So, anybody who’s done any form of home renovation, no matter how small, will know it can be soul destroying at times. Here are my five little tips to keep the renovation blues at bay…
Create a safe haven
Whether you are renovating one room or a whole house, its important to have that one clean and simple place to escape to. It’s likely that not only will you have dust everywhere, but furniture will be hanging out in places it shouldn’t and tools will be spread far and wide. My advice is to choose a room and turn it into you haven. Keep the extras out, keep it clean and keep the door shut! When we first moved in to our work in progress burrow, we turned our spare room into our safe haven and rocked life old school. We embraced Uni living again and it made the world of difference.
Be organised
As mentioned above, you will end up living in a whole heap of mess. My advice is to really think things through. When emptying a room, pre-plan whats going where and what you are likely to need. Write lists, mark-up boxes and don’t be afraid to change room floor plans to make space for everything. Nothing gives you the renovation blues more than stubbing your toes on boxes 10 times a day! Another sure fire way to get down in the dumps about living in a dump is when it drags on. The more you prepare your renovation project,the less time you will spend living upside down. Don’t start a project until every little detail is planned and prepped, that way you can just crack on with minimal surprises.
Don’t lose sight
One of the things that always gets to me is when you stop seeing the wood for the trees. No matter how vivid your vision for your new room is, after seeing so much rubble, washing so much dust from your hair and tidying up so many tools its can get really hard to see past it. My advice is to create mood-boards, keep your beak well and truly lost in Pinterest and Instagram. As nuts as this sounds my other advice is to not be afraid to sneak paint samples on the wall (even if it is way too early in the process) and why not get your nice accessories out of their boxes and put them in your building site for half an hour just to look at them. Do what ever it takes to keep excited and look past whats in front of you.
Don’t try to go it alone
Whether it is saving for professionals or letting family and friends lend a hand. Don’t try and be a hero, accepting help will keep your spirits high. Nuf said.
Don’t forget to laugh
No matter how much you follow all of the above, guess what… s**t will go wrong, things will break, deadlines will slip and there will be dark days, but it’s so, so, so important not to lose perspective. Take a deep breath and laugh. Everything seems better with laughter.
BY BURROW & ME