HOW TO AVOID A VERY COMMON MISTAKE
BY LANA
A gorgeous garden can totally be the cherry on the top of your dream home renovation. Done well, landscaping has the ability to transform the street appeal of your house and make it feel like a home you’ll never want to leave. BUT, did you know that the biggest mistake we see when it comes to home renos lies in the garden.
Failing to plan for landscaping in your budget is a cardinal sin in our books - but it's a commonly committed one! (Hey, don’t worry, we’ve done it too!). We recommend to approach your landscaping budget as you would your home reno budget; be detailed and allow for a contingency. Just like your home reno budget, your garden budget requires you to take a top down approach. Figure out how much you can afford first, and then work bottom up using at least three comparable and detailed quotes. The nature of landscaping means that it usually comes last in your renovation, so that’s extra reason to ensure it’s budgeted for at the start, to make sure there’s money left over for it at the end.
After viewing House 8, Bonnie’s beautiful forever home, with her lush palms and fragrant frangipanis, you’d be forgiven for thinking that more is always more when it comes to landscaping. If that’s what floats your boat (and fits your budget!) then fill your gumboots… but if you know you’re likely to be short of the old cashola come the end of your reno, then we’ve got one piece of advice for you: KISS #nottheband #keepitsimplestupid
If you’d rather be throwing bucket-loads of soil than bucket-loads of cash round your garden, then simple is the way to go. At House 9, our ‘suburban ugly duckling’ turned ‘bold extension’, we put this mantra into motion and the less is more theory really worked.
So, how simple is simple? Here’s what we did at House 9:
1.Lush Lawn
Ask any real estate agent and they’ll tell you that a bit of turf adds value and it’s always been a winner for us #kaching. If you can’t afford to do much else, turf is your must have. At House 9 we turfed pretty much everything that wasn’t decking in the front and back yards. It's lush and green and perfect for little feet to play or an afternoon of FYC. #frontyardcricket
2.Potted Plants
Clusters of potted plants add gorgeous pops of greenery without the cost and maintenance of planting whole garden beds.
Beg, borrow or steal (option 3 not recommended!) unwanted pots from your friends and family, give them a quick wash and a coat of exterior paint, and they’ll be as good as new.
3.Minimalistic Planting
We used affordable plants from the local garden centre to line the front facade of the home. And four olive trees to help define the entry from the street.
4.Pebbled Paving
We had no idea of just how expensive driveways can be until we got the quotes to pave the monster at Bon's place. From this we learnt that we were never going to have enough in the budget to pave at House 9, so Cowra White 10mm pebbles made the perfect alternative.
This minimalistic approach outside allowed us to maximise the budget inside AND it’s low mainty! #kickinggoals
