Welcome to 2011! I hope that you and yours enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and will be blessed with peace and prosperity in the new year!
Now that we have or are about to take down all those wonderful holiday decorations, it’s time to prepare for the dreaded after-holiday letdown. Bah, humbug! It’s the time when you look around and notice that your home isn’t as cheerful as it was during the holidays. Matter of fact, it looks rather dull and boring. Oh, and look at that chipped paint and cracked wall! Or that hum-drum living room or dining room. Ah yes, it’s time to make those New Year’s resolutions for your home. What’s on your agenda this year? Will it be to enjoy your home more by giving it a total make-over, or just a little face-lift? Is it time to move on and find a new place to love?
This is the best time to plan for your home improvements throughout the year. You can start by listing all of your dreams for your home and going through each room with a critical eye. Is the paint faded, poorly done or a color you no longer love? How about the window treatments? Did you last change those out in the 80’s? Is it time for the floors to be refinished, re-carpeted or changed out completely? Is your furniture frumpy and falling apart?
Now is the time to make those lists, and prepare for the projects you want to tackle. How do you decide where to start? It depends on what needs to be done. If you’re planning on a large re-model, I would start there. If not, I would start with the room that if changed, will make the biggest impact on your enjoyment of your home. Sometimes that’s the family room, or the kitchen, but sometimes it can just be the master bedroom. After all, we need to have a space in our home to comfort and soothe us.
Once your list is made and you’ve chosen a project, spend some time putting together a budget for what you want to accomplish. Sometimes, you have to do a project in phases as the budget allows. A good designer can assist you in choosing what can be done to maximize the results of each phase, and also to smooth the transition from one phase to the next.
If you choose to do this on your own (and many people are good at it) just be sure to plan, plan, plan and consider all aspects of the project before you dive in. It’s sad and discouraging when people get excited and start on a project only to discover they have no idea what the finished job should look like, or they get overwhelmed by the choices that need to be made and stop with a half-finished project that screams “wasted money” at them for years. Professional assistance is worth the cost as you end up saving time (doing it right the first time), money (see above) and saving yourself from headaches (someone else can focus on getting it done while you focus on your job, your kids, your social life….)
Here’s my New Year’s resolution: I’m going to assist many, many, people in falling in love with their homes!