Home renovation that give you’re the best return on your investment

If you’ve made a new year’s resolution to be wiser with your money for your home here’s a few things to consider for the best return on your dollar.


• Universal Design - One of the best investments you can make to your home today is Universal Design. So what is universal design? It is a design principle that makes a home or business functional for all people including, all handicaps and the elderly. With baby boomers grower older homes designed to accommodate the handicap and aging population are in a higher and higher in demand. When the front steps need to be replace change them out to a nicely designed ramp. Make open spaces for easier wheelchair access. These renovations are easy to do little by little over time. If you don’t plan on moving when you retire your house will be useable if you should be come unable to handle stairs which allows you to stay in your home longer depending on your health.

• Kitchens-Kitchen updates are an important to maintain top dollar for your home. How we cook and prepare food has changed drastically, along with the tools we use to prepare them. New technology in the kitchen often can save us in both time and energy cost. Not to mention making our everyday life more convenient. Remember when remodeling a kitchen it is good to make universal changes for your future use. Sinks can be plumbed for accessibility with removable cabinet front for a more stand look till you may need it. This is a very minimal cost that will allow you to be independent at home for a much longer period of time.

• Bathrooms- Bathrooms are much like kitchens have changed drastically upgrade are both good to save on energy cost and conservation efforts. Similar accessibility items can be added for your bathroom for universal design. Planning for future grab bars when renovating will make save lots of money in the future for a modest amount of money.

• Changing non bearing walls- This is a great way to make a home feel more spacious without a large investment. If a house is small, but you can’t remove walls add window openings so you can see through parts of the wall to make the space feel larger.

• Exterior Space- Creating rooms to enjoy outside is a great way to expand your living space and can be created for almost no money.

Talk to your designer and contractor for your specific on the cost to insure you don’t over invest in your home. Make your home into your dream home not a nightmare. Know your home’s value before you start so you don’t over invest.

Educating business owner on the benefits of good interior design practices.

I am writing you today to let you know with this New Year I’m making some changes in my business. The first as many of you already know is I am now working under my own name, LaRochelle Interior Design so it’s out with InEx Interior Design.

Another change is I hope to educate as many business’s as possible on how good design can save you money.

• Did you know your business’s interior reflects your brand and shows your clientele what is important to you? If brand marketing is important to your business so is your interior.

• Maybe your inefficient use of space is requiring you to lease more or less space than you need for optimal efficiency and cost per square foot?

• Or the color of your facility is under stimulating your employees or worse over stimulating them creating an adverse work environment.

• Did you know color can affect your appetite; does your business serve food?

Stay tune for more details and blogs to come on this subject and much more. If you know a business that could use a bit of educating please forward this information to them as well! And as always if you have design questions feel free to post them in your comments and I’ll be sure to answer them.

Out with the Old and In with the New

InEx Interior Design has a new Name, LaRochelle Interior Design. Every business needs the occasional shake up. This year I plan on shaking up something new each month. The economy is on a path to improvement and now it's time for the rest of us to add some improvements to our lives. May be it will be making our home or office a bit healthier place to live or just a colorful face lift. What every it might be I will be here to help you solve your design issues all year long. If you have an interior design issue you'd like to ask about, post your question here in the comments and I will be sure to give you my recommendation. If you have a problem there is bound to be others with the same questions answered. So let's shake up this new year and get the ball rolling on this year new years resolution to improve our home and work environments! I'm looking forward to hearing from you all soon!

Happy New Year!
Lori