Building or designing your new home? Don’t make these mistakes
THERE’S a lot to learn when designing and building but these experts have a few tricks that could save you time and money
Interiors
Don't miss out on the headlines from Interiors. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Decorating a new home from scratch isn’t as hard as you think
- Maintenance 101: How to keep your home looking fresh
- Quirky design approach to heritage made this new home a standout
NOBODY’S perfect but there are some industries where you just need to get it right the first time. When you’re talking about decorating, designing and building a home, making mistakes can be costly.
For first-time renovators and builders, there’s bound to be a few road bumps along the way so it helps to have professional advice at hand to warn when danger is approaching.
We’ve consulted decorating, design and building experts to explain where they have made mistakes in the past and how you can avoid falling into the same trap.
AVOIDING DECORATING DISASTERS
Stylist and interior designer for The Home Emma Blomfield runs her own design school, The Decorating School, to help homeowners come to grips with their own interior projects.
But she happily admits she and her clients have had a few missteps along the way.
“If an interior designer says they don’t make mistakes, they’re lying. It happens to all of us,” she says.
One of her first lessons was the value of a lighting scheme for a room.
“When I started out I would be installing a room during the day so when it came time to turn the lights on at night, I realised downlights are really harsh,” she says.
“Layering the light levels is something I learned pretty early on.
“Most of the time I am working with downlights or a central oyster light but you need a floor lamp and table lamps — and put in dimmer switches.”
Before she starts on a design project, she asks clients to de-clutter their homes because she has found working with too many pieces of existing furniture can be really limiting.
“We hang on to so many things and trying to work around it as a designer can be hard,” she says. “Storage is expensive but doing a big clean out costs nothing.”
A classic mistake she still sees with clients is buying the wrong sized rug.
“The size of your rug is really important,” she says. “The client will purchase a small rug in a huge space but you should have the front legs of the sofa on top of the rug.
“The rug frames the room in an open-plan space — it signifies where the living space is.”
Getting the size of rugs, furniture and even artwork right is hard but something that interior designers become quite practised in.
“Sometimes people want a four-seater sofa when their space will only take a three seater,” Emma says. “I usually get them to mark it out on the floor with newspaper.”
Emma says don’t make the mistake of buying paint off the colour card in the store.
“It is always better to do paint samples first, to see how the light falls,” she says.
Another easy trap to fall into is making everything too “matchy-matchy”.
“With timber, it’s about varying the tones,” says Emma. “You may think you should co-ordinate everything but matching timber tones is a no-no. If you put two timbers in a room, go for different species.”
She says she also learned that there is a difference between styling for a magazine shoot, which is often based on trends, and decorating a client’s home.
“I tried to do a lot of trends when I started,” she says. “It’s different for magazine styling but for clients’ homes, it needs to be more timeless and something they love.
“If they are drawn to something, chances are they will love it for years.”
ARCHITECTURE AND ANGST
Architect Ben Giles has more than 20 years’ experience and last year participated in Speed Date an Architect where the public can get free advice from industry professionals about the viability of their plans.
The biggest mistake he made early on, he says, was not trusting his instincts enough.
“I was swayed too much by the suggestions of my clients but I’m more inclined to rely on my own experience now,” he says.
“I had residential projects where I did 20 different options and it becomes ridiculous. I find the first solution is often the best.”
With renovation projects where an extension was being added to an older home, he used to assume the existing structure was in sound condition. Not anymore.
“I have learnt to always presume that what was built before is of poor quality because of its age and that building regulations in the past were less stringent,” Ben says.
This impacts on how the budget is allocated so that clients can decide from the start how much work they want to do on the old house.
“Depending on budget, you need to draw an imaginary demarcation line to show where you are going to repair to,” he says.
He also knows now that it’s important to check local council’s control plans before drawing up plans for clients on the back of a napkin after a few glasses of wine.
“It’s very important to research the council controls around things such as floor-to-space ratios and maximum heights before presenting your ideas to a client,” Ben says.
Too much optimism is not always the best.
“Everyone is excited about the new project at the start and they want it to go well,” he says. “Then it rains and the tradies go on holidays over summer and then the kitchen benchtop will not be ready.”
He now works with a contingency plan to allow for delays and budget blowouts.
On a personal level, Ben says when working with couples he has learned to set up one point of contact for information to avoid getting caught in the middle.
“I try to establish one point of contact between the husband and wife or you can end up acting as marriage counsellor,” he says.
And wherever possible, he says clients should move out during renovations.
“To be right on top of the builders is really stressful and I have seen families caught up in that stress trying to micro manage their builder,” he says. “It’s an expense to move out but it’s far better to rent and visit the site.”
BUILDING BETTER
Adam Anderson is an award-winning builder who gets most of his work by word of mouth.
The main thing he has learnt is to do the job once and do it right.
“I get the benefit of working with different engineers all the time,” he says. “I treat the specified sizes as the minimum.”
Where the specification might be for floor joists that are 200mm by 50mm, Adam says he will opt for 250mm joists instead.
“It may be completely adequate in a computer model but it could be the difference between being able to feel the floor bounce when people walk past,” Adam says.
Having seen the damage that overflowing pipes can cause during storms, Adam takes the same approach with drainage pipes.
“Enlarging the size of the pipes is always a good idea,” he says. “For a little extra cost, you can go the next size up.”
Using products inappropriate for the conditions is another lesson learned.
“Putting timber in full sun is problematic. In the past we have had people wanting timber window frames and I have suggested aluminium instead because timber can crack and warp under direct sun,” he says.
Even where clients have not asked for something, Adam knows they will wish they had specified it earlier.
“With driveways, I always put in a pipe underneath because the clients will always want a tap for the front garden,” he says.
“The same goes with power points. I run the cable around the perimeter of the room so that if they want another power point in the future, it’s already there.
“The bulk of the budget goes in those finishing trades like painters, plasterers and tilers. You don’t want to be redoing their work at the end of a job.”
Pictures Katherine Lu
More
Originally published as Building or designing your new home? Don’t make these mistakes
‘Great’: $10 Kmart storage solution goes viral
A $10 item has caught the attention of social media users, with several declaring it a “cute” solution to a common problem.
Kmart selling $949 item for just $99
The budget item is said to be a dupe of a designer one worth $949, with some fans saying it’s basically identical.