Here’s how I turned our fixer upper into the home of our dreams with almost NO budget…
Get your pinterest on: create a pinterest board for each room you plan on remodeling. Even if your remodel isn’t happening anytime soon, it’s good to start gathering inspo. Your pinterest Mood board will come in clutch more times than you know. Before you know it you will have a cohesive design concept that you can refer back to at any time. I can’t tell you the times I’ve been at home depot and been like, “shoot what color grout should I get?” All I had to do was pull up my pinterest board and see what I look I liked the best. Not to mention the endless tutorials and resources available on pinterest. It will be your best friend!
Create a list of major costs/supplies: As I design each remodel or house in our home I compile a list of materials. For the kitchen: Cabinets, sink, fridge, oven, quartz countertop, shelves, tile, mortar, grout, and labor. For the bathroom: Shower doors, tile, shiplap, sink, lamp. Once I had an idea of the ROUGH costs we could budget out the project and decide how many months it would take us to complete. We didn’t have a huge chunk of money to devote so each month we would decide on how much and what to spend on. (See point 4)
Create a list of all new furniture and accessories: I like to create a power point with everything I want. I list the price and the link next to the image. As I find things I like, I add them to the power point. Once I’m ready to purchase (or finally have the money to do so) - then everything is in one place and I know how much I’m spending by the end of it.
Set aside an amount each month devoted to part of the project: Each month I set aside a certain amount for one room that I want to focus on. For big projects - a couple of month’s resources will probably go to the same room. When we were remodeling the bathroom I would say - this month any extra money is going towards purchasing the shower doors. The next month it was the tiles and tile supplies, the month after that - mirror and vanity light, and so on… For smaller decor projects you could allocate smaller amount of money. Like “this month I’m setting aside 300 for a fresh bedroom look. 100 for the rug, 100 for new lamps, and 100 for accessories. This way when you go to home depot or Home Goods you don’t go crazy. You know exactly what you can spend and it will help ensure you get the best deal!
Find wholesale retailers: Finding a wholesaler might seem overwhelming. But a wholesale retailer just means that they do not provide services another company might (like assembly or custom design). Don’t let it scare you off! For our kitchen we got our cabinets and quartz counter top done by a whole sale company I found online. If you google “whole sale ___ in ____ area” plenty will pop up. Once you do that call around to compare pricing and services.At the whole saler we went with - once you give them your measurements you sit down with an employee and design your space. Their cabinets come unassembled so we had our contractor assemble the cabinets. The quartz did not come cut to size or include assembly so we used their referral or “quartz guy” for this part. We ended up saving SOOOO much money. If your in the LA area you can check out our wholesaler "Eastern Construction Supplies"
Outsource major renovations (essentials): For the kitchen remodel we hired a contractor for the plumbing, electric and cabinet assembly and install. If your not a pro plumber or electrician you want to make sure you get those major things done professionally. You don’t want to mess that up, it will end up costing you more in the long run. It will also save you a lot of stress.
Do easy things yourself: When our contractor gave us the quote we went through and found things we could do ourself. We painted, installed the cabinet hardware, added backsplash, and built floating shelves. We were able to find tutorials for all these things online! Which brings me to my last point
You can youtube/pinterest/google almost anything: Within the course of our remodel we found tutorials for backsplash, floating shelves, benches, shiplap, shower bases, and flooring. Check out my home page for the projects and tutorials I’ve done so far!
I hope this helps! Feel free to comment with questions! i’d love to help with your next remodel project!