How To Renovate

EP42 Beyond The Renovation

• Tash South • Season 1 • Episode 42

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It’s the podcast’s first birthday! 
In this episode I wanted to talk about the meaning behind home renovations, because renovations are more than just bricks and mortar. 
I chat about the emotional connections we have to our spaces and how design can enhance our mental and physical well-being. 
We discuss how light and space can profoundly influence the atmosphere and our emotional health, particularly in darker climates like the UK, and how maximizing natural light can boost your mood.
This episode also emphasises how design can promote well-being, focusing on creating spaces that are both functional today - and adaptable for tomorrow. 

Join me inside this special episode to explore all the above, and why we need to connect our home design to our personal identity and heritage.

I’ll see you inside!

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Hi I'm your host, Tash South I'm an Interior Designer and Renovation Consultant.
Each episode of How To Renovate is short, but brimming with practical advice to help you manage your renovation project with confidence and success.

Grab some more renovation advice & free resources and become part of the South Place Studio Renovation Community at
https://www.southplacestudio.com/freebies

Everything I teach about renovation falls within my Five Pillar Process for A Successful Renovation, to learn more about the process, head to
https://www.southplacestudio.com/pillars


Or if you want to get social, you can find us here:

Instagram: @southplacestudio

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/south-place-studio

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/southplacestudio

Speaker 1:

Hi everybody and welcome back to the how to Renovate podcast. Today is a bit of a special one. It's actually the how to Renovate first birthday. So one year ago, on the 7th of February, I made live the very first episode of how to Renovate and it was quite scary. I just never ever felt comfortable on video before or putting out my voice like this before, and so it was quite a scary thing for me. But I'm pleased to announce that I feel like I'm getting better at it and also I know that I'm helping a lot of renovators because people are listening and I was very excited to check today our numbers and see that we are well over 2,000 downloads now. So I know that some people are listening and they are hopefully finding the content really helpful and helping them to make their homes better, create their dream homes and just make their renovation a much better experience. So if it's helping you, I really, really would appreciate a share or a subscribe if you have the time to just click that button for me. It just helps others to find me as well.

Speaker 1:

So for this special first birthday episode, I thought I would talk about beyond the renovation. So the content in this episode is more about what home means and why really we should look beyond the practicalities of renovating, to why we renovate, why our homes are so precious and what we can do to make that renovation mean something even more than just making our home more spacious and look a bit prettier, because our homes just mean so much more to us than that. So in this episode, let's get into why we should look beyond the renovation. Let's get started. So in this episode I'm going to be looking at a few things that I consider and think about when planning both renovations for myself whether it's for a home that we are going to live in as a family, or whether it's a home that we are perhaps going to sell on or even for my clients renovations. These are the things I really like to look at and really consider for, beyond the renovation, when the build work is complete and the occupants are living in the home, what are those things that make it special, that make it feel like home, that make it special, that make it feel like home, that make the renovation worthwhile? So the first thing I would say just look at the psychology of the space and the light and how that affects our mood. If you've been listening for a while.

Speaker 1:

You know that I quite often mention that I'm from Cape Town, south Africa, and now I live in London in the UK. But in Cape Town there is just so much light. We have light for more months of the year, we have light for longer hours of the day, the winter's shorter, so we just have more light. And here in the UK I just find the darkness in the winter months can be really really difficult to deal with, and so when I'm designing homes here, I'm always always trying to bring in more light and more warmth. I just think it's so good for the mood and so good for our mental health just to be able to see the light and to feel that warmth on our skin, whether we're sitting close to a window with the light filters in or, obviously, when we're outdoors. The difference it makes when you're outdoors and you can feel the sun on your skin. I just try and bring that feeling into our home so that even on a winter's day your home still feels light-filled.

