Why is your renovation so important? You'll want to read this...

A home is much more than just the bricks and mortar. Home is safety, contentment and an important part of all of how we feel in our lives.

That’s not just something I believe, research proves it.

According to one study conducted by researchers at UCLA, Darby E. Saxbe and Rena Repetti, women who described their living spaces as “cluttered” or “unfinished” were more likely to be depressed and fatigued than women who described their home as “restorative” and “restful”.

If we can design our spaces to optimise for rest and contentment, and improve our wellbeing, I’m all for it – are you?

Your renovation is your opportunity

Renovating a house is a huge undertaking and disruption in your life.

Living in the dust and mess only becomes manageable when you remind yourself (hourly) why you’re doing it and focus on the benefits it’s bringing, and will bring when it’s finished.

Remember:

You’ve given yourself this amazing opportunity to optimise a house that can give you everything you need from a home.

You’ve got an incredibly exciting project you’re working on which right now, is sorely needed for everyone. Sinking your teeth into a project that focusses your mind on a positive future gives you respite from the adversity.

You’re demonstrating your bravery. Some might be reading this having nodded along to Neil’s post Are you a reluctant renovator? last week – whether you’re doing this project out of necessity to get on the property ladder or because you’ve always wanted to renovate a house, or a bit of both, you’ve chosen the not-so-easy path and you’re brave! The best successes in life are the ones where challenge is met.

We’re here to help you through the challenge

You shouldn’t feel like you need to work everything out on your own.

Years ago, when we first started out in renovating, there was nothing out there to help us. We felt like we couldn’t trust our estate agents, couldn’t trust the surveys, didn’t know whether our budgeting was accurate and worse, we just had no idea where to start.

But start, we did. One foot in front of the other. In the process we built this blog, our services and courses to make sure that anyone else renovating has information they need to make decisions and isn’t doing it alone.

Along the way, we’ve recognised some important values that we pour into everything we do. From our Happy Home Letters, to our Reno Club, to our Free renovation guides, to our shop products and online courses.

What to expect if you’re here…

• Our aim is to empower you to improve your home… + life

  Renovations + home design can feel a mix of exciting and fun, while sometimes being daunting and unobtainable. Through our stories, products and services, our aim is to show people that whatever your home isn’t giving you, you have the power to improve it! – and you don’t have to do it alone. We’re here to help you every step of the way.

• We want to inspire you to think differently about the design of your home and how you plan to use it

  You’ll never find us pushing people to invest in ‘showy’ projects if it ultimately isn’t what is right for your house, what you need nor what you want. We ask questions to get you thinking seriously about everything from budgets to layout to decor choices – which sometimes can reveal that smaller, more modest builds are every bit as impactful for you and your home. (Read about why we decided to ditch our 80K kitchen extension plans).

• We keep things simple

  There's a lot of jargon in our industry which can overwhelm if it gets too technical. Not to mention there’s a hell of a lot of articles out there that show amazing renovations with no mention of how they did it or how much it cost. We get nitty gritty. We try to bring essential information to every article, and keep things straight up useful and simple.

• We share everything from the heart
  From our renovation successes to the mistakes, we share everything we think will help you with your project – and we consider it our duty to consistently research new suppliers, solutions and innovations in our industry. Ultimately, everything we share is with love and the progress of your home project in mind.

• We strongly believe great design doesn’t date
  We’re not big into trends unless they’re timeless. Why? Well, when you’re investing so much heart, and money into the design of a renovation, you don’t want to be changing it a few years down the line. That’s why we make our design decisions (and all our design suggestions on this website) putting practicality and timeless appeal at the forefront. We’re unapologetically neutral lovers too – we love colours that are inspired by nature, and easy to live with. Look at biophilic design principles to learn why nature matters to us.

Conclusion

If you’ve been with us for a while or if you’re new here and you’re embarking on your reno project, I hope this article has reminded you why your renovation is important. Keep these reasons in the forefront of your mind – it will carry you through the dust, sweat, tears and tantrums renovating a house throws along the way.

Renovating a house isn’t just about how you’ll arrange the bricks and mortar, it’s about your wellbeing and future too.

Thanks for reading this, if you enjoyed this post please do consider sharing it on your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram – you’ll be supporting us and helping us to spread the word to other renovators.

Talk soon,

Fi xoxo