First Comes Renovation, Then Comes the Interior Design Timeline
Okay y’all, I’ve been holding off on a renovation update for a while now because, to be honest, it’s been pretty boring. The last few weeks have been the part of the process they skip over in all the HGTV shows too. The electrical, the plumbing, some structural tweaks etc. I could have written about each little step but the goal here is to get more readers, not less. After what seems like a while, it’s time to talk about the interior design timeline.
Now that the drywall is just about up, this is when it all starts to change. Covering the ceilings and walls made it feel like a house again. There’s divided rooms and spaces. The house is much brighter. No more trying to picture, instead, I can see right in front of me how much room there will be for the interior design aspect.
However, while we waited/wait for this part to be done Joe and I had to be one step ahead and plan out quite a bit of other parts of the renovation. For me, it’s the fun part. I’m finally really designing the house, even thinking ahead to the decor. The interior design timeline was/is a bit confusing because it all depends on the lead time for ordering things. It does happen somewhat organically, but you have to be ahead.
To save time, and breath (or typed words I should say) here is a long story short on..
The Interior Design Timeline:
-
Hardwoods
These came first, a while ago. Back during framing. We went with a real hardwood floor instead of engineered or Laminate. The pieces can take longer to ship in, plus it’s the basis of your whole design. Get it out of the way and finalized so you can continue to make decisions.
We went with a rich, warm, lighter oak with a lot of texture and grooves. It’s about 5″ wide and I really can’t wait to see it laid down. I originally wanted it running the length of the house, but with old 1880’s floors that are very uneven, we were forced to go width-wise. I don’t mind because it has to do with the history of the house.
-
The Kitchen
I talked about our design for the kitchen in this post and it was probably the first big part of the overall interior design that we had to figure out. The lead time for a kitchen depends on the cabinets, the stone, and all that. It should come before you pick out tile for the house because your backsplash will depend on your kitchen design.
-
Tile
Despite a full 6 hour day going between tile stores and walking up and down tile aisles, this was the most fun so far. Because we could take samples, physically hold or see the tile to make sure it’s what we wanted. Heck, I was even laying them down on the floor of the store. I don’t want to give too much away here because I think the tiling is really going to set the house apart. Our contractor thought I was nuts for how many different types of tile I wanted throughout. I swear it’s going to look good!! I’ll give you a sneak peek with some mood board/flat lays. Can you guess what I plan on doing with them? But can you also guess how we’re laying/grouting them? That’s a whole other element to the tile design…
-
Lighting Fixtures
There was a total of 20 spots in our home that needed light fixtures. This is not including the recessed lighting throughout the entire house. So, this too took quite a while. I do not like one certain style. I’ll drift towards the farmhouse, and then I’ll love a super contemporary room until I realize I want to cozy it up a bit with some boho. Either way, I knew the challenge here would be getting all of the house to go together while playing with styles and mixing. I think it gives it a certain uniqueness and let me tell you, it was way more challenging than I thought! But obviously so fun.
Here are all the fixtures I ended up with. I actually didn’t mean to do this but they flow from downstairs to upstairs going top to bottom. Can you guess which is for which room?! You’ll have to stay tuned, subscribe to my email list so you don’t miss it!
-
Paint
Yesterday was painful. This is a huge debate between Joe and I. We both know we want certain accent walls in the house but there is one part we just can’t seem to agree: white walls. Personally, I love white (if you couldn’t tell by the name of my blog) but Joe, he’s very apprehensive. His reasoning is “why do a brand new house and make it look unfinished.” My response, “but you don’t get it.” I see it, the vision that is, whereas he just pictures the drywall the way it is now. I know he will like it, and it will look finished, I just wish I could put what I’m picturing into his brain.
Nevertheless, some color will exist throughout and yesterday we picked out some samples. I recently read this trend report from Hunker about 2019’s It Colors. Below are my two favorites from the different lines mentioned. Something about the bright but soft, cool, colors reminds me of my Instagram feed. I was never one to shy away from color in life itself, but they belong against a blank canvas. Which is why I want most of the walls white.
Sherwin William’s “Naturalist” Palette
Dunn Edwards “Poetic Passage”
The Construction End of the Interior Design Timeline
As the work progressed and we were picking out the design elements, from a construction standpoint it goes very differently. Instead, it goes paint, hardwood floors, kitchen, tile, lighting. Weird huh? They have to paint before they put the hardwoods. The kitchen is installed on top of the floors and then the tile to finish it off. I truly do love learning the process, from all angles. I love designing, waiting to see what will come to fruition.
Even though I’m itching for the day when it’s done, I think I’ll miss this process. Looks like we’ll have to start doing it for friends.. Any takers?!
