What Should Your Renovation Budget Be? by Calgary Interior Designer

⁠Today's weekly wisdom post is all about dolla dolla bills y'all. ⁠Boodle, Buck, Cheese, Quid. No matter what you call it... you're going to need some dough to make your crib GOAT (okay i'll stop now)!

⁠When we are talking during our initial phone call for us to get to know each other a bit and to review your project objectives, I will ask you what your budget is. G U L P ⁠

⁠You've given me your wish list...now I want to know how much you think that list will cost you. Wanna know what most people say? "I don't know what our budget should be." You don't? Well let me help you then. One million dollars (put your pinky on your lips and do your best Dr. Evil laugh). ⁠Mwahhahahah!

What? You don't have one million? Okay. What do you have? (Please submit last years tax receipt .... haha!) Because I KNOW you have a number in your head. So let’s dial it back… and throw some numbers out. This will always get a reaction out of people and they’ll tell me what number they had in their head.

Why am I doing this on the first phone call before even seeing your house? Because I’ve heard the wish list, now I want to know if your budget expectations line up. Are you envisioning a new Mercedes-Benz GLE63 S 4MATIC+ SUV (cha-ching!) … but you only want to spend what a pre-owned Nissan Micra would cost?

Trust me. If I could create Mercedes GLE63 quality interiors out of a Nissa Micra budget, I’d have one too. We all would.

So how can YOU the client, help your budget expectations line up with reality? You can do some homework. Put your list together, write all out the things you want to accomplish, gather photographs of interiors you love and are attracted to.

As for renovation costs, call some contractors and do some research on line. Some websites will even spit out cost estimates based on the information you input. While this obviously isn’t going to be the exact cost of your renovation, it will help you see what the numbers could be.

To get a sense of new furniture and decor costing, take your list and go online or to a brick and mortar store and look at prices. How much would you spend on a sofa? A rug? A coffee table? Add it all up. Keep in mind, there are other costs involved. Design time, shipping and freight, various labour, artwork, accessories, etc.

Do any of the numbers shock you or is it in line with what you thought it would cost?

We hope this chat about budgets helped you! We always want to give you the best of our abilities to make your home perfect for you so having a realistic and adequate budget is key.

When you are ready for the budget talk and ready for us to make your home beautiful… give us a call, we would love to help!

Contact us for your first phone call at 403-818-2283 or send us an email with the details.

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