It’s helpful to know what factors tend to blow out the budget in the first place, because a common fear among homeowners and business owners is exceeding the budget. If you know what to plan for and avoid, it makes the renovation, remodeling or redesign process a lot less scary. 

Unforeseen Issues

I have a client that wanted to move a wall out a foot to give more square footage to the kitchen. When the contractor got in there and started demolishing walls, they found a steel column, which could be moved, but it would be very expensive. As a result, the kitchen design had to be adjusted a bit. 

A bathroom renovation I worked on was in a home that was over 100 years old. When they tore up the floors they saw that there had once been water damage so one of the rafters in the floor was rotted. So the contractor had to add some additional support to that section of the floor structure. 

These types of problems are usually identified during demolition. So luckily, you’ll know if your budget will be influenced pretty early on in the construction process, but if it’s still not exactly fun to deal with. 

You can’t avoid unforeseen issues, but you can plan for them. I recommend having a contingency set aside just in case. 10% to 15% of your overall budget is usually a healthy amount. The older the home, the more you should expect to use that contingency. I find that with older homes, there’s usually at least one thing that needs to be repaired or something that needs to be addressed before it becomes a problem later on. 

If your home is new construction, you should still have a contingency because during construction there are sometimes elements of the overall design that may not have been accounted for since you have so many different disciplines involved. For example, the HVAC professional may say during construction that they actually need to run ductwork along a wall that was supposed to be a statement accent wall. That means that the design would need to be adjusted accordingly so you get the best of both worlds–great design and optimal HVAC efficiency. That means that the general contractor, interior designer, and HVAC contractor need to do additional work on their end (= more fee). To avoid this, have the professionals on your project collaborate well before construction begins. 

By definition. you can’t do a thing about running into unforeseen circumstances, but you can work with a professional that’s helping you with implementation and is great at troubleshooting. Implementation in itself isn’t all that complicated, it’s the curveballs along the way that make it challenging. That’s why our clients appreciate our full-service design package—it gives our clients peace of mind (aka sanity). 

Winging It

I like to call this living on the edge. The thought of planning a major interior design project as you go along gives me serious anxiety. Something always goes wrong on every single project, even with a solid plan. If someone tells you otherwise, they’re lying. 

If you don’t plan the design ahead of time, you’ve just created a whole slew of unforeseen issues. How do you know if everything will fit?! What if the tile you want has a 12 week lead time? If you have an overhang for stools on the kitchen peninsula are you still going to have space for the dining table you want? 

Honestly, if you don’t plan ahead you won’t even know if you have a realistic budget. You want to make sure that your budget actually matches your wishlist or you’re in for a huge surprise later. This is something we discuss and evaluate with our clients through our Boutique Consultations and other design services. 

If you design everything in advance, you’ll get the full picture and can avoid a lot of issues because you’ll catch them ahead of time. That’s why we draw so much–it’s not just because we’re visual people. It’s because when we draw the design to scale, we get to see how one design element influences another. We also consider how this thing is going to get built.

I might sound biased, but contractors like to have a design ahead of time as well, because they can provide you with an accurate estimate. Some of the contractors we often work with say they’re spoiled now, because they don’t want to work on a design without a set of drawings anymore.

Adding Scope

When one room has a complete facelift, it can make the other rooms look more outdated than they did before. If the client has the means, they’ll sometimes extend the scope of the project, meaning they want to work on other spaces at the same time. More scope means more work for the entire design and construction team. So appropriately, the required budget required is going to increase as well. 

Whether or not scope is added to a project is up to you. If you want to update additional sections of your home, but don’t have the budget to tackle everything simultaneously, you can phase out the project. This means you’ll address parts of the overall project over time. If phasing out a project makes the most sense for you, designing everything simultaneously before any construction starts is even more important. You’ll need to evaluate how one design element in one space influences another since each implementation will happen in stages. You’re not going to want your contractor to make changes to a space once it’s complete if you can avoid it.

That being said, in the long run it’s more cost effective to have several spaces tackled at one time rather than piecemeal. The other advantage is that you don’t need to go through so many separate periods of construction.

Being Indecisive

Every time a client changes their mind, there’s a domino effect. At the very least, the designer needs to redesign part of the space. A redesign often requires updates to drawings, selections and pricing. If it’s something like a custom built-in, we’re also requesting updates from the fabricator. Additionally, that redesign may require a redesign of another section of the space. 

The worst is when a client changes their mind during construction, because not only does the aforementioned need to happen, the builder also needs to adjust what was already done onsite. A major change will also affect the timeline of the project overall. In short, indecision is expensive. 

To avoid indecision, the homeowner or business owner need to be very clear on the priorities for the space from the very beginning. If you know exactly how you want the space to function and feel, it becomes very clear what design solutions will or won’t work. 

How to Avoid Going Over Budget

With the exception of unforeseen issues, you have control over whether or not you exceed the budget. If you clearly prioritize what’s most important in the design, plan ahead as much as possible, evaluate the project from a design, selections and budget standpoint you’ll avoid a lot of hits to the budget. If you have a team that can help you work through all of this and also manage implementation, you’re golden.

In general, the more you plan ahead the better. When we work with clients we review the design, product selections and product pricing at the same time so our client get the full picture when looking at the interior design. Then we use that design package to get quotes for the actual execution, from prospective contractors. Since we’re reviewing all the foreseeable issues, selections and budget ahead of time there are a lot less surprises. And if there are any surprises, you have a team of people there to help you troubleshoot.