Yahoo Finance 3 Home Renovations Worth the Cost, According to Millionaires
Home renovations have been all the rage since COVID-19 forced people to spend more time at home. While trends come and go — hello custom bookshelves to impress clients on Zoom — home renovations are still top of mind. Depending on your budget, home updates range from extensive kitchen overhauls to commissioning a custom coffee table, but people are still just as focused on how their homes look in 2024.
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We chatted with three experts who work in the home renovation field to see what choices are worth cutting a check for and which aren’t worth the cringy price tag. Thanks to them, you can save some money without sacrificing style and achieving the look you want.
Custom Furniture
Dylan Shipley, founder of Dylan Martin Furniture LLC, specializes in custom furniture and millwork. Shipley is an expert in knowing which dining and end tables, cabinetry and bookshelves are worth investing in. As a fabricator who works primarily with interior designers, he brings their visions to life and is adamant about homeowners contributing to the planning phase.
After starting his career in industrial design, Shipley fell in love with working in the woodshop, creating custom furniture for residential and commercial clients. He still follows his tried-and-true philosophy: If you’re going to spend the money, make sure you get what you want.
“I believe affluent clientele are attracted to custom furniture because it is special in comparison with store bought pieces that anyone in the world can also own,” explains Shipley, who is based in Chicago. “Whether it is a coffee or dining room table or a bookshelf, people hire me because they want something truly unique made by someone local.”
While recent fads have leaned towards a mixture of Midcentury modern and Art Deco, Shipley believes custom pieces should explicitly meet the client’s design goals. The woodworker encourages his clients to put a lot of thought into what will be most functional for their home to receive the most payoff from their custom piece.
Once a client considers how the piece fits into the whole picture, they can know exactly what design choices to make. Putting a lot into the planning process is how Shipley’s clients achieve the product they’re truly after. “Custom furniture should be considered an investment piece that will last for decades to come,” he says.
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Elevated Finishes
Rae Muranski, owner of Moderne Living, an award-winning company that specializes in high-end European furniture, carries a similar mindset that money should be spent right. The owner — who started her career as a CPA in the finance world — is proud to have taken over her husband’s family business.
Parlaying her financial background into the interior design business over the last 20 years, Muranski has adapted the company after the 2008 housing crash from a simple product line to a wide offering of kitchen, bathroom, floor, furniture and wallpapers. Similarly, while the business saw a significant uptick in home office and gym renovations during the pandemic, it now caters to all-around home refreshes.
Muranski, who generally works on million-plus dollar projects in Chicago, Lake Tahoe and Connecticut, looks at the bigger picture when dealing with renovations. “Because we offer such a wide variety of products, anything the client wants from a kitchen overhaul to a foyer entrance facelift we can do,” she explains. “The client chooses the area they want to work on and we cater to that.”
Yet, make no mistake that Muranski’s team will always insert themselves as the experts. The biggest mistake clients can make is thinking they know everything after seeing a simple photo and product description online.
Muranski assures that her team, who knows every detail of their product line, will spot oversights a client might ignore — like different-sized doors within a foyer. Getting the details right is her focus no matter the project’s budget.
“We encourage our clients to invest in timeless, luxury, quality designs and products as a business strategy,” she explains. “Just because something looks good in a picture doesn’t mean it looks right in real life. That’s why we use our acumen to select the products and designs that will both appeal to our client’s taste and also raise their property value.”
Strategic Updates
Nashville-based interior designer Hannah Crowell takes just as pragmatic an approach to her craft. When renovating her own home in recent years, she decided to make a bold move and take the 1960s ranch down to its studs. During the experience, Crowell learned a few lessons she’s delighted to share so others can sidestep the same pains.
While it might sound mundane to an interior designer known for bold, quirky designs, not including heating floors was a huge oversight. “If I could go back, that is the number one thing I would change because, while it sounded frivolous at the time, I now realize it is worth every single penny,” Crowell explains.
On the other hand, deciding to replace all of the windows in her historic home was a hard check to write but worth every penny. Beyond aesthetic value, the energy efficiency of her home went through the roof. “I did not realize how poorly heated and cooled my house was until I replaced my cracked, old double-paned windows which were always letting heat and cold out,” Crowell explains.
Getting new windows and insulating the house with spray foam made a huge difference in her electric and gas bills. “While more expensive, spray foam is so much more energy efficient and totally worth it in the long run when it comes to steamy summers and frigid winters,” she says.
Yet, one surprising area that Crowell does not feel is worth a hefty paycheck is hardwood floors. While some might feel that floors are everything, Crowell assures that you can’t tell the difference between an $8 board and a $20 option.
“I went the affordable route and do not regret it at all because you cannot tell the difference whether you’re an expert or a novice,” she explains. “If you are renovating a million-plus dollar house, I believe you can go the cheaper side when it comes to your hardwood floors and get the same chic look,” she says.
Still, there are some areas of your home you simply can’t skimp on. In Crowell’s eyes, this includes having your appliances paneled in key areas like the kitchen to create a clean and luxurious look.
Speaking to cabinetry, she explains, “I would recommend doing high-end custom cabinetry in the places that truly matter like the kitchen or primary bathroom, where you will spend the majority of your time.” On the other hand, she suggests spending less on spaces like children’s bathrooms and laundry rooms that don’t require the same level of finish.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 3 Home Renovations Worth the Cost, According to Millionaires
