I’m so excited you guys are here! Read all about my inspiration for this renovation blog series and who it is designed for, here! (P.S. the answer is YOU- it’s designed for you!!) Anyone can renovate or build a house, the tricky part is nailing your vision. So how do you get YOUR project to turn out like you envision it, like a dream home? I can tell you right now that the single most important thing you will do is to PLAN. Get your vision crystal clear up front, before a single stick of wood is framed, and I’d love to share with you exactly how to start planning your renovation. The best part is, that I’m doing it right along side you while I renovate our Lakehouse!
Unclear Vision Rescue
I had the opportunity to work with a couple clients over the past year and I learned so much from them! For example, one of my clients realized during the project that she hadn’t communicated how she wanted to feel in her home with her architect. It wasn’t until the project was well underway, through seeing what she didn’t want, that the ability to describe her vision became clear suddenly. She wanted her space to be cozy and symmetrical and she hadn’t shared that and she felt that words like grand and asymetrical were taking over and might quickly be how the home ended up. When I came on board with the project, we spent most of our time focusing on how to cozy it up and add balance. In the end the home turned out stunning because she was able to put how she wanted to feel in the home front and centre when making her choices.
Rather than backtrack with your home, once your project is in full swing (backtracking can be costly, stressful, and you run the risk of being too late for changes) you can flesh out exactly what you want in the end, up front, and have a really clear plan to take with you to your architects, trades, husband/wife, and designer so you end up with a fully executed vision, making sure your must-haves are all present for roll-call when you move in!
The Perfect Place to START!
I recently got the chance to take part in the Three Birds Renovations Reno School! I know right?! So lucky! I jump at any chance to hone my craft! If you don’t know, Three Birds Renovations, they are currently inspiring 443K followers daily on Instagram through their renos and are one of my personal all time fav accounts to follow!
Even though I’ve extensively renovated 6 homes, I still found value! Learning from other pros in the field is always a good idea! One of the most impactful parts of the course, for me, was the idea to create a vision board to define your reno vision up front. I am such a hardcore believer in planning and I found this tool really useful and quickly integrated it into my own process.
Honestly, I have created a million mood boards for each room in all of my homes. It’s how I figure out if different elements look good together and are creating the vibe that I want. This is different!
A Vision Board comes first! Before you start dividing up your inspiration by specific room, you make a vision board that not only includes what you want your home to look like, but what you want the spaces to feel like!
Moreover, this vision board is one board that encompasses the vibe of the entire home. It’s a jumping off point that lets you capture the essence of your home. I loved this idea from the jump, and had to try it for myself and our Lakehouse! I feel like it’s such a great way to make sure the entire home shares one cohesive feel, and it’s not daunting because you’re not getting too specific with any space. AND IT’S FUN! Without any further ado…
The First Look at My Lakehouse Vision Board! TaDaaaaaaa!
I have been creating and honing my vision board for our new lakehouse reno for the past six months, (I know crazy, but I am an intense planner from way back!! lol!)
In the beginning, it was really hard to pinpoint exactly what I wanted from this home. I knew that I wanted our home to feel curated, inspired by thoughtful details, and warm. Warm is so important to me and what led to centering the home around the addition of a gorgeous fireplace…right across from the kitchen island! In this board you want to start BROAD and only be concerned with an overall look and feel of your home.
Keep it Cohesive and Stay in Your Lane
This board is by no means everything I want, but it does capture the essence of the look and feel which helps me stay in my lane in a world that keeps throwing new ideas and styles at you- and can really be overwhelming!
I started out with so many more photos and continued to edit and add for a long time until it became something that really felt like an embodiment of the style that I was looking for in our new home.
Your Vision In 3 Words
Three Birds Renovations (I learned the Vision Board Technique from them!) has you define your style and vision in 3 words. This has been really, really, really hard for me. Like I was on a mission to search my soul for months!! The answer was kind of always there but sometimes you have to go on so many tangents to arrive at the feeling that is totally you.
#ModernFeminineCoastal
So, I’ve come up with #ModernFeminineCoastal. Every decision I make I keep asking myself if I’m keeping this tension and pulling elements that speak to the piece of me that is modern, the piece of me that is oh so feminine, and the piece of my home that is undoubtedly coastal living on the lake now.
Define Your Style
Now when it’s complete, define your home’s style in 3 words. I love that Three Birds Renovations makes you do this because it forces you to be totally clear on the vision for your home. It’s such a relief once you really define your project and have direction.
