(Video Transcription)
Is it time for that afternoon tea or is it time for an afternoon Starbucks I’m here with Andrea McQueen of Andrea McQueen Designs in her beautiful home Does this make you want to redo your home or what? This kitchen and family room makes me want to redo my home always. We’re always redoing your home. Thank you for joining us today I just want to walk people through why it’s so essential to have a designer to have that confidante when purchasing or selling or when planning to stay forever what you know what avenues they should take with regards to investment pieces versus non investment pieces and where to start.
So many of our clients come to us at this time of the year and wonder ‘where do I begin?’, like where do I start peeling back the lemon and it can get scary really fast. So where do we start? And how do we budget for it and how do we make it all come together?
Great questions, all really good questions which we talk about all the time. The first thing I think to consider is engaging a professional really early on in the process because you don’t know what you don’t know right and because we’ve been through this and this is what we do for a living and this is what we do on the daily basis we know what you don’t know. I think it’s really important to start early and engage a professional early on and a professional is going to help you determine the scope of your project so really it’s a good idea to have an a number in mind when you’re thinking about a budget but in my experience take that number that you’re thinking about and as a rule of thumb don’t hate me for saying this on camera, and I double it. Double it in our experience because there’s certain considerations when it really what you want to do to your home is what’s gonna drive the budget you know and there’s you can always go higher end or lower end or make trade-offs but I think what’s so important is something that I know you see all the time is to think about when you’re considering a remodel or a redesign or you know a renovation project it’s not just to think about the end result in the end picture and it’s not just flooring it’s not just you know the cabinets it’s not just the appliances really what makes a well-designed space feel good and look good is the way all of these different design elements work in harmony and we’re trained and we’re really experienced in where it’s a you know the great the places where it’s makes sense to invest and the places where it makes sense to save. At the end of the day working with the designers going to save you money because you’re going to invest your money in things that are going to give you the best return on your investment as you know oftentimes they’ll come in to a client site after they’ve already started and they’ve spent $30,000 on their bathroom floor you know and they haven’t touched the plumbing or you know window treatments so you can take that budget and do an entire bathroom so we’re really good at giving you realistic ideas about where you’re going to get the biggest return on your investment.
And giving you that that ‘wow’ factor right? We see so many patchwork homes where I’m like ‘oh I love the floors you did’ and then I get to the kitchen and realize and you did two more floors because there wasn’t a pre-thought out pattern as to how this was all going to link and I’m not suggesting that everyone has to come in and do it all at once you know? But at least if the plans there and they know the kitchens gonna be step one. Flooring step two. However the process works it’s nice to know there’s continuity and when we go to sell it and you’ve spent $50,000 on Brazilian hardwood but you didn’t do anything else yeah it’s hard for me to get that return. Totally right. Totally.
You know when we also can look at a space come into a space and say wow you know if you just spent ten thousand dollars and did painted your cabinets switched out your backsplash and did your hardware it’s gonna feel like a totally new space. So you know depending on how much money people want to spend and how long they’re going to be in their home something I love to do is to help them you know have a five-year solution or you know a forever home. Really whatever it is they want to achieve help them make sure that their space, client space really is a reflection of who they are and really helps them to live better. Because at the end of the day good design is really improving your life and improving the way you live in your home.
Well you improved our lives. Everyone loves our home and says it’s a great reflection of us. I’m so happy. And we did, we were smart and saved for the big plan and you put the whole piece together and it does it still allows us to add pieces on to it but our base plan is so easy to work from that it just makes our home all congruent it’s so nice. I hope you can help many of our clients come with that big picture image and move forward and you know have a serene look to their home that makes them feel comfortable.
Thanks Andrea!
No problem.