A helpful guide for your major home makeover
More than just picking colors and finishes, here is an in-depth guide to your house-renovating journey. Be it one room or your entire house, careful planning results in a beautiful home instead of a remodeling nightmare. Know all the ins and outs of house renovating with this handy guide.
Part 3: What to Renovate?
A renovation is a big project. You will need a certain amount of focus, vision, and follow-through to get it done in the way that you want. Here are some of the factors to consider when thinking about renovating.
- Flooring – Your flooring choice will affect your overall decorating scheme. Keep the following in mind when choosing the right flooring:
- Style and Material – Think about the style of flooring you want and the material it is made from and see how will it look against the room’s décor.
- Maintenance and Durability – Learning proper maintenance will keep your floor beautiful and long lasting. Make sure to know if there are special installation requirements because even the most durable material won’t last long if installed the wrong way.
- Potential Health Hazards – Find out beforehand if the flooring or the cleaning agents used for its upkeep might cause allergic reactions to members of the family.
- Acoustics – Aside from keeping outside noise from creeping into your living space, you also want to keep indoor noises from escaping. Aside from bedrooms, you might also want to soundproof your bathroom to enhance its privacy and give you a spa-like atmosphere. For your home office, soundproofing makes the area feel more professional and detached from the rest of the house. Soundproofing your den or home theater maximizes your media experience.
- Lighting – Home lighting should achieve three goals: easily controlled, energy efficient, and most of all, is comfortable. Here are some points to consider when planning your room’s lighting.
- Usage – What will the room be used for and what points will need the most illumination? Where does natural light come from and is there a way to maximize this?
- Décor – What is the room’s focal point? Is there something specific that you want highlighted? These are things that might benefit from accent lighting.
- Color – What we were taught in grade school still applies: light colors reflect light, while dark colors absorb it.
- Occupants – Identify who will be spending the most time in the room and their habits. This helps determine the degree of illumination you will need.
Now that you have an idea of what you will renovate, you may now gather the information you’ve learned and start with your renovation project.
Here are the other articles of Renovation 101:
*This article has been revised for online reading. The original article appeared on the March 2014 issue of My Home Magazine. Get the e-mag version My Home Magazines on Magzter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Flooring choice shapes the overall decorating scheme, so weigh style and material against the room’s décor, maintenance and durability, potential health hazards, and acoustics. The guide also notes that even a durable material will not last if installed incorrectly, so check any special installation requirements first.
Flooring and the cleaning agents used to maintain it can trigger allergic reactions in some household members. The guide advises finding this out beforehand, so confirm what the floor is made from and which products it needs before settling on a material, especially where family members have sensitivities.
Bedrooms, bathrooms, home offices, and dens or home theaters are the rooms named. Soundproofing keeps outside noise out and indoor noise in, giving a bathroom more privacy, a home office a more professional separation from the house, and a home theater a better media experience.
Home lighting should be easily controlled, energy efficient, and, above all, comfortable. Planning begins with how the room will be used, where natural light enters and how to maximize it, which features might need accent lighting, and who spends the most time in the room.
Light colors reflect light, while dark colors absorb it, so wall color directly changes how much illumination a room requires. Together with the room’s use, the occupants’ habits, and the direction of natural light, color helps determine the degree of lighting a space needs.
