D.I.Y. Saturday #1 – Getting Inspiration from Before and After Rooms

One of my goals for Stagetecture, is to help you create a beautiful home, on your own.  This means providing you ideas, resources, and

Original 1987 kitchen...

inspiration to help you feel confident about picking a project, and going for it!

Each Saturday, I will bring you “Do it yourself or D.I.Y. Saturday” A post dedicated to a resource to wake up to Saturday morning, and start the planning for your next home project.

Before and After Room Inspiration:

Remember my own Gibson Kitchen Renovation? For inspiration and ideas I combed through books, magazines, websites, and home improvement centers to find pieces to fit into a whole kitchen.  What helped me was looking through Before and After resources.  These resources help you visualize what your space could be.

You can see from my kitchen ‘Before’ photo, we had to decide if we wanted to replace just the appliances, or go all out. We decided to go half-way out, and reface the cabinets, counters, lighting, and painting.

Follow these tips below when looking through your Before and After resources.

1.) Budget:

Decide on how much you plan on spending on your project. Make sure the Before and After resources you model your project after, are in line with your budget. Don’t look at a million dollar gourmet kitchen renovation, and you only have 300.00 dollars to spend. This tip is

We chose a golden taupe color to compliment the espresso cabinets, and white granite.

not to discourage you. This tip is to make sure you stay realistic in planning, shopping and executing!

2.) Scope of your project:

Before and After resources are wonderful for figuring out, how much will you tackle at once.  Do you want this to be a weekend job, and therefore pick smaller tasks? Do you plan on taking a few weeks, months to finish the project instead?  The two biggest reasons why home projects don’t get finished is due to money and time.  Both are resources that should be thought through, and kept in mind when looking through magazines, and websites.

3.) Make Lists!

As you flip through your magazines, and books, take notes and make lists.  Write down finishes that you like, and which are realistic for your budget.  Once you’ve chosen your finishes, move on to a To-Do list. Leave time for incidentals, running back and forth to the store, and life in general! Lastly, make a store list that has materials and tools needed.  If you have time, shop around for competitor coupons and sales, save where you can!

4.) Take Before and After pictures:

Remember my post on taking pictures of your home for sale? These same rules apply here. Let in natural light, clear the clutter, so your pictures will look good before, and even better after.  Even though you don’t think you’ll want pictures, after you finish, you’ll wish you would have taken them.

5.) Use great resources!

What inspires you? Going to a great furniture store, or surfing the web? Me, personally, I like having a physical book or magazine in my hand.  This way I can take the book into the space, hold it up, and visualize the future space. I’ve chosen some books that are perfect for inspiration, as well as decor.

HGTV Before and After Decorating

This book is a great resource for picking your project, and makes a beautiful decor book as well!

Before and After resources can give you a vision, and a goal to your project. Follow these tips, and let me know what projects you take on!

Make sure and get your friends, spouse and family in on the decision too, you would hate to spend all this time and money, on a project that no one else likes!