I met with a prospective client in Coburg this week. The focus of this meeting was the kitchen. But given the homeowners’ budget, future plans and life stage I asked whether it was necessary to renovate their kitchen now. The response was ‘well when do I get my dream kitchen’. So I’ve been thinking about when is the perfect time to create your dream space.
When’s a good time to renovate?
When a client is ready to engage me to help with their interior design or interior styling project a lot has happened. They’ve had many discussions, saved a lot of money, postponed certain life events or waited for other life events to happen.
Sometimes I feel like the stars are truly aligned and the timing is just right when I meet with and start work with clients.The timing of your project is dependent on many factors. Such as budget, work, family and the stuff life throws our way.
Just starting a family, your time and money is devoted to family. Downsizing and you have a strong emotional connection to the family home. Single and just moved or just moved in with a partner is also the time people want a dream space.
So when is a good time to renovate? Well this is personal and different for everyone but sometimes you just have to press go and make it happen. For my clients this starts with a phone call and booking an ideas meeting.
Creating your dream space
For the prospective client in Coburg, they had been living in their house for 18 years. So they’ve been unhappy with aspects of their home for 18 years.
The kitchen, bathroom and even the master bedroom. They wanted to open up the back of the house add an ensuite, add a wall to wall sliding door to the back yard and so on.
Their budget was $100,000. Not enough for everything they wanted to do but enough for a kitchen.
After sharing ideas about the kitchen layout, I asked about their future plans. With aging parents, and two other properties, and a view to moving in five years. I asked if they wanted to spend $100,000 on a house they intend to sell.
That’s when the client asked ‘when do I get my dream kitchen’. Creating a dream space needs to happen at the right time but also in the right property.
I suggested they renovate an investment property in Thornbury they were considering downsizing to rather then renovating a family home they want to sell in a few years.
I understand the value of creating your dream space. It’s my job to create dream spaces. A dream has both emotional and practical components.
To achieve a dream you need to go through a lot of pragmatic steps. So I offered the prospective client a pragmatic possibility that perhaps her dream kitchen was in Thornbury and not Coburg.
This gave them another thing to consider in whether to renovate or not. But your dream space needs to be in the right place at the right time. Ideally, In a home you will be in a for a long time rather than a short time.
These are all the factors to consider for when and how to create your dream space. The truth is that there is no perfect time to create your dream space. Perfect doesn’t exist. The right time to renovate is a decision based on compromises as well as dreams.