3 Must Do Tips When Remodeling or Redecorating – Plus Our Kitchen Mood Board

Before you start a project in your home, whether it be a simple decor project or a complex remodel, you will want to try 3 things that are my must do tips for remodeling or redecorating. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we are in the middle of a massive kitchen / home remodel! Remodeling projects usually conjure up feelings of stress and anxiety! You may also get similar feelings when it’s time to redecorate. So many decisions have to be made, money and time spent, it is stressful!!!

Well my friends, I am here to help you take some of that stress and uneasiness out of your next decorating or remodeling project! I’m sharing my 3 favorite tips for how I have made our remodeling process so much less painful for our house and I know they will help you too!!!

Here are my 3 simple, must do tips…

Once you have your project in mind, start tip #1 by looking for some inspiration photos. If you need help figuring out your design style or where to look for inspiration, you can read my post here. 

Whenever I start a project, large or small, design or remodel, I ALWAYS, ALWAYS look for inspiration.

• Where do you turn for inspiration??? Look through design magazines, scroll through design blogs or home sites {Houzz or Home Bunch}, scour Pinterest and Instagram.
• Gather your inspiration photos by creating a folder on your computer with the name of the project. Then, drop your inspiration images into that folder for you to refer back to.
• I like to create Pinterest boards for specific projects I’m working on in Pinterest. There is a kitchen board on my Pinterest that I created a few years ago when we started “talking” about wanting to remodel the kitchen. I just starting gathered inspiration over time so when the day finally came for the project to be started, I had tons of inspiration already at my fingertips.

Here are a few inspiration photos I used to design our new kitchen…

{Design by O’Brian Harris}

The island and cabinet layout really caught my eye. I kept going back to these photos over and over. My cabinet designer and I took a few of the ideas and tweaked them to work in our kitchen.

{image via Morgan Harrison Home}

Notice the fabulous mirrored fridge in this photo? Major inspiration!!!! You will die when you see what my cabinet guy and I designed for the fridge!!!!!

This photo helped me envision cabinets to the ceiling with some glass doors mixed with paneled doors -the look I was trying to achieve. If you have a specific idea in mind, try searching for a key phrase that will help you “see” that idea before you create it to make sure you are making the right decision.

{photo credit: Alysssa Rosenheck}

• Search for product inspiration as well. For example, if you’re in the market for a stove, hunt for photos that show you stove options. A few years ago my husband and I traveled to New Orleans and fell in love with La Cornue stoves. I started searching for inspiration photos with that specific stove to help me envision it in our kitchen project.
• You can do the same thing when trying to select furniture.

This tip will help you SO much!!!

• Creating a mood board allows you to see all of your pieces together before you purchase them!
• It will help save you from poor purchase decisions and from wasting time and money returning items that don’t work.
• Mood boards are not hard to make. I like to create mine in photoshop. You just open a new file and open saved images of items you are thinking about using in your project and see how they look together.
• Here is an easy tutorial on how to make one in Photoshop.

In our kitchen remodel I wanted to mix stainless steel and brass. I wasn’t sure how the two metals would look together. Creating a mood board helped reassure my decision, that yes brass and stainless steel will work together for our project.

You can see how light fixtures, furniture, tile – any products look together.

I’m SO excited to share with you the mood board I put together for our kitchen remodel…

Here is a list of the sources included in my mood board. Look for these items in our kitchen reveal! Click the gold words for the sources {some affiliate links are used for your convenience}.

1 | Chandelier – Can be ordered from Lighting Design Company {call to order}

2 |  Pot Filler  

 3 | Kitchen Faucet

 4 |  Island Lantern – Can be ordered from Lighting Design Company {call to order}

5 |  Sink – Blanco

 6 | Head Chairs

 7 | Backsplash

 8 | Hardware – Knobs & Handles

 9 | Hallway Sconces – Can be ordered from Lighting Design Company {call to order}

10 |  Cabinets – white shaker style

 11 | Kitchen Chairs

 12 | Countertops – Arizona Tile –Montclair White Marble

 13 | Stove

 14 | Counter Stool – Aidan Gray

When we moved into our home almost 10 years ago with very little furniture, I felt overwhelmed at the vast empty spaces that needed to be decorated on a very meager budget. A good friend of mine gave me the best advice. She simply said, “Rome wasn’t built in a day. Enjoy the process.” Such wise words have stuck with me over those 10 years. We you are redecorating or remodeling, remember those sage words, take your time!

• Enjoy the process. Don’t stress about the details, instead have fun hunting for that perfect piece – that show stopping focal point!
• Buy pieces as you have the budget. If you need 8 dining chairs and you can only afford 2 now, buy 2 now and then when you have the budget, buy 2 more, until you have the amount you need.
• Save for pieces you really want, that will last. I’ve learned that their is wisdom in not impulsively purchasing pieces for your home.

We started planning our kitchen remodel last May. May!!! The waiting was killing me at first, then I started to realize that the more time that went by, the better the project became. Good ideas became better. We were able to put more money aside to pay for the project. Good things truly do come to those who wait. Be patient and take your time!

Now go and redecorate or remodel something with less stress and anxiety! Go have some fun and enjoy making your house a home! I will be sharing before and update photos of the project here on the blog shorty. For daily updates visit my Instagram account.

Thanks for stopping by!

xo,

***Special thanks to Blanco, Arizona Tile, House of Antique Hardware & Lighting Design Company for partnering in this project. Their products are exquisite and help make remodeling dreams a reality!