Interior design shows on TV will have you thinking that the home renovation process is relatively painless and quick. While it’s true that a remodel may seem pretty straight-forward – you might know, for example, that you want to install a brand new kitchen, change the bathrooms, put in wood flooring, repaint the walls, and upgrade the air-conditioners – in actuality, there are thousands of decisions that go into achieving a successful outcome, some of which you might not even realise until it’s too late.
That’s where BRITTA BUTLER – founder and design director of B Squared Design – comes in. She has completed many residential renovations in Hong Kong, and knows exactly what to include to make a build truly successful. Here are five home renovation tips for key components that people often forget when renovating, that Britta loves to use in her projects.
Home Renovation Tips – 5 Key Components You Should Consider in Your Interior Design
#1 Hidden power outlets for electronics
The last thing you want after designing a beautiful, new living space is to realise that you have to run extension cords everywhere to charge your phones, computers and gaming consoles. What an eyesore!
Make sure to plan ahead and think about all the places you may need sockets. Two locations often forgotten are next to the bed for lighting and charging phones, and inside medicine cabinets in the bathroom for razors and electric toothbrushes.
Britta likes to take this a step further and put outlets inside drawers and cabinets, so while items are charging they are hidden away with no unsightly cables on countertops.
#2 Pull-out bins in the kitchen and bathroom
People spend hours and hours of time choosing tiles, doors, handles, countertops and appliances, and then once they have their beautifully appointed chef’s kitchen or spa bathroom, they realise that they neglected to include a place for the rubbish bin!
In order to avoid ruining the aesthetic with a wastebasket plunked down out in the open and in the way, make sure that you factor in a designated space to hide it in the cabinetry. If space allows, the team at B Squared Design likes to make room for two containers in a pull-out drawer: one for trash and one for recycling.
#3 Wall power point for a TV
Gone are the large, clunky televisions of years past, and gone with them are bulky TV cabinets; most people like to hang their flat screens on the wall so that they don’t sacrifice valuable floor area. The only issue with this is that they often forget to place a power point at the proper height on the wall to accommodate the device, and they end up having visible cords hanging down.
The best way to avoid this scenario is to know your exact make, model and size of television before the renovation starts, so that the electrician knows exactly where to install the plugs.
#4 Kitchen water
Everyone knows that you need water in the kitchen for cooking and cleaning, and that you obviously have to run a pipe to the sink for this purpose. However, another oft-forgotten (until it’s too late!) location is the refrigerator.
Make sure that you have specified the model of fridge that you want in your new kitchen, and that you know whether it will need water for an ice maker or filtered water before your contractor pours the concrete slab or closes up the walls.
#5 Shower niches
Imagine a gorgeous new bathroom with amazing tile work and your dream rain shower. Now imagine that you go in to use this shower and you have nowhere to put your shampoo, conditioner or soap because you’ve forgotten to include a designated space to store these items. All of your bottles end up sitting on the floor, resulting in the shower looking cluttered and messy, and you have to bend over every time you need to use them. So frustrating!
Make sure that you add at least one niche in your design that is tall and deep enough to comfortably hold all the things that you’d like to have handy.
B Squared Design is at Room 2011, 20/F, Remex Centre, 42 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Wong Chuk Hang.
2728 8805 | info@bsquareddesignhk.com | IG & FB: @bsquareddesignhk | bsquareddesignhk.com
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