How to plan your home renovation project

So you’ve decided you want to renovate your home. How exciting! But where do you start? Contractors? Paint? Lighting? Furniture? How do you even choose color schemes? In this guide we will help you organize your ideas and we’re even giving you a checklist to use while you’re planning your space.

 Get your own printable checklist!

1. Goals - It’s important to be very detailed about what you want to renovate and be  specific. Are there any areas you want to focus on? What aspects of your space do you absolutely need to change? Do you want to expand an area? It’s important to make a list of all the work you want to have done and to rank them in order of priority. That way, when you’re calculating your budget you know what you need to prioritize and what can wait for a later renovation. 
2. Measurements - This might seem like a simple part of the process, but it’s extremely necessary, since you’re going to need measurements to ask for quotes!
3. Budget -  Calculating a budget might be hard for someone who doesn’t have a lot of knowledge of the construction industry. Mostly, it all boils down to knowing the limits of what you can DIY and what you need contractors for. Not everyone has the skills (or the time!) to paint their own walls or do their own electrical work. By this point, you should at least choose the materials you want to work with, so that you can ask contractors for quotes. You should also set money aside as a contingency plan (around 10-20%), since you can’t always predict what’s going to happen in the renovation process. 
4. Color Scheme - The Spruce has a compilation of different color generators that might help you choose a color scheme for your space!
   
5. Moodboard and Inspiration - Now’s when the creative part starts. Home renovation is extremely fun because you get to choose different styles of furniture and decide exactly what you want your place to look like. Before, people used to create big chunky folders where they would stick design magazine articles and inspiration.
   
   Fans of scrapbooking might still be into that but, when you have tools like Pinterest, you don’t really need to go through all that trouble. Just create a board! You can also create separate boards to work on different ideas and then decide which one you like best. With Pinterest you have access to a huge amount of pictures that people from all over the world have uploaded, so you get more variety to choose from. It’s also reversible and it’s extremely easy to search (you can even find other people’s boards and use those as inspiration!). 
   
6. Schedule! - Renovating a home also has to be done in different steps. This isn’t relevant when it comes to installing furniture or picking curtains, but for all the previous work that might need contractors it’s important to know what should come first, According to Little House On The Corner, this is the order in which you should organize your renovation: 

If you’re looking for a new ceiling to add to your freshly renovated home, our team is available to answer any questions you might have about stretch ceilings and how to include them in your spaces. You can contact us at info@eco-ceiling.com or fill in this contact form.