Home Renovation Guide: Ideas & Tips for Beginners

What to consider?

Whether you're planning to renovate a bathroom, wallpaper a single room or update an entire house, every renovation project consists of the same five steps:

1. Take stock: What needs replacing and what can stay? What condition is the room or house in and what do you want to achieve with the renovation?
2. Plan: What steps are necessary, which tools and materials will you need, how many people area able to help and how long might the job take?
3. Prepare: Get all your materials ready, clear the room and protect it from dirt with dust sheets.
4. Renovate: Follow the sequence of steps carefully (for example, when sanding down windows). Remember to allow for any drying times, etc.
5. Clean up: Dispose of any waste from the renovation and clean the area. Put furniture, etc. back in place.

Renovating requires precision and skill. If you're not yet sure how to sand a wall or cut tiles, for example, read through our guides or ask a professional for help. It's best to practise first before you start on the actual renovation!

The five golden rules of renovating

Classic renovation jobs include things like wallpapering walls, painting windows and doors, and cutting and laying laminate flooring. You can do all this without much prior experience, as long as you stick to the golden rules of renovating:

1. Always work from top to bottom

Always start with the messiest jobs and work your way from the ceiling to the floor. This is especially important if you're renovating a whole room. As a general rule:

• Sanding comes before filling
• Drilling before painting
• Knocking through a wall before working on the floor, etc.

2. Always plan generously

Whether it's wall paint or ironmongery, dust sheets or laminate: renovating creates a lot of waste. If you plan for about fifteen per cent more materials than you've calculated, you can easily avoid minor disasters.

3. Cleanliness is key

You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs; and you can't renovate without making a mess. Nevertheless, keeping your work area clean is important. Carefully cover any areas you don't want to get dirty and clear away rubble or debris after each step. This saves you a huge clean-up job at the end and prevents one stage of the renovation from creating more work for the next. We show you how to work cleanly and efficiently in our guide to planing, for example.

4. Take your time

As soon as you use liquid or viscous materials like paints, fillers or sealants, they need time to dry. You should never ignore the recommended drying times – even if it means you're twiddling your thumbs while you wait. In general, you should be aware that a renovation usually takes longer than you think.

5. Save money in the right places

Renovating can be quite expensive, so it's natural to want to save money somewhere. But be mindful of what you're saving on. Tools should be high-quality, as they need to be precise, durable and powerful. With wall paints, a high-quality formula also saves money – because the paint provides perfect coverage or is ideally suited for the room in question. However, for dust sheets, fillers and many other consumables, you don't necessarily need to reach for the premium product.

How to make small updates instead of a major renovation

You don't have to renovate completely if you're in the mood for something new. We have a few ideas for small DIY projects that will easily breathe new life into your home:

New handles for furniture, doors, or windows

Clean or renew grout

Paint individual walls in accent colors

Adjust lighting with more mood lighting

Hang new curtains

Modernize light switches

Don't want to renovate, but still want that fresh feeling? Then grab your cleaning supplies and get deep cleaning: Empty the entire room and clean every corner from ceiling to floor – including washing windows or shampooing the carpet. While you're at it, you can declutter thoroughly!