Here are few ideas to plan your interiors and pointers to help you while dealing with an Interior Designer/ Contractor.
Living Room – Depending on size of family, decide for the seating arrangement firstly. These days for smaller living rooms, you can save the T.V unit space by wall mounting it. If at all you still want a T.V unit, then there are various sizes available in market or you can get it custom made. It’s always good to share colour preferences for your home walls, furniture and other accessories. You shall also discuss the light, its fittings and colour of your choice. By colour I mean yellow coloured lights or white coloured lights. This will help a designer create a home of your liking.
False ceiling –A false ceiling is a secondary ceiling, hung below the main (structural) ceiling. You can style the false ceiling with different patterns and use lights in such a way that they are not visible (hidden). But all this again depends on your budget majorly and your choice. If you low on budget, then I suggest you to go for plain, simple false ceiling with usual placement of lights.
Balcony – In balcony, an Indian seating created which will also solve your storage issues if any. To add style to your balcony, you can use a swing that fits well in given space.
Bedroom – I suggest you to note down all the requirements for your bedroom with the designer. Requirements like bed, side tables, dressing tables, headboard, wardrobe, study table and their sizes shall be discussed. Depending on size of the room and your choice, plan for your wardrobe, whether husband-wife shall have different wardrobes or not, if storage cabinet for kids req. or not. Usually a single combined wardrobe size is 4’x7’ (wXh). I am sure dressing table is something every woman wants. To save your dressing table space, you can get a mirror installed on one the wardrobe door and keep other stuff in your wardrobe drawers. This will 1. Save your room space and 2. Solve you purpose.
Study Table – To suit your style and occupy less space, foldable tables are best for small homes. You can use it whenever in need and fold it back when not. This way you not only save on space but also have your style of table.
Nowadays Open Kitchen is in trend
Kitchen –Open plan kitchen is very contemporary style of kitchen that not only enhances your living room but also gives a very modern and unique feel to your apartment. You can have storage cabinets build above the platform, where you store daily req. stuff.
[updated on 23-Feb-2023 by Nitin, founder of Contractorbhai.com]
Let’s discuss various factors which cause an increase in budget. When you start a project you have an Estimate. You have a ballpark figure..
However as the project begins, at every stage you start making some changes in decisions.. These are usually related to some materials purchased. Or this could be related to some task.
At times there could be major change in the whole plan. You didn’t want to renovate the bathroom, but now you decided to go ahead. Decisions like these will drastically change the whole initial estimate.
1BHK 2BHK Small Home Interior Design
Below are some genuine reasons because of which budget will increase..
Wall Plaster
Contractor’s team starts making wall tatcha. For minor surface repair of the wall. However when doign this work, it reveals that wall plaster condition is very poor. Lot of plaster comes out from the wall. Thai requires completely new plaster to major parts of the wall. This task was not earlier planned. But now it has been added.
Laminate selection
Your estimate was created according to laminate worth Rs 1500-1600. However when you go for laminate selection, you like laminate which costs Rs 2400 per sheet. This increases cost to initial estimate.
Lights
Few years back there were limited options in types of lights. However nowadays if you go for light selection there are so many options/features available in the market. There are lights that can be operated from smartphones. Alexa device etc.. If normal light cost was Rs 500, smart light cost will be around Rs 2000 or more.
Aluminum Sliding windows
When you get an initial estimate, contractors consider normal sliding windows. However when actual time comes to buy/install aluminum sliding windows, homeowners decide that they want to do sound proofing. For soundproofing you require heavy sections (aluminum frame), for better results you require a double layer of glass. All this doubles or triples the initial cost counted for sliding windows.
Grillwork for AC
Grillwork & platform for installing machine of AC, cost for these items are given roughly in initial estimate. However when this work happens actual cost can be higher then assumed.
Tile Size
Initial estimate assumes a certain tile size, however when you go for tile selection you end up selecting tiles which are bigger in size. Bigger tiles are costlier. Flooring work (labour rates) are also costlier. Loading unloading costs are also higher.
Unexpected Seepage issues
During civil work it comes to attention that a certain wall or some part of the room will require a waterproofing procedure.
Reusing old furniture
Plan was to reuse old furniture & doors. However when the team tried to remove old laminate to apply new one, it came to notice that the wood was not in good condition. This adds up cost.
Curtains & Accessories
Most estimates given by contractors do not count the cost of curtains, blinds & many miscellaneous accessories. This acts as a communication gap between homeowner & contractor. Homeowner is not prepared for additional expenses which will be incurred at a later stage because of such small accessories.
Bathroom fittings
There are huge collections for every water fixture. More features, more convenience but more cost. Homeowner ends up selecting fixtures which increases total expense.
Granite
Estimates assume a certain cost/range for granite purchase. However during selection the homeowner likes granite which is way beyond range. This adds up cost.
Kitchen
Estimate assumes steel trolleys but when you visit the shop, you also like tandem baskets. There is a major change in Hardware cost. Chimney’s initial plan was to buying Rs 8000 to 10000 range. But after visiting the shop, you select a chimney which costs 18000.
Contractorbhai interior design service was started to resolve above problems. By getting design, estimate, planning – you get complete control in your hand. You can keep track of how your project is progressing. If there is any delay in progress or increase in budget, you can improvise & control it.
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