Don’t Rush Design
If you can’t figure out your style that is totally ok, give yourself time. Don’t rush into anything and start building/renovating without knowing what you want. Once the process is underway, it can become a runaway train and you will sacrifice potential details left, right, and centre if you have no plan.
Let People Inside Your Head and Vision!
When I plan and design for myself, my emotions are front and centre in my mind, so I’m making choices that keep how I want to feel in mind. But it wasn’t until I took on a few clients that all of a sudden the “being inside their head” part disappeared. It was really scary. I can’t be inside a client’s head, unfortunately, so there needs to be a process where YOU the homeowner so carefully extracts what is in your head and puts it into pictures and words so that you YOU can know/speak/show/share/exemplify exactly what you want.
The Cold Hard Truth About Not Planning
You cannot hope that your vision magically gets translated to your contractor and architect…no one is a mind reader…especially since you might not have even really made up your mind. (Sound like you??) Don’t let people fill in your blanks for you…they’ll probably just stay blank. Seriously, if you don’t figure out your details, they just won’t exist. If you don’t clearly articulate in your own mind how you want to feel in your home, all your decisions won’t tie back to those feelings, and in the end the home won’t feel that way. It’s like a mission statement for your home, that you can always go back to with every decision.
Renovation Planning Homework: Start with A Vision Board
Ok now it’s your turn to put the work in, to fully and cohesively get your vision for your home down in images. I use Photoshop to make my vision board and mood boards. You can use any program you like, or print your pics and paste them onto a real board, which would be very cool because you could include fabric and samples. It’s really up to you, but basically you’re making a grown up collage of images that really speak to you for the overall look and feel of your home.
How do You Know if an Image “Speaks to You”?
Instagram has me thinking new things daily and thinking ooh I could be that style and really there’s no way ever I could ever be that style! lol….it’s important to truly turn off the noise and stay in your style lane when you pick your images.
Here’s my advice, look through every picture you’ve ever pinned for houses. I’ve been pinning for like 8 years and a lot of the images are just blah now of course, BUT it’s funny because the ones that really knocked my socks off…still do 8 years later! Those are the images you want to pull…the ones that consistently take your breath away…you don’t have to know why, just grab them and get them all into one place. The more the merrier. Later you can pair them down and figure out exactly which element you love and where it can go. To start: just get all your heart pounding pics in one place.
See My Boards On Pinterest
Pinterest is the best way to collect photos…so much inspo! If you don’t have a Pinterest account get one and join the party! I promise you’ll get the hang of it quick and it will be your bestie through this process! You can see exactly what pics I’ve been collecting on my Dream House Pinterest Board and how I categorize my inspiration here.
Another board that might inspire you is my “Best Kitchens of All Time” board…I’ve been collecting my favs forever and it has so much inspo goodness!
Reno School Review
The revelation of the Vision Board happens in the first module of the first of the 6 weeks in the Three Birds Reno Course, so don’t worry I’m not spoiling anything! That’s all I’ll be sharing, so if you’re interested in the course I would definitely recommend it! I really hope this peek into the course and introduction to Three Birds, if you haven’t met them, gets you inspired!
Get Caught Up On The Lakehouse Reno
In case you’re new to our 6th reno, we are totally overhauling a 1922 Cape Cod on the lake! The lake has been a game changer in our lives! You can catch up on the project by reading these posts:
“Take a Tour Inside Our Lakehouse Reno“
“Permits and Demo at The Lakehouse Reno“
Your Feedback
Please leave me questions in the comments about where to elaborate and what you want to know when planning, so I can tailor my posts to exactly what you need to know!
I’m really excited to give you more blog posts that show you how I do what I do, so you can, hopefully use what I’ve learned over the part ten years, with your renos and new builds!
If This Advice Helped You, Pin This With Your Reno Inspo!
More Tips for Renovating
If you like this post, then you should read these:
“How to Choose the Right Home to Renovate“
“Three Bathroom Mood Boards for the Moody Girl“
“The First Leslie Style Renovation: How I Got My Start Renovating“
Hi Leslie! Your renovations are beautiful. I’ve been debating whether or not to take the Three Birds Reno School course and found your blog very helpful. I wanted to know, which parts of the course were helpful and which parts were not? I live in the US and have been debating if an Australian course is worth the money. Thanks again!
Hi Savannah,
there was a lot of great info and I learned a lot about the planning process. The only downside is that the offers and product recommendations aren’t able to be used because they are for Australia, otherwise there is a lot of amazing info!