Interior Designing Do's and Don'ts- Larger Refurbishments
Our February Newsletter is the start of the Studio’s blog where I’ll share tips, tricks, inspiration, and the occasional Before & After reveal.
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Warm wishes,
Anouska.x
DO
1. Define your motivations and reasons for the redesign
There are both practical and aesthetic reasons why defining your motivations is a necessary starting point for your project. It’s important to understand what’s behind the desire to make a change. There may be strong practical reasons like a loft conversion for an expanding young family or a kitchen remodel for more space to host family and friends in style. There may aesthetic reasons, like a dated scheme left by the previous owners in your new home. Very often there’s a combination of both reasons and determining these in the refurbishment’s initial phases will spearhead the project so it tackles both sides successfully.
2. Define your appetite for the breadth and scale of the project
How much work would you like to carry out in your home? Are you keen to go all out and do a full renovation, rip out an existing kitchen or bathrooms, or alter internal layouts? Making these significant alterations to your home has implications that need to be considered. If you’re thinking of doing a fair bit of work, you’ll likely have to move out of the property for a set period of time - it could be a few weeks to a few months depending on the scale and which rooms are involved. You may prefer to do things in a more piecemeal way and stagger the project over time for a lighter intervention, or to organise things so that the bulk of the messy work is done over a holiday period when you’ll be away. Really considering the extent of the work you’d like to undertake and the stages the work will move through will help organise the process so that creating the home of your dreams is a well planned and flowing process from start to finish.
Watercolour house portrait created for us by Meg Boscawen
3. Define your budget and timescales
The timescale and budget are affected by the breadth of the project. If you’re moving out, do you need to put items in storage and how much will it cost? Are you happy to rent somewhere for a short duration or are you able to stay with family and friends during the renovation? A designer will be able to break down these aspects with you to help manage your expectations and guide you through the budget, practicalities and timeline of your project. More so than ever, the past two years has taught us that it’s important to plan ahead and for contingencies, this includes having a contingency budget and is especially true when upgrading period properties.
4. Create an inventory of your current space and furnishings
Keep an inventory of everything you own and wish to keep. Be it kitchen utensils, clothes or treasured pieces you've picked up on your travels, these will all need to be considered when it comes to creating the new schemes in your home. I’d very much recommend taking photos of these items and making notes on things like size and number as these will help you with practical considerations, such as determining how much storage space is required if commissioning inbuilt joinery, and what kind of storage would be best (e.g. drawers, hanging rails, cubby holes, racks).
5. Define your own aesthetic and create mood boards for each room
Compile a collection of a maximum of 10 inspirational images for each room from books, magazines, Pinterest, Instagram - wherever it is that you get your inspiration from - play around and have fun with it all. Print images and introduce fabrics, paint chips and textures you love. Don’t be afraid to be abstract…You might include a favourite piece of jewellery or clothing that’s shape or shade you love. You might wish to try and incorporate a detail you spotted at your favourite hotel. Try to dig a little deeper and find references and momentos that have personal meaning as well as physical beauty.
By forming a cohesive body of images you love, you'll start to notice themes and similarities in your favourite colours, shapes, textures and stylistic influences. It is easy to get led astray and adopt styles that are en vogue rather than what you truly love but creating a moodboard will help you define your taste and harness a vision of your aesthetic.
DON’T
Make lots of impulsive purchases
Once you’ve taken the time to decide on a budget you’re comfortable with it’s important to prioritise where to spend your money. You may decide to prioritise high priority rooms, such as the master bedroom and living room, or you may decide to focus on fitted fixtures and fittings that become part of the architecture of the house (e.g. kitchens and bathrooms). One approach I like to recommend, especially if there is scope to do something special, is to allocate an amount for a statement feature in each room being redesigned. It could be a luxurious wallpaper from somewhere like Soane or DeGournay, a hand painted mural, a bespoke piece of upholstery, or an original art work, but it’s these pieces that often add that extra touch that make a room memorable. Of course, a bit of ingenuity can go a long way here and antiques and vintage items are a great way to introduce unique pieces that have flair and originality without necessarily having the price tag associated with bespoke or designer items.
By identifying your priorities and strategy you can select your preferred items with more confidence and by using a spreadsheet you can keep track of potential purchases ahead of committing to them to ensure the rooms schemes are within budget. Not only will the end result look more harmonious as a result of having viewed the possible design schemes holistically but by paying attention to the detail here you’ll feel reassuringly in control of the process.
A bespoke headboard ready to leave the workshop designed and created in collaboration with Ensemblier
2. Forget to check measurements
Consider the size, scale and proportions of the different items on your list. When considering these factors, also analyse them in connection with the other furniture – measure, tape the floor (using suitable tape that will be gentle on the surface of course!) and assess how the new layout will look when scaled correctly. Is there a good level of flow? Use this process for artwork too. Map out exactly where pieces will hang so you can assess their scale and proportion in relation to the furniture, lighting and focal points, as well as other pieces of artwork that will hang in the room. It’s easy to see images of things online, to fall in love with them and make an impulse purchase only for the item to arrive and discover it’s either under or over-scaled and just doesn’t quite work. A little extra leg work here is worth it in the end.
3. Overlook how the furniture will be installed and when
On a full-scale refurbishment there can easily be over 100 different items that will need to be delivered at different times, from multiple suppliers. A professional storage and installation company like Atlas of London can be a worthwhile investment in this scenario. A reputable company will be expert in assessing whether specialised installation will be needed, for example, to hoist large furniture through windows or skylights, and able to co-ordinate any necessary specialist services. Planning and execution here are key parts of the process.
4. Forget to have fun!
Although there are undeniably many practical and often technical elements that need careful consideration when feathering a nest I’m a firm believer that it should also be a pleasurable process infused with a little fun along the way!
Creating a beautiful home is often a hard earned accomplishment and milestone in life so relishing in the luxury of defining your style and filling your home with personal pieces that bring pleasure and joy are at the heart of the experience.
