So you have finally found the house of your dreams which, while it needs a bit of work, you can see the vision and how it is all going to come together. But where do you start? Do you move in and live there while renovating or impose on those welcoming (albeit slighting frustrating) family members who have offered a place to stay in the interim? Which room do you start in? There is so much to consider so here are a couple of helpful tips for planning for your renovation and how to make some of those big decisions.

Now budgeting can be extremely difficult when it comes to renovating a home because often they will come with some nice (and not so nice) surprises. This could be in the form of hidden mould, rotten floorboards or (if you are lucky) hidden gens such as hardwood flooring underneath carpet. Often your budget needs to be flexible as you work through the house. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that budgeting is futile- quite the opposite!

It is still worthwhile planning your intentions and getting quotes for each service you intend to use during the process to give you a rough idea. It is worthwhile however reviewing the budget regularly and adjusting as necessary. You can categorise your intentions into levels of priority and that way if you need to cut the budget because of a blowout- it’s easy to see where to cut.  

Now this all depends on your specific circumstance and house to be renovated but if you can- live in the space first. This will help the planning process signficantly and allow you to refine what exactly you want from the space. You can figure out what already works, what potential does the place have and what needs to go! Even if you can renovate the bare minimum to make the place liveable before moving in and renovating the rest- will help a tonne!

Another tip you could consider is my husband and I keep a shared list on the notes app of our phone of practical things we want to incorporate in our next house. If there is anything that slightly annoys us or thinking ‘that would have been nice’ we record this so when it comes to planning, we have a better idea of what works for us and what we want to add. 

Now this is probably one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made- not testing paint in different lights. We ended up painting the our first house blue (instead of the grey with blueish tones I was after!). After being nicknamed the Smurf house, I learned my lesson the hard way to not just trust the tiny swatches you get in a paint showroom.

If you’re not prepared to swatch samples on the walls- paint on A4 pieces of paper and move them around the house. Be mindful of what walls get morning sun and afternoon sun and test these colours at different times of the day so you know what they will look like most of the time. Be mindful that different colours will look different depending on how many lights are turned on, with different levels of sunlight and even different coloured bulbs!

For example when renovating people will often ‘paint everything white’ as it’s simple, easy to style and increases resale value (if that is what you are interested in!). This works really well in open plan houses that have a lot of light but if your space doesn’t get a lot of natural light the white will throw more of a grey colour (nothing wrong with that if that’s what you’re after but definitely not light and bright!). Colour choice is a huge step in the planning process so make sure you do it right and are comfortable with your final choice.

Where do you think the best place to start is when it comes to renovating? Have I missed any of your favourite tips? Let me know.