Renovating your home can be exciting, daunting, fun and stressful … all at the same time.
It is a disruption to your life in the present that can generate a huge return in the future: the pride you will feel in a home that you created, the practical improvement to your lifestyle it enables; and the financial investment by increasing the value of your home.
It’s easy to focus on the not-so-fun parts – getting the development application approval through your local council, or living through the actual building phase – but there are plenty of exciting and creative opportunities when you’ll be putting your stamp on your renovation project.
Whilst your home designer or architect will focus on the flow, layout and practical considerations of your renovation, you, the homeowner, will often be the person making aesthetic choices on how your home will be finished.
And your choices over those finishing touches can make a big difference to the ‘wow factor’ when friends and family come over to see your finished project for the first time.
Whilst there is an unending list of smaller finishing touches that you will have control over, here’s our list of the five major ones to focus on because, in our experience, they have the biggest impact.
1. Styling
The first and perhaps most important starting point is to have a clear idea of the overall styling you want to apply to your home.
This will dictate – or put some necessary constraints on – the choices of a number of different finishes.
In most cases you should ensure that your styling is coherent throughout your home, resisting the temptation to employ a mashup of styles, or different styles for different rooms.
There are exceptions: if, for example, your home was built in the Federation era, it is perfectly fine for the new space in your home – be that a new 2nd storey or extension out the back – to have a coherent contemporary look and feel.
However, you should think carefully before removing original features in the older part of the home. Finishes like the floorboards, ceiling rose, ornate ceiling panels, fireplaces, picture rails and skirting boards are all sought-after features should you ever sell your home in the future.
The next three finishes come under the category of ‘first impressions count’.
2. Your Front Door
You may be surprised, but a relatively small and inexpensive feature like the front door can have a big impact.
As the natural focal point of your home, it’s an opportunity to make a statement with its style and colour.
Whilst you may want to keep the original door to honour the history of an older home, painting it with an eye-popping colour can add ‘curb appeal’ and a fresh feel.
For more modern homes, you may have wider scope to select a new style of door that raises your home above the ordinary.
Use the websites that allow you to see and collect together a range of options, like Houzz or Pinterest.
3. Exterior Finishes and Colour
The choice of material and colour on the exterior will also make a big impression when people are looking at your home.
Whilst brick remains popular for traditional exteriors, in terms of colour and practicality other building materials now outperform brick due to important qualities like insulation and water resistance, but also for their look and practicality.
Addbuild, for example, uses a lightweight cladding called Foamular in around 70% of our building projects.
As well as being tremendously thermally efficient and water resistant, Foamular has other significant advantages that can make it a great choice for aesthetic reasons:
- It can be finished with a smooth render to match a cement-rendered brick home;
- It can be 50-70mm thick, allowing windows to be recessed to match the rest of the home;
- The epoxy render finish can be a specific colour that never needs to be repainted unless you want to change their home to another colour.
Another advantage is that it costs significantly less when compared to brick.
4. Landscaping
Any major renovation to your home will likely affect part if not all of your garden, likely meaning you will have to create a new garden after the building work has finished.
Rather than being an issue, this is another opportunity to transform the look of your home at the front, and the liveability of your home at the back.
At the front, a new garden can frame, add colour and brighten the look of your home.
However, as one leading Sydney real estate agent told us, it’s important not to ‘over landscape’. Planting trees that eventually grow large enough to hide the front of your home may, if you want to sell it in the future, put potential buyers off.
As Vicki Peters at Elders points out, “People vet the properties they are going to inspect by looking at the pictures on the internet, and trees obscuring the frontage doesn’t allow buyers to get a clear impression.”
5. Feature Walls and Splashbacks
Moving inside the home, there are many finishes that all contribute to the overall feel and impression left by your renovation, from door handles to tapware, carpets to tiles and more.
However, the biggest impact often is the one wall or splashback that you select to stand out from its surroundings.
Whether you have a wall of stripped-back brick, stone, wood panelling, a mural, or a kitchen splashback, the feature wall allows you to add personality inside your home, especially if you aim to keep other walls simple to create a feel of space and light.
Again, there are plenty of online resources available that provide inspiration like Dulux, Houzz and Pinterest.
Ready to Renovate?
If you are looking to renovate and want further advice, Addbuild is Sydney’s leading builder of home additions and extensions with more than 2,000 projects completed since 1980.
Feel free to delve into our comprehensive suite of articles with advice about all aspects of renovating.
If you are ready to renovate now, call our office on (02) 8765 1555 or send us a message using our contact form if outside of office hours.
Addbuild offers a ‘concept-to-completion‘ service that includes experienced designers and the management of the Development Application process on your behalf.
