How to Visualize Your Remodel

If there is one thing that people have the hardest time with when planning a remodel or decorating a home, it is how to envision everything put together, before it is put together. Most of us do not know if we will like something until we see it finished, and the last thing that I want for you is to have renovation remorse.

Envisioning is a tough one for a lot of people. Everyone has their gift but if visualizing something that doesn’t exist is not your gift it's not the end of the world! If you asked me to make a meal using random ingredients it would likely not be edible. I have to follow recipes and watch the same cooking videos over and over again. I grew up in a house with two amazing chefs who could create the most delicious meals every single day from scratch using ordinary ingredients and never followed any written recipes, yet I was not granted this talent. I cannot imagine doing so without exact recipes and videos, but if you asked me to design a home I could see it in my head as if it were in front of me.

Here’s the good news

We have so many amazing tools out there to pull things together to help you visualize what your finished project will look like.

If you followed my system for Renovation Rules, you’re going to want to do this somewhere in between Reno Rule #4 (narrowing it down) and Reno Rule #5 (locking it in).

You don't want to confuse yourself by starting to pull things together prematurely, as you may end up with too many images of a single item, mismatched pieces or items you don't love. By the time you reach RR#4 you will be narrowing things down. If you pinned 5 different Bath Vanities you are going to narrow it down to your top 2.

The more you narrow it down the easier it will be.

You will then repeat this for each item you need for the room. So, in the case of a bathroom, you will reference your Pinterent board and select your top 2 favorite mirrors, lights, faucets, shower system, medicine cabinet, wall tiles, floor tiles, countertop, hardware, paint colors, and art.

What types of things to add to your concept board

Make a list of all the things you need for that space from the biggest to the smallest. Then start creating that board. Search for the finish, color & style that you want.

Snap a picture of that vintage painting that you must use in this space & add it to your board.

This will help you visualize. If it's appealing, you know you are headed in the right direction! Plus, it's a virtual board. It's not like you have made the purchase so change it until it's perfect for you.

Your Virtual Concept Board

This will be your go to design tool, your Concept Board. This will be the tangible visual representation of where your inspirations and desires merge with the actual pieces and textures that you found on your design search.

A quick and easy way to bring this together is to use Google Slides or Canva. Take a snapshot or save the items you have selected and drag them onto your design page. It's that easy! You can literally start to visualize the room.

How to Screenshot a photo

On your phone you can take a screenshot. If you are on your computer, use the Snipping Tool or for Mac users use Command, Shift, 4 to take a snapshot of the image. You can also right click to save an image.

On many PC computers you can press the windows button and the printscreen button simultaneously to screenshot a photo, then open up Paint, and press Control V to paste it into Paint. Save as a .jpg and save it to your computer.

Where to put your screenshots

I normally save images to a folder so I can reference it quickly when I’m creating boards.

If they end up on my board in slides then I hyperlink it for easy access later.

If you want to use Google Slides here are some instructions:

Go to Google.com and click on the waffle square on the upper right to see the Google apps and select SLIDES.

Click on the + to start a new presentation. Select Slide - Apply Layout - Blank. This gives you a clean page to start pasting images in.

You can resize as you paste by dragging the blue corners

You can also go to Arrange - Order and move images front or back.

Adjust the photos of your saved ideas to fit in their respective places to get the visual.

If the images you are adding to this board are products you want to purchase, add links to each image so it will make life easier for you when you go to place orders later.

Canva: Select Create a design, Custom Size, 11 x 8.5 (inces) , you can select any size you prefer. Click on upload then upload an image and click on the image you want on your board. (You can use the free version but In the Pro version of Canva, you can save each of your photos without a background to make the final draft very clean looking.)

Here is how it looks.

Not Tech Savvy

If you are not Tech Savvy & have a color printer you

can also print out the images, cut them & stick to a poster board.

Share your Concept Boards

When you have all of your boards together it will be effortless for you to decide which of your final 2 items you want in your space. It will be very clear for you to see right in front of your eyes and not in your head whether the pieces you chose and the textures you like will come together.

You will easily be able to share with your contractor and point out all the details. This will help them understand the look you are going for because many of them cannot visualize without tools either.

These are simple but powerful design concept boards that will help you make important decisions before you fork out the dough.

The biggest thing I want you to remember is my golden rule,

Delight in the Details

XOXO

-Mano AThe Beach

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