Building a budget for renovation and interior design work

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The home design process is an expensive process and full of budgetary dilemmas. This is a bottomless pit as there is no end to the designs and items that can be purchased. There are several basic steps you can take to begin the process of preparation for mediation.

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Cost estimation

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The only way to know what we are going for is by setting a cost estimate. All items and all expected work components must be entered in this table. A cost estimate table is usually made by interior designers or architects from their experience in the field and is a professional table made in a calculation table that lists all the work components, items and finishing materials by square meter / length or units and sums them up to a total amount.

If you are only in the initial testing phase, there is a way to calculate more roughly - in the calculation per square meter, about which I will now explain:

Calculation by price per square meter

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From experience in a massive renovation of a residential apartment that includes replacing flooring, breaking and demolishing walls, paint jobs, electrical insulation and lighting throughout the house and including replacing a kitchen and installing a new air conditioning system may be calculated according to:

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Low standard: about 3000-2000 NIS per meter per square meter.
Medium standard: 3000-5000 NIS per square meter. High standard: 4000-8000 NIS per square meter. It's big on average ..

What is left is to double the number of meters in the house area.

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This is not the exact way to estimate costs but it is a way to know which budget area to adjust to. If you are planning to renovate a 100-meter house and your budget is NIS 100,000, you will need to adjust to serious compromises or divide the renovation into stages - what is fixed (flooring, electricity, plumbing, etc.) in stage A and what can be transferred later (kitchen, styling , Furniture, etc.)

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For that matter when talking about a mediocre standard (common among renovators) -   We are talking about a renovation that includes a kitchen from a well-known and high-quality Israeli company, Italian flooring or equivalent in the region of NIS 200-300 per square meter, furniture from well-known manufacturers, etc., new electrical and lighting systems, showers, mini-central air conditioning, including plaster, wall changes, etc.
100 square meters of renovation of such a space will cost between 300 and 450 thousand NIS or so. Again, this is a very rough overall estimate as you can see but that is the direction for a complete renovation.

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How to save on a budget?

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Now that you have the estimated amounts you can start at the bidding stage. Start collecting offers from different contractors and suppliers in order to get a more accurate and clear picture. It is best at this stage to work with interior designers who will prepare a detailed budget for you and plan your expenses according to items.

At the end of the bidding and evaluation phase, it is very possible that a situation will arise where the budget available to you is smaller than the renovation evaluation. What can you do in such a case?

First understand that you do not have to carry out the entire renovation at once. You can start with the public spaces like living room, kitchen and dining area and finish them properly when the rooms and balcony are taken care of later. Alternatively, in the first stage, perform all the complicated, dirty and permanent elements such as breaking walls, flooring, electricity, air conditioning systems, etc. - and prepare the ground for the rest - for furniture, kitchen (in the first stage can be done without the island for example and then complete).

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In addition, prioritize the budget components in the right places. Combine items with quality finishes where needed and cheaper and temporary items.  

General tips

Despite the budget constraints we all want to feel that the house has undergone a major change and received a copious dose of design. Let's see how you can get this:

1. Fill the space with design  

The most important thing is to look at the big picture and not at each item individually. Think about how the connection between the items is obtained. It is best to fill the space with as much design and items that speak the same language, even if they are not of super designers  And at the highest level of finish than designing only part of the space at a high and expensive level of finish and making painful compromises in the rest of the design. When everything is new and the items are selected to match each other even if they are not in a premium finish  - Feel a strong presence of design. It is better than an invested space that has an annoying "design hole" that bothers the eye. This does not mean that you can buy anything of bad quality of course. In the cheap items one should identify those who are doing the job properly.  

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For example: in the kitchen, it is better to "lower" the level of finish for the Formica kitchen and the living room for a fabric finish from an inexpensive mesh so that there is a budget left for styling and a dining area. This is a pretty basic example because a lot of people invest everything in the kitchen and then get stuck with the old unsuitable dining area or walk into a house empty of styling and don’t understand why something is missing in the house. 

A similar solution is to make design compromises in more hidden spaces such as rooms - in order not to spoil the design sequence. At most buy a new bed for the parents' bedroom at a later stage.

2. Think simple
 
Another tip was to simplify the complexity of the work.

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I mentioned that contemporary design allows for more. If in a minimalist design you need to build some special detail in plaster to plant a hidden LED strip or a floating kitchen with stage profiles instead of handles, then in a contemporary design you can settle for some colorful and cute light fixture that hangs with its bare cable and it looks graceful and stylish.

Another example - a Formica kitchen with cute brass knob handles. This is what is beautiful in this style and for that purpose it was invented - to produce grace and beauty from the imperfect.  

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With regard to furniture and carpentry, it can be said that custom carpentry makes the design very expensive. Try to avoid as much as possible where possible and settle for pre-made furniture or simpler materials that the connection between them, does the job.  

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So far at the tip of the fork when it comes to cost savings. There is no magic solution, in the end renovation is an expensive thing. The goal is to come up with a good result and a uniform and good design sequence with the budget available to you.

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The above text is an opinion and a personal review from the studio's experience. All rights to the text and images on the site, including this page, are reserved to "Yaniv Solomon Interior Design". All or parts of it may not be quoted or published without permission. And for each space different data and the responsibility for the execution independently without personal intention is on the operation only.  

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