get new chairs altogether, and put both the blue chairs in another place. The loveseat moves to where the TV is now, with a console table behind it. Next is the new refresh concept board, a new floor plan, and a 3D rendering of how it will come together.
Updates - Refresh: Concept Board
Here is the 2020 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡 concept of our living room/ dining room, and a bit in our kitchen as well. 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐭, although I might get white sofa/loveseat covers for when company comes over, just because I like the look of the white vs. the brown leather. 𝐈'𝐦 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭-𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 on one wall with a dark wood inset to tie in the brown leather, and also the dark wood dining room pieces we currently have. I am hoping to have some of the pieces painted, part white/part exposed wood, as a compromise because my husband loves the wood. Our dining chairs are pretty good, and so I plan to get white slipcovers made from Etsy to go over them, as shown in this concept board. This also shows a new dining table, however, I'm torn whether to get a new one or just keep the one we have. I could go either way. 𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐬, 𝐰𝐞'𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝/𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 custom 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬, new 𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 over the island, 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐬 for the dining table, modern dining 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐫s, custom 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬//𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 with the green/white pagoda fabric (swatch pictured), new natural woven wood 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬, new 𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐫𝐮𝐠, new 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐫𝐮𝐠, new 𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬, new 𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, new 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬, new floor and table 𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐬, new 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤, new 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬, and also a new 𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 on the kitchen/hallway wall (shown under the LR rug.) Of course, I'll need new decor 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 such as the blue vases to go on the coffee table and in the bookcase. I showed this to my husband, and he lit up and said, "It's pretty!" I wasn't sure he'd go for the pink. I believe all he has to do is see how well it looks altogether, and he's onboard.
Refresh: New Floor Plan
Above is the new floor plan for our open floor plan: kitchen, living room, and dining room. The furniture arrangement for the living room (in the upper right) has changed from what it is currently.
2020 Refresh: 3D Rendering
Dreaming of changing up our living room with built-in bookcases! Maybe even an electric fireplace? I'm undecided on whether to use our blue armchairs or go with new chairs, as shown in this 3D render. I'm planning on putting a small desk instead of a console behind the sofa. I do like to work in the living room on my laptop to be where all the action is. My office is secluded in the back of our home, which is good, however, sometimes I get lonely. LOL
Renovation: Before/After Main Bath
Our home renovation included updating the main bathroom in our home. New flooring, new vanity, new toilet, new jacuzzi bathtub, new lighting, new paint. We (our contractors) removed the tile on the wall and replaced it with bead-board. We removed the mirror on the medicine cabinet. We replaced it with a vintage frame we found at a flea market. We had a new mirror installed inside. My husband and the contractors found a way to attach it to the old medicine cabinet. In my ideal world, I'd have the whole upper wall mirrored!
Renovation: “Den” Concept Board
While we were renovating our home, we decided to also take down a wall between our home office and dining room to make one large "den." (I don’t know why we call it a “den,” one of us started calling it that, and it stuck!) The dining room was being moved to the front of the house. This concept board was created to use re-use our sofa in this new den. My husband wanted this green paint color, although, in real life, the color is much more subdued than I have here on this concept board.
While I was happy to have a dining room in my home to entertain with, the location was quite awkward and didn't make any sense to me. When we renovated our garage into a master bedroom a long time ago, the former master bedroom became a dining room. We had to walk from the kitchen to the back of the house to go to the dining room. It wasn't a huge deal, yet it rubbed me the wrong way. I waited a long time, but eventually, we were able to start the renovations in 201𝟔. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 "𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦," 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞 "𝐝𝐞𝐧." 𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐧 that comes in during the morning. In our next phase of decorating, I want to put in a sectional to replace the sofa and loveseat, and finally decide on a color for the barn door. Also, the rug is too small for the space, so that needs to be replaced.
Renovation: Before/After Exterior Deck
Ok, so the cheesy palm trees I finally convinced my husband to toss after our renovation! LOL We are loving all the space on our new deck for entertaining. The room that leads out onto the deck is the new “den.” You can see in the before the small window in the “dining room” that was originally the master bedroom. In fact, I’m sitting in here right now, enjoying all the sunlight that spills into this room from the two sliding glass windows. My only regret is not holding out for french doors. We did just have the one sliding glass door replaced not long before we even decided to renovate, so it was only practical to put in a matching one on the other side. Maybe in another 10 or fifteen years, I’ll get my french doors! I can’t wait for the warm weather to show you the deck all spiffed up with our outdoor furnishings.
Best Things About Our Renovation:
1.Open floor plan
Our home is functional now where is once was a bunch of cut-up rooms that no longer made any sense in the way that we were using them. It’s just the two of us, so we love it for entertaining. An open floor plan isn’t for everyone though, especially for families during #lockdown. An open floor plan doesn’t allow for places to escape.
2.Our countertops
As I outlined above, our quartzite countertops are much more practical than marble yet look just as beautiful.
3. Our backsplash
Our backsplash isn’t a style that has been overdone. It’s one that we both fell in love with, and still love to this day.
4.Painted kitchen cabinets
Our wood cabinets were not old, so we chose to paint them, and embellish them with resin appliques. This was significant savings over installing brand new cabinetry.
5.Wood floor throughout
The vinyl floor in the kitchen was replaced with the same wood in the rest of our home. Having the same wood flooring throughout allows the house to feel roomier. The more types of flooring you have, you visually cut up the space, visually making it feel smaller.
6. Additional square feet
By bumping out our front wall and the kitchen wall, we added about 500 square feet. This includes a small second three-piece bathroom not pictured above added to the master bedroom.