Speaker 1:

So bringing light into a home is a really big one for me, and I do think that if you're carrying out a renovation, a large renovation, where you are going to be tearing down walls or having the opportunity to add additional windows or sources of light into your home. I really recommend that you do that. It makes such a difference to the way the house feels, the way the space feels, how we experience the space, how we feel when we see that light, the difference to our mental health. So for me that's a top one. One of the things I always, always try and bring into renovation is more light and then moving on to space so this is another one. And just linking back to light, I feel that if your space is light and bright, it somehow feels more spacious as well. So there's that double benefit there.

Speaker 1:

But if we just focus on space itself now, by space I don't mean you have to have this amazing huge home. Obviously, if you do and you love that, that's great. But even if you have a small home, your space is what you experience, what you visually see around you and how you want to experience that. And it doesn't have to be a huge space to feel big, to feel clutter free. So for me, a big thing is clutter.

Speaker 1:

I don't personally like a lot of clutter around me and I also know that a lot of people find clutter quite stressful. I know some people not many, I speak to, but some people don't mind clutter. They quite like having lots of things around them and they can be quite calm and relaxed with that. But I do find most people don't have that and I'm definitely one of those people who need space and visual space around me to be able to feel calm and to be able to think clearly and work efficiently. And there is research that indicates a noticeable connection between clutter and mental health challenges. For instance, clutter can impair focus, it can disrupt sleep, it can lead to decreased productivity and also quite scarily it can also lead to the adoption of avoidance behaviours. So I think there is this strong connection between clutter and these quite negative effects on our mood and our mental health, and a way we can remedy this in our homes is by designing well.

Speaker 1:

So personally, I design storage into the home from floor plan stage, because if you know what you need to store and I always start with a declutter, whether it's for myself or for clients, I always always suggest a declutter is you're going to be packing up all of your stuff anyway. You're going to be disrupting your life for a certain amount of time anyway, if you're about to take on a huge renovation. So why not take some time? Use that time to go through your positions, take the chance to get rid, don't use or need anymore. Donate it, give it away, you know. Get rid of it and try and only keep the things that you really need and you really love, and that way you can then plan efficient storage for those items, without having to think about additional storage and pay for additional storage to store things that you just don't need or use anymore. So plan that. Plan for your place to be clutter free, and then it will have this effect on your mental health where, if you have a place for everything, if you have an uncluttered space and that is what works for you and that is what makes you feel calm and productive then make that happen in your own home. You can plan for that when you're doing your renovation. Don't leave it to the last stages, where your house is ready to move in. You haven't thought about the storage, you haven't thought about what you need to store, only to move in and then figure out you don't have a place to put all the things you needed to put away, which then gives you a sense that your renovation was not successful, that you should have made different decisions. So really plan for this from the start, and I guarantee you it's going to have a positive effect on your well-being in your home.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so moving on to number two, now we're looking at the connection between your home design and your personality. So I love this one. I always try and incorporate in this into my designs, and I always encourage clients to add things from their history and their heritage into their design as well, because your home is really an extension of who you are, and it is the place in the world where you feel most comfortable, the most yourself or at least it should be and so you want to make it feel that way. So make your home individual. Add your family photos, add your heirlooms, add things from your travels that make you happy, that make you remember those experiences, or you can add colours from your heritage, or patterns from your heritage, or shapes, furniture, textiles.

Speaker 1:

There are so many ways to connect your home to your personality and to your identity, and I really think this is what it all comes down to, because your renovation can be stunning and it can be beautiful, but if it doesn't have personality and it doesn't make you feel like this is your space, then I think, to a certain extent, it's not really been a successful renovation. It has to feel like yours and you have to feel like you belong there and that it is your place, where you and yours can come together, can connect, can relax, can be creative, and so, again, plan for that, make spaces for relaxation, make spaces for creativity, and obviously you can do that in various ways, whether it's just a space to be able to play an instrument or be able to paint or sculpt if that's what you're into or it just could be as simple as choosing the best sofa, the sofa that you really love, that you all just sink into at a family at the end of a long, hard day. So really think about how you want to form that connection between your home and your personality, and also, anyone coming into your home will notice that immediately and it just creates the sense of that this is your home. People coming into it can immediately know what you're about, where you're from, perhaps what's important to you. So I really love the concept of connecting these two things.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so, moving on to number three, we're looking at how functional design can support your physical health within your own home. So that's kind of a fancy way of saying design your home not only for beauty but also for function. So really think about how you want to use your home, because if your home functions well, that in itself is going to support your well-being, especially your physical well-being. Because if you're planning, for example, for an ergonomic space or a kitchen that functions really well, so a layout well you know that layout is going to function really well you're going to find it quite easy to use the space to reach everything, to use the appliances, to have good distances between your zones. If you think about all those things, then that's what will make your home more functional, easier to use and then just kind of support your physical well-being. So another example is if you have a home office, you want to choose the correct spot for your desk. Where do you like the light to be, where do you like the door to be? Choose the correct height of desk, the correct type of chair to support your physical well-being. And again, it's also in terms of the light, which we talked about in point one.

