Remodeling a home can be a whole world of conflicting experiences, swinging between the excitement of thinking about new additions and the inevitable challenges that come with that. An ideal remodeling experience will be completed swiftly, look something like the original plan, and not cost more than you were looking to budget. One of the key elements of this process is to think about the remodel in a room-by-room way. Although many of us want to bulldoze through the work to get it done faster, the nuances of home remodeling should factor into your decisions – you’ll find this works better and minimizes costly delays.
Living room: High traffic and regular use
If a kitchen is the heart of the home, then the living room is its lungs. Both in terms of duration of time spent in there, and number of people who might be there at one time, it’s the room that gets used most. A high-traffic space like this needs to be remodeled with that in mind, which means finding durable paint or wallpaper that will survive being touched and swings in temperature. It also means that additional furniture, beyond what it takes to accommodate people sitting there, should be kept at a minimum. If a living room gets cluttered, it becomes harder to relax in there, and that is after all the purpose of the room.
Kitchen: If you can’t stand the heat…
Your kitchen deals with a lot of extremes: It’s highly likely that it will be an exterior room which opens on to the outside, which means it can get cold when left alone. Then, when you’re in there cooking, it can get very hot. Those extremes of temperature mean that there will be steam, condensation and grease in the air, so you will need paint that is resistant to moisture and mold. You should also make sure you consult insulation companies before a large remodel; you’re inevitably going to lose some heat around the door, you don’t want it to be escaping via the walls. Also look to prioritize function, keeping the walkway clear in the kitchen triangle between fridge, sink and hob and planning storage accordingly.
Bedroom: A space to relax
A kitchen will get chaotic sometimes, and our planning takes account of that. Conversely, the bedroom should be an oasis of calm as far as possible. Paint or wallpaper here doesn’t need to be so functional, and should instead be prioritized for its relaxing and alluring colors. You can optimize space by using underbed storage and integrated closets where possible. Also, even if you’ve gone for hard floors elsewhere in the home, here is where you should pick carpet, or at least rugs on either side of the bed; there are few things worse than putting your bare foot on a cold floor in a winter morning.
Bathroom: The smallest room, the biggest headache?
Many people would look at a whole-house renovation and think that they’re on Easy Street when it comes to the bathroom, and those people are called “novices”. What the bathroom lacks in size it more than makes up for through fiddly challenges. You will need a similar kind of durable paint in here; it’s a room that lays dormant for most of the day, and then has to handle running hot water when someone wants a shower. Everything you use in here should be equipped to handle these changes in temperature and humidity, and should be easy to wipe clean. In addition, the wrong paint, bathroom suite, and tile choices can be very unforgiving; as it’s such a small room, prioritize softer colors that make it feel more spacious.
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