For many of us, home renovations begin with excitement and a shopping list: new flooring, fresh tiles, shiny fixtures, maybe that dream kitchen you saw on Instagram.

It might feel productive, but it is also the wrong place to start.

It’s like choosing your accessories before you’ve decided what you’re wearing, and it’s why so many renovation projects spiral, stall halfway, or leave you with disappointing results.

The ideal starting point is understanding the most common renovation mistakes and having a simple, realistic plan to avoid them. In this newsletter, I’ll walk you through that first important mindset shift. Here’s what we’ll cover:

Let’s dive in.

Two years ago, an organisation I consult for decided to build a new restaurant. They had the vision, excitement, and budget, or so they thought. By the time they broke ground, the project had been redesigned three times, ballooning the cost from an original $50,000 refurbishment to a new $400,000 building.

As construction advanced, each milestone brought fresh changes, requiring updated drawings and revised quotes. The board wanted input, various stakeholders had opinions, and the project manager constantly introduced new ideas to improve the design.

Each site meeting led to more design decisions and additional revisions.

Three months in, 60% of the budget was gone, primarily spent on foundation and civil works. The grand opening was pushed from September to December, to "sometime next year."

Now, in 2026, the restaurant still sits "almost finished," having wasted a whole year that would have brought in income.

The organisation had a fantastic vision but lacked a clear plan to achieve it. Starting any project without a solid roadmap will eventually lead to stagnation.

Having a project committee sounds democratic until you're three months behind schedule because they can't agree on the way forward. The restaurant project had multiple stakeholders, typical of an organisation, weighing in on every choice.

Each person had valid concerns and design opinions. However, without a clear guiding plan that everyone had agreed to at the start, every decision became a negotiation.

Your renovation might not have many stakeholders, but it probably has at least two: you and your partner. Maybe you're also trying to appease future buyers if you're an investor. Or you're considering resale value while also wanting to love the space now.

Without a plan that establishes priorities upfront, you will repeatedly revisit the same decisions. You'll second-guess choices you already made. You'll spend hours debating things that don't matter while missing things that do.

An implementation plan isn't about limiting creativity. It's about protecting it. When you know what you're building toward and why, decisions get easier. You can say no to ideas that don't serve the goal. You can say yes quickly to ideas that do.

Most people, especially first-time developers, greatly underestimate the cost of doing interiors. This is where construction projects stall. We get carried away with the structural changes: knocking down walls, adding architectural features, reconfiguring layouts.

These changes feel transformative, because they are. But they're also budget killers.

And while we're busy perfecting the bones of the space, your interior budget evaporates. We end up with a beautiful structure that impresses on the outside, instead of spending on the parts that you experience daily, the interiors.

I'm not saying don't make structural changes. I'm saying know what they'll actually cost, and decide upfront: are you making changes to improve aesthetics or the experience?
When you plan your implementation from day one, you build in buffers. You make intentional trade-offs. You know that if you splurge on one thing, you’re sacrificing on something else.

And you're okay with that because it was part of the plan, not a surprise that will hit you down the road.

One year earlier, I'd worked with the same organisation on their junior school facility. Bigger budget. Similar timeline. Completely different outcome.

We finished on schedule, and the budget allowed us to implement the next phase of the project, which we had intended to develop at a later stage.

The difference? We spent six months upfront designing and creating an implementation plan before we broke ground. We identified every decision point, established who had final approval authority, set a maximum budget for each phase, and agreed on what could flex and what couldn't.

That project didn't succeed because we avoided problems. It succeeded because we'd already decided how we'd handle problems before they appeared.

You can't predict every issue that'll come up during a renovation. Contractors will find surprises in your walls. Materials will be backordered. Your first-choice tile will be discontinued.

But you can decide ahead of time: when the unexpected happens, what are our priorities? What's the north star we're following? Who makes the final call?

That's what an implementation plan does. It doesn't eliminate uncertainty. It gives you a framework for navigating your project without budget blowouts or grinding to a halt.

That restaurant is still sitting there, incomplete. They're trying to raise more money. They're hoping to finish by Q1 2026. Maybe they will. But they'll have spent 18 months on a project that should have taken six.

Your renovation doesn't need to follow that path.

You need a clear plan that maps your vision and creates a pathway to your desired outcome. It tells you what to buy, in what order, at what price point, and why each choice serves your specific goals.

That's what we do in our experiential design discovery. We spend six weeks decoding your design DNA, building your implementation plan and guiding you through your project. You'll leave knowing exactly what your space needs, what it'll cost, and how to execute it without the chaos, the overruns, or the regret.

It's $350. That's way less than what the restaurant project wasted on a layout revision that got scrapped a month later.

Book your session here. We have spots available this month.

Your project can be the one that works. It just needs a plan first.

▶ Experiential Design Discovery: Design Beyond Aesthetics

▶ Managing Budget Overruns in Remodelling Projects: Kaminskiy Design

▶ 7 Renovations Homeowners Regret the MOST: House Beautiful

▶ Valentino: From Fashion Dream to Dream Homes: Club Fashionista

Valentino Garavani, the legendary Italian fashion designer, passed away recently at age 92, leaving a profound legacy beyond clothing. While he is renowned for his glamorous red gowns and haute couture empire founded in 1960, Garavani's influence extended deeply into interior design.

He personally designed opulent homes that mirrored his maximalist aesthetic. He once declared, “There are only three things I can do - make a dress, decorate a house, and entertain people,” to describe his passion for lavish interiors.

In Rome, he transformed an apartment with the help of decorators Renzo Mongiardino, Adrian Magistretti, and Cesare Rovatti, installing marble floors, grand columns, and treasures such as cloisonné vases and celadon porcelain sourced from around the world.

In France, Garavani partnered with Henri Samuel to reimagine the 17th-century Château de Wideville in an Asian-inspired style. They blended stone carvings with exotic artefacts for hosting extravagant soirees. His Gstaad chalet epitomised cosy splendour through antique furniture, signature Valentino fabrics, and Meissen tableware.

Rejecting minimalism, Garavani championed Victorian warmth, drawing inspiration from his worldwide travels.

These residences, featured in Vogue and Architectural Digest, became blueprints for theatrical luxury, influencing designers with their eclectic fusion of fashion flair and historical grandeur.

Garavani's homes proved that style transcends runways, inspiring opulence in living spaces.