There’s a lot that can go wrong during a renovation. But a lot of renovation mistakes can be easily avoided. Watch out for these four things the next time you do a renovation on your home.
1. Ignoring the style of your home. When it comes to a home’s aesthetics, you have quite a bit of room to play. But putting a super modern kitchen in a little brick cottage or adding a farmhouse chic look to a slick modern townhouse will give any visitors (or buyers down the line) design whiplash. Go wild with design, but make sure it matches the key elements of your home.
2. Putting aesthetics above functionality. Listen, I love a beautifully designed home as much as anyone, but sometimes a cool design is just not worth the sacrifice in functionality. When you’re planning your design, make sure that it both looks good and is usable.
3. Making the kitchen too trendy. We are having a moment with blue and green cabinetry right now, and I love it! But at the same time, I know this trend isn’t going to last more than a couple of years. And that means there will be a lot of cabinet repainting to be done. When you’re renovating a kitchen, or any area, keep the bones timeless and add in trendy details that are easy to change.
4. Going with the cheapest option all the time. There are certain things that are worth spending money on, and a good contractor is one of those. Unfortunately, good contractors are usually not the cheapest. (Pro tip: I have some awesome contractors that I know do great work. Let me know if you want a connection!) Along with investing in a good contractor, you’ll want to avoid buying the cheapest materials for the job, especially if you’re renovating an area that will get a lot of use like a kitchen or bathroom.
A successful renovation should strike a balance between cheap and good quality, trendy and timeless, usable and pretty. And if you avoid these renovation mistakes, you’re sure to have a great experience that brings value to your home.