Speaker 1:

Designing your home to be functional and increase the light in your space is also going to like we spoke about just improve your physical well-being and your mental well-being. And your mental well-being and other things that support this are also things like air quality and biophilic design. So that's, you know, adding plants and greenery into your home, because not only visually do they help your mental health, but obviously you also have that benefit of connecting with nature and the additional benefit of any plants that you have in your home producing oxygen and sucking up that carbon dioxide. So include these things into your home. Make sure that you know you've got a way for the air to circulate. When you're planning with your architect, or if you're even planning by yourself, think about where the windows that open will be. Will that create a way to bring fresh air into the home? Think about ventilation. So think about all these things at the start, because that is a point where you really need to think about them so as to avoid expensive mistakes when the project is ongoing. So really, at the start is when you need to think about the aspects like bringing in the light, the air quality and the function.

Speaker 1:

And then number four, the last point in this birthday episode, is designing for your future self and your changing needs. So really this is quite a big one, especially if you are imagining yourself living in your home for the long term, if it's your forever home. Think beyond the renovation. So think beyond the work you were doing now and what's going to work for you now. Think about how you could possibly make your plans to adapt more easily down the line for a growing family, for ageing, for possibly having to accommodate extra people in your home Maybe that's parents, maybe that's grown up children. So really think about how you can future proof your home, how you can plan for now and what works for you now, but how you could possibly make small adjustments in the future so your home can adapt and just adapt with you as you move on through the years.

Speaker 1:

So I would encourage you to think about kind of design principles that encourage accessibility, adaptability. So a really simple example of that could be you know, make sure the doorways are wide enough for if ever you needed a wheelchair, for example, or a frame, could you adapt your doorways, could you make them wider. Does your home allow for that in this renovation? And, you know, not only does it allow for the future, but it's also quite a nice design feature when you're thinking about it in terms of usage in the current times. So think about these little things that could make a huge difference down the line in terms of making a home more adaptable, whether it be even floor surfaces throughout, whether it be wider doorways, whether it be a freestanding shower instead of a shower over a bath. So all of these things you can think about at this renovation stage and, like I said at the beginning of this point, particularly if this is a home you can picture yourself living in for many years to come, then it really helps to think about these things now and really plan for the future.

Speaker 1:

But that brings us to the end of this short special episode. Everybody, special episode everybody. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you can see how thinking beyond just the practicalities of a renovation can really make your home a much better place to live, a much happier place, much more joyful place to live and something that just suits you and who you are and is just authentic to you, and that's all it needs to be. It's your home, so make it authentic to you. I hope you enjoyed the episode and I can't wait to see you in the next one. Have a great week, everybody, and it's bye for now from me.

Speaker 1:

For more information on my five pillar process for successful renovation, you can go directly to southplacestudiocom forward slash pillars, where you'll find an introduction to the process which covers each of the pillars and what they cover. We also have a number of other free renovation resources. Go now to southplacestudiocom forward slash freebies. I have created some amazing freebies for you there. There is one on the process, like we just said. There is one on planning permission, there is one on kitchen design, there is another one on lighting planning. Go and check those out. There's so much free information there to help you with your renovation.