Jul 27, 2015: Living room is the place where you bond with friends and family or relax on that couch sipping coffee. But a dated look with worn-out furniture or scrapped paint on the walls can make it an unpleasant place and less inviting. If the condition of your living room has deteriorated over a period of time or simply your needs have changed and out grown, then renovating your living room can make things better.
Whether you choose to go for vintage style interiors or aspire to give it a modern minimalistic touch, the following tips will come in handy when you plan for budget yet aesthetic remodeling-

1. Functioning vs. style – Will your fancy lighting work for you if there are issues with your age-old electrical wiring? Does your marvelous sofa make it appealing if your flooring is all chipped and faded?
It’s important to see your living room as an entity that comprises of everything from behind the wall cables to the switch boards and from furniture to window drapes. Look at your living space as an integrated system and take extra care to fix the ones that add to functionality. After all you don’t want to renovate your living room only to add the style quotient without watching out for the real value of functionality.

2. Green gain – The value proposition of green home is far more than ordinary building. Though you fail to foresee the actual trade-off, buck for buck, greener homes can save you a lot of money over a period of time. The costs of energy resources are only going to increase with time. But with eco-friendly materials like terracotta hollow bricks that can be used for partition walls in your living roomor bamboo for flooring, you can cut down on your utility bills drastically. They’re energy efficient with insulating properties that makes the interiors comfortable naturally without the need for cooling or heating appliances. By choosing sustainable building materials you also contribute back to the environment in the form of eco-friendly building, doing your bit.

3. The ideal size – Most of us dream of bigger living areas and want to make more room for special carpet which would otherwise seem too big or for a designer wing chair which is not fitting in at the moment.
Now is the time to give shape to your dream. Rather than just investing in trendy wallpapers or texture paint for the walls, think of moving the walls to make your living room bigger. If that is not possible then at least come up with innovative ideas to makean illusion of a bigger space. Make use of mirrors where possible, think monochrome for wall colours, place the furniture in such a way that they don’t hinder free movement, extend window curtains to full wall creating an illusion and do not contrast floor colour with the wall colour.

4. Luxurious lighting – Right lighting can give your living room a touch of elegance and helps create a luxurious ambience. Consider a mix of floor and ceiling lights. Incorporate lights as part of false ceiling to get neat finishing without spending a fortune. Maximize the appeal with accent lighting to rave up your living room instantly.

5. One at a time – Planning is the key to success when it comes to renovation. It helps you to understand what you are actually getting into asIt helps to evaluate the materials required to be purchased, things you want to retain, stuff you want to repurpose, how much renovation is too much for your budget, and more. Also planning refrains you from taking on everything all at once. It stops you from going beyond your limitations and budget.

Just concentrating on things-to-do alone won’t help you much to deal with the process of renovation. It is equally important tounderstand what things to avoid when renovating. Below are the few things, which might fail you if not taken into consideration:

1. You get what you pay – The most common mistakes many people make is that they always look out for cheap materials. The very purpose of renovation is to revamp your existing living room and add life to it so that you can sustain for decades to come. The investment that you make in cheap materials will only cost you with the quality. So think in terms of return on investment over a period of time rather than looking for immediate benefits.

2. Overlooking the prep work – Yes prep work sometimes tends to try your patience, as it is a tedious process. But when you look at the innumerable advantages you’ll know the importance of prep work. It not only saves you time later after the actual work is done, but it also saves you money. Don’t make the same mistake as others i.e. ignoring preliminary work.

3. Going over board – Take your overall interiors into considerations before going too hip with contemporary design ideas. Your new design pick for the living room should match the overall feel of your house. If your house represents more of a cozy Indian style interior then renovating your living room to meet the standards of western minimalismwill make your living room look awkward. The other disadvantage of going too trendy is that it’s short term and doesn’t last long since the trends keeping changing.

4. Lack of groundwork – No doubt you’ll hire a professional to do the renovation for you. But lack of knowledge about the work involved can lead to a failed project. Doing some homework and collecting preliminary information is preferred, as this not only enables you to tackle any problems which might arise during the ongoing renovation work but it also helps you to deal efficiently with your contractor by asking him the right questions.

5. Being unrealistic with budget – Don’t underestimate the cost of material and labor required to do a big renovation. Having a budget along with padding always works since you never know what can go wrong once the process is on. Sometimes you might change your mind midway and upgrade for something more worthy or just expensive! So keep a track.

The thought of renovation itself is super exciting however planning and executing your ideas under budget and to meet those expectations is a challenge. But a little thought on your part and the tips mentioned here are taken care of, everything becomes simple and doable.

-By team Wienerberger India