Nicole - Real Life Reno

What spaces did you renovate? 
We demolished the entire main living interior of our house which included the bathroom, bedrooms, kitchen and main living areas basically leaving the structural walls. We also removed the internal walls in our kitchen to create open living spaces. A major design consideration was to combine the original bathroom and laundry to create our spacious main bathroom consisting of a large bath, shower, toilet and vanity area.

What motivated you to renovate?
We were quickly outgrowing our house so decided it was time to move. We bought our “forever home” with lots of space for the kids. The rooms in our new home were very dark with stained timber everywhere. The original bathroom was pink and blue with swan etched glass!!! It was in desperate need of a new look!

Were you living here at the time of your renovations?
No

How would you describe your style?
Contemporary/Scandi

Talk us through the process you took in the planning stages of the renovation! 
I have always been excited about the opportunity to renovate a home and creating bright open spaces. So having a blank canvas was a dream come true. We found photos on Instagram and Pinterest to bring our ideas to life. Then ordered samples of the products we were interested in so we could look at everything together. Being able to see and feel the product was really important to us.

Were there any delays? How long did the renovation take?
We managed to find an amazing builder that was aware of our deadlines as we had a new baby on the way. We managed to complete everything within 8 weeks. That included everything… demolition started the day we received the keys! We had done a lot of planning during our settlement period so that was really important.

What was the most challenging part of the renovation? Did anything go wrong? How did you adapt?
The threat of delays in the supply of materials was a concern but we assisted our builder by helping to source in stock materials.

Were you juggling a career as well as overlooking the renovations?
We started demolition at the beginning of my maternity leave so I was very happy that I wasn’t juggling work and our reno at the same time.

Did you and your partner or family butt heads over the design at all?
Both my brothers thought we were biting off too much with a new baby on the way but luckily with the help of our legend of a builder it all came together.

Did you come into the TileCloud showroom to look around at tiles? Did you order samples?
We visited the TileCloud showroom after receiving our sample tiles. It was a lovely experience, we liked being able to see the tile options on a larger scale. The design consultant was amazing and the result is perfect.

Why did you choose TileCloud / What did you enjoy best about the TileCloud experience?
TileCloud was recommended to us by family. We had a great experience with all the staff. We were impressed with all the designs and tones available and they had exactly what we were looking for. They made it a smooth stress free process with the added bonus of having everything in stock with no delays on delivery.

Any advice for first time renovators?
My advice is to take your time getting all of the sourcing done so you're not in a mad panic when the builders really need that thing in two weeks' time – then it's all organised and ready to go. That helped to make building a pleasant experience as opposed to a really stressful one.
Plan ahead and find trustworthy trades .You hear horror stories about builders but luckily we hit the jackpot. Make sure you gather samples so that you can see all your choices go together perfectly before ordering.

What did you hire trades for and what did you do yourselves or with help of family and friends?
We had our builder with us every step of the way. He was able to let us know if our ideas were achievable within our limited timeframe.