Five Dumbest Renovation Fads: Are You Guilty?

by Redfin Blogger | 2 Comments

Just in time for home-improvement season, Money Magazine came up with a list of the five dumbest renovation fads. Anything that compares Paula Abdul to a “dim” home feature deserves a read. “The result [of no fixed lighting] was that as night fell, rooms became as dim as Paula Abdul at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting.” In case you missed it, Paula proves her “Straight Up” dimness during her last Seattle visit.

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Adhere to the list unless you want your family and friends to compare your cooking arena to the Iron Chef’s Kitchen Stadium or your garage to a small Costco. Don’t get me wrong, I love the 30-minute battle to concoct a five-course meal with ingredients like lobster or liver (including dessert!) and I love Costco, but I wouldn’t want my home to resemble a big box … unless that means there will be food samples in every room.

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Cliffs Notes of the renovation dos and don’ts:

  1. The great room craze: How do you light such a space without it looking like a lobby in a Marriott?
  2. The kitchen stadium: It’s crazy to think that a kitchen longer than 20 feet is easy to use – you’d need Rollerblades to get from one end to the other.
  3. The garage that ate your home: The things that give your house character don’t work on something the size of a small Costco.
  4. Porches in the wrong place: … can make the rooms inside feel like caves.
  5. Built-in lighting: … the end result of such an installation is a pockmarked ceiling that looks like a meeting room at a convention center.

Are you guilty? We’d love to hear about your home-improvement flubs.

Here’s one our Seattle Sweet Digs blogger Marilyn found that failed the Titleist test.

Happy renovating!

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Discussion

  • http://www.designlines.wordpress.com kristi

    i agree with the first 4 renovation mishaps, but their view on built-in lighting seems to be analyzing most “builder-grade” installations and not the ideal “thought out” solution. lighting is one of the most critical things people should address in their home, and without doing the research or talking to a professional, it’s easy to do the wrong thing.

    recessed lighting can be a very effective solution if you select the right fixture (ie. a small aperture or trim that tucks the lamp completely inside the ceiling plane instead of the typical 6″ recessed can that looks like an illuminating eye protruding from the ceiling).

    i do agree with their “solution” that not all light needs to come from the ceiling. you need overall illumination (overhead, ceiling) and task lighting (lamps, sconces) in a space depending on the functions and amount of light needed for those tasks. for instance the kitchen needs a different light level than the den.

    the easiest thing to help control the light level is to incorporate dimmers on groups of fixtures (the living room cans on a separate switch from the dining room cans, and the the accent lighting separately from the overall illumination fixtures). this way you won’t feel like you’re at a “convention center” as they mentioned.

  • http://www.ekday.com/blog/blog.html Shaun McLane

    In regards to Kristi’s comment – One of the best tips I learned was to use rope lighting on top of, or under, cabinets. It’s a simple, cheap solution, and adds a very nice touch to a kitchen.