Five Things You Need Before You Redesign Your House

It’s June and with that comes beautiful weather, outdoor living, and more time with the family. It’s also typically around this time and over the summer months that we start getting inquiries from clients who want to start planning for fall projects. But this year, nothing is typical. With so much time at home over the last few months, we’ve found that a lot of our clients have already accumulated a long list of changes, updates, and wishlist items for their home. But if you’re not quite ready to take action, there are a lot of steps you can take to get ready.

So before you begin, here are five things you can do before you take on the project of redesigning your home:

Assess the situation

The first step of any project is to assess things. Ask yourself questions like you would if you were asking a friend about their current home renovation. What is the objective? What do you wish to see that you don’t currently have? What is your budget? When we conduct consultations, we gather as much information as possible in order for us to begin your project. We want to understand what the goals and wishes are so that we can design a space that is customized specifically for you and your lifestyle.

Find inspiration

Knowing what you like is a large part of getting where you want to go. We often hear how a client wants a room to function but quite often they can’t explain how it should look. Or they say “I know what I don’t like!” Take some time to flip through magazines, scroll Instagram and Pinterest and see what type of designs you tend to gravitate towards. We always request our clients provide us with at least a few images so that we can have a visual dialogue started with them. We want to avoid the old “You say to-MAY-toe, I say to-MAH-toe” game!

Make a plan

How many times have you begun something only to stop shortly thereafter because you didn’t plan? We’ve all done it. In fact, designers are their own worst enemies when it comes to planning their OWN projects beforehand! But for clients, after we’ve assessed the situation, we make a plan for the project. We take all the notes, photos, measurements and budget considerations we’ve documented and we plot it out to give us a plan on how to execute the project effectively and efficiently…BEFORE the work begins! 

 Winston Churchill said it first… “He who fails to plan is planning to fail.” Preach, Winston, preach.

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Edit and commit

Take out the stuff you don’t absolutely LOVE and the stuff that you can live without because it doesn’t fit in the budget and see what you’re left with. Make sure you’re left with all of the things you need to complete the project successfully and that you’ve checked all the boxes like function, beauty, durability, etc. 

And then… STOP LOOKING AT THE WORLD AROUND YOU. Or at least stop looking at Pinterest or Instagram, stop asking your mother-in-law for input and stop debating every choice you made. At some point you just have to commit. 

Gather samples

Get as many bits and pieces of the project gathered that you can and lay it out together. We often hear from clients that they just kept buying stuff and then suddenly realized nothing looked good together! We always put all the materials and images together to see how everything works beside each other and to make sure the house flows. Buying one thing here and one thing there and hoping it all magically works is a surefire way to regret your very existence. Well, maybe not that dramatic but it will make you unhappy in your home. 

However, I will add that your very first step before even taking a breath in the morning or closing your eyes at night should be to call us. We are experts at successfully executing projects with our creative vision and kick ass project management skills. We can guide you through a new build, renovation or redesign of your home smoothly and seamlessly because we’ve developed a step by step process to get you there on time and on budget.

All you have to do is pick up the phone… and start scrolling through Pinterest!

At Stephanie Charest Interior Design we love to help you create a beautiful home so you can live a beautiful life.

If you need help with a project, please get in touch! Contact us at 403-818-2283