5 home renovation tips you won’t learn from reality TV shows
Thinking of renovating or extending your home in 2023? Ballast Point managing director Mat Wilk shares his top pieces of advice.
1. Solve the biggest problems first
If the laundry is in the wrong place and blocks access from your living area to the backyard, it simply has to be moved. It can be tricky and costly, and as there is plumbing and a concrete slab involved it’s easier to leave it there. But leaving an awkward room in the wrong place could be a costly mistake. The value added to the home by a living space beautifully connected to the garden will usually exceed the cost to move a laundry or bathroom by multiples of 10 or more. You may also find that by the time you renovate an existing wet area — particularly an old bathroom — you will spend more time and energy straightening walls and adjusting plumbing than if you had simply rebuilt it from scratch. Refurbished bathrooms never look quite right either.
2. Make sure the design flows
How you move from one space to another makes all the difference. Good design empowers the user and makes them feel good. The user in this case is you, your family and friends, and potentially a buyer in the future. I always insist that we spend as long as it takes to get this bit right from the outset. If you do, you will feel a stronger sense of connection to your house. A good technique is putting yourself in the shoes of someone who is entering the finished house for the first time and thinking about their experience. The house should lead them, and they should not have to be told which way to go; it should be built into the design. If you have had the experience of being in a friend’s house and not knowing exactly where you are and which door to go through? It just doesn’t feel good.
3. Be aware of limitations you may face
Make sure you do your homework and understand all there is to know regarding council requirements, sewers, stormwater drains, other building practicalities and how they fit into your budget before you start designing. Some people tend to launch straight into the design process without working out the limitations. It results in lost time and lost money spent on a design that was never possible or could only be achieved after a difficult and costly battle with council. This is a tough problem to crack on your own because council planning documents can be confusing and contradictory. You will need to talk to designers, builders, council officers, Sydney Water staff or someone you know who has done something similar in order to understand any limitations, and include these in a detailed design brief.
4. Spend big on plants
Some things are worth doing and some things are not. One thing that is worth doing is spending extra money on plants. The irony here is that plants are something you order at the latter stages of the project, and when the budget is under pressure. Consider ordering them early with your landscaper or a reputable nursery. I don’t mean go out to some boutique supplier for some rare specimen, there are lots of beautiful plants and trees that are readily available from local nurseries, but you may need to go for a bit of a drive to find them. Not only to plants and trees provide atmosphere and a sense of tranquillity in your garden, they also offer shade and privacy. A mature tree or a row of bamboo provides an effective privacy screen for a fraction of what it would cost to manufacture and install a building component.
5. Context is key
Think of the key elements of your house as if they are cards in a poker game — the cards have to relate to each other to create a valuable hand. One way to think about it is making the pieces fit —just because you may find the most beautiful tile in the world it doesn’t mean that it will look good once installed in your bathroom. It could look great, but it may look strange and completely out of place. This is because with all design, context is key. But I think the problem is bigger than a mood board with all the finishes – it’s about getting the balance right so that every room and every design element feels like it belongs to the same house. I call this coherence, and I believe it can add a lot of value to your home.
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