It’s hard to believe that we’ve been in the new house and working on the renovation for almost three months already. I feel like it’s been forever, but also like we only moved a week ago. At times, it feels like there is still an endless mountain of work to do turning this neglected house into a home. But looking back over the last two and a half months, it’s comforting to see that we have actually managed to do quite a lot. Most importantly, we’ve learnt a few things along the way. I’ve summed them up here, in case you are also looking to renovate, because it is super helpful to know these things before you realise there was a better way.
Paint is the easiest way to wow with your renovation
Genuinely. The best. While time consuming and insanely messy, painting is the easiest and cheapest way to give your home a fresh new start. But paint with caution: picking the wrong colour or doing a shoddy job could leave you with more regrets that the chipped old paint of before.
I spent a lot of time looking at paint swatches and reading up on how to do a professional paint job before opening a paint can. We went with a neutral white throughout, but we had to try a few different swatches before we found a paint that worked well in all the rooms. Each room has a different level of natural light, which meant a paint that looked lovely and warm in one room became dingey and yellow in another. Some that looked beautifully fresh in the west-facing living room became cold and blue in the south-facing lounge and master bedroom. Take your time and find a shade that suits your house.
Think about your flooring when you chose a paint colour as well. Your floor is a large expanse of colour, and will reflect up onto your paint and can contrast or blend for success or disaster. If you can get a sample of your chosen flooring to place next to your paint swatch, do that. It will really help you get a better idea of how that will play together.
I am also hoping to branch out from white to some colour in the rooms we are using as offices. For my own, I’m considering a fresh but warm blue. I had originally thought of going for a warm, cosy pink, but after swatching a few colours, I think a blue will actually look better and be more versatile. The issue with blue is finding one that does make the room look cold. I’ve tried several blues, and ended up with Dulux Shimmer, which is a fresh blue with a fair bit of red to warm it up. My next step will be to move from a paint chip to a test swatch before I commit. Fingers crossed it still looks as good in reality!
Your curtains are part of the whole
Before we moved in, I was had dreams of elegant roman blinds in beautiful, patterned fabric. Then I saw the cost of such gorgeous drapes. Stunning, in a bad way. At first, I considered making them myself, but I quickly realised that this would become an expensive and risky endeavour.
Good quality fabric isn’t cheap, as I’ve written about before, and you just can’t skimp when it comes to your window furnishings. Those drapes or blinds need to last you for a long time, taking the wear and tear of opening and closing, dirty hands, crawling babies and teething puppies. They are also a huge piece of how your room looks, and substandard work will pull down the whole look quicker than you can say pinch pleat.
To that end, I handed over the job to the professionals this time. For the three bedrooms that are currently offices and guest bedroom, I’ll be using ready made curtains that I can alter to fit, and I might try my hand at a roman blind. These rooms get less use, and they have smaller windows which are cheaper to dress. But how do you keep your curtains looking elegant and timeless when custom, colourful roman blinds are out of the budget?
I realised that patterned curtains in our rooms might actually make them look smaller. Because the rooms are particularly expansive, I decided to go with a textured cream fabric for a set of roller blinds which will sit behind cream sheer curtains. The curtains will run ceiling to floor, giving the room height, and will hide the slightly utilitarian roller blind. This combination will keep things private but airy. I’m also hoping that this more neutral approach will keep the room timeless, which is particularly important with such a big investment. A simple pelmet over the roller blinds in the kitchen/dining will also give the blinds a more luxe looking in a room where sheers wouldn’t work.
If I was going to change anything, I think it would be getting out to quote for curtains and blinds earlier, before I had even painted. I think it would have given me a better idea of what was achievable, and I might have been able to track down fabric to meet my House & Garden dreams. But I had already removed the broken blinds when I painted, which meant we were too exposed to wait much longer for the window dressing, which will already take eight weeks to arrive.
Go bargain hunting with second hand goods
Some things need to be new when you’re renovating. Flooring and window furnishings are some examples where second hand is probably not your friend (unless you score a set of real, hardwood planks to make the wooden floor of your dreams). But some some items, second hand will save you a significant amount of money.
Our kitchen is currently on the back burner as we work towards renovating the crucial items first. But at some point I’m planning to do a renovation in the kitchen which will entail some new tiles for the splashback and some new benchtops. For these, I’m already starting to look second hand.
If you have the time, you can browse through listings on Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay and more to find second hand tiles and stone offcuts that could just save you a significant amount on your renovations. If the area you need to tile is small, this is particularly handy.
My splashback runs the length of the kitchen, but it isn’t a huge area. I’m hoping to track down some beautiful tiles second hand and tile it myself. With a fresh lick of paint and some new hardware, I’m confident the kitchen is going to look completely different for under $2000.
I’m also keeping an eye out for places that offer cheap stone benchtops cut to size from offcuts of bigger jobs. A few stonemasons will have leftover stock that they are happy to cut to size for a reduced price. I may have too much bench for this to work, but hunting around is one way to save money here. I’m also looking through a range of providers to see what they have to offer. You never know what you can find it you take the time. Which leads me to my last point.
Take your time where you can
I hate waiting. I really do. I love to get in and get moving whenever there is something to do. For a lot of our house renovations, we did just have to get cracking. When your house makes you sick, don’t dilly-dally!
But there are plenty of areas where taking a little time can save you money and help you make a better decision. Bargain hunting and getting multiple quotes takes time, but it’s worth it to save you money and disappointment down the track.
As an example, we needed to get two old gas heaters removed. They were on the critical path, as I couldn’t paint until they were removed and the flooring couldn’t go in until they were removed and the rooms painted. I asked for two quotes, but only received one. I followed up once on the second quote, but they were not responsive. Rather than go get another quote, I just went with the only one I had. The chap who did the work was punctual, fast and friendly. But then the second quote came through and it was for less than half the amount I paid! I was kicking myself for that one. If I had just waited another week, I could have saved a decent amount. In a sense, I paid for an extra week of painting time, so it wasn’t a total loss. But I could have made it work with less time and we would have saved. So where you can, take your time.
That said, I think it’s also important to keep your momentum going. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by tour to-do list and stall. But you need to keep moving so you can get out of the crazy renos and into enjoying your house. I find it helpful to keep a list of tasks and set a rough timeline against each one. This helps me identify critical path items (like the gas heaters) and prioritise those over things that are less critical (but more fun), like finding beds for the guestroom or fixing the garden. It’s satisfying to tick off a task each month and see things moving. The reward of getting more calm each week helps me keep pushing through the tedious or tiring things.
Hopefully that’s helpful for you, if you’re looking to renovate some or all of your house! I’m looking forward to sharing more progress in June, as I’m preparing for another round of painting and we should be getting stage one of our curtains and blinds then too.
