I suspect one of the spaces in your home, if not your entire home needs to be renovated and you are starting to do some research? You have stopped at the right place. We have put together a few ideas on how to best go about researching home designs for your home renovation project.
Pin It
Organization is very important when researching any topic, but especially home renovation. You will look at a lot of home designs and will forget what you found that you like unless you have somewhere to put them. This is exactly why you should use Pinterest. (Never heard of it? Go here.) Pinterest is a great place to search for ideas that articulate how you want to recreate your space.
Once you have an account created, start creating boards where you can pin all your ideas. The best way to do this is to setup a board for each interest. For example, create a lighting board, a plumbing fixtures board, an appliances board and then categories like kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Whatever areas you are focusing on, make them a separate board to capture all your individual ideas you are researching. Need some help getting started? Go here to check out our boards. This will give you some ideas to get you started.
Know Your Style
Getting a good understanding of what kind of style you have can be daunting. But this can be easier than it seems. You just need a little guidance. First start with the things that naturally make you excited or happy. Think about what components you feel set the mood you want in your space. This may be lighting. A question you might ask would be - Do you like your space to have a lot of natural light? Another component could be your countertop. Do you want something that wears well or are you more interested in the aesthetic value? A simpler component to consider - Do you want a wall color that is very complex or do you want simple and cozy? These answers will be different for each person and it doesn't always have to do with finishes. It can be something related more to how a space functions. Do you want your sink, range and refrigerator to be setup efficiently? Do you recycle? If so, think about having a double trash pull-out instead of a single trash.
Finding your voice in the research is a necessary element to home renovation planning. Before starting to work with a home designer, spend some time thinking about your style. This will make your time more productive and fruitful with the designer. Here are a couple of other insights to think about when you are compiling home designs around your particular style.
- Do you like soothing or dramatic?
- Do you like cutting edge design or history in the home?
More Research is Better
The best idea for someone who is starting to research house designs is to do a lot of it. The more you do the more you will hone in on what you like and dislike. And the more you will grow closer to what theme you want to take as you and your home designer begin to put everything together.
Setting aside time to do good quality research will help you to get the work done and have a good sense of where you are ultimately headed.
Family members need to be consulted first, since they will be living in the newly designed space. Have a family dinner and get out the ipad and some paper. Take notes as you talk about areas they think need improvement. Use the ipad to jump on pinterest or houzz.com and find ideas right then. It is a good idea to bring ideas you've already researched to a meeting like this to get the ball rolling. Your family has opinions and ideas, but they need a little help bringing them out.
A great idea when researching is to throw a small house designs party. Invite five or ten of your closest friends over and get them to look around your home and share their opinions on what they think needs some improvement.
Take these three ideas and make them fuel to your fire. Go spend some time flipping through magazines or clicking around on pinterest. But whatever you do, do a lot of it before you meet with your home designer. Or check out this free ebook.
