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How to ‘cookie cut’ your way to reno riches

May 19, 2017 Leave a Comment

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Imagine if every time you cooked a recipe you went out shopping for all the ingredients from scratch. The butter, sugar, eggs, flour, herbs and spices… all the staples you’d realistically expect to find in any cook’s kitchen. You’d not only be wasting a lot of needless time hunting down ingredients, you’d also be wasting money as you toss out leftovers and start afresh each time. Wouldn’t it be a much smarter approach to buy all the key ingredients in bulk and maybe whittle your repertoire down to a few favourite recipes? After all, some of the world’s most successful restaurants don’t have a book-sized menu; they offer just a few key dishes and do them exceptionally well.

This is the rationale I apply to cosmetically renovating properties for profit. Welcome to what I call the “cookie cutter” approach.

cookie cut your way to reno riches

Cookie cutting your way to riches

Why cookie cutter?

For cosmetic renovations on low-budget properties, you simply don’t have the budget – or the need – for individual design. Not if you’re in it to make a profit. In modest suburbs, there’s always going to be a price cap on what buyers will pay for a renovated property, so the more you spend on unnecessary extras, the more you’re eating into your profit margin. Or worse, losing money. By developing a palette of colours, materials and even tradies that you transport from one project to the next, you streamline all your costs and reduce wastage.

Employ timeless design

The trick is to use colours and quality finishes that stand the test of time. It doesn’t mean every look is the same – you might have two or three different colour palettes to choose from, the same with flooring, kitchen finishes, etc – but the point is you have all those materials ready to roll out on every project. I provide my students with a Cosmetic Style Guide, which lists all the colour palettes and materials they need to buy, depending on the value of the property and buyer/renter expectations. It might be simple micro blinds for a low-priced property; plantation shutters for a higher price point. Laminate benchtops for the budget kitchen; Caesarstone for the next step up. Then you add individual flair, like a colourful feature wall or striking wallpaper, or some terrific retro lights, or a splashback of interesting tiles. None of those things are costly, but add real wow factor. And property styling at the end will be your final masterstroke.

Save on labour costs

Taking a cookie cutter approach means your team of tradies know exactly what to do with any new project, so there’s no need to be on site every day, micro-managing every detail – like you would if you were inventing a new look each time. Tradies can just get on with the job, and you can get on with finding new profitable projects to work on. The key is to replicate a successful template across all your projects, so you get maximum time, labour and cost efficiencies.

Here are four different looks that all use my cookie cutter concept. You can see the similarities, but also the subtle differences that give each their unique personality. After more than 25 years of profitable renovating across 100+ properties, I can safely vouch for the success of this proven formula.

Project 1

Gross profit: $45,000

cookie cut your way to reno riches Beforecookie cut your way to reno richesAfter

Project 2

Gross profit: $40,000

cookie cut your way to reno riches Beforecookie cut your way to reno richesAfter

Project 3

Gross profit: $35,000

cookie cut your way to reno riches Beforecookie cut your way to reno richesAfter

Project 4

Gross profit: $66,000

cookie cut your way to reno riches Beforecookie cut your way to reno richesAfter

Cherie Barber is the director of Renovating for Profit, a company that teaches everyday people how to buy and renovate properties for a profit.

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Do I recommend a timber vanity top? A big fat NOP Do I recommend a timber vanity top?

A big fat NOPE! 💧 

Which is why we have recently covered ours with a Caesarstone top (thanks to @justinplace_sydney for the advice and supply) and the sweet RELIEF of not having to worry about this high traffic area anymore, I'm telling you!🤗

Doesn't matter what they tell you or how many times it's sealed, I'm not sure it's a great idea in a room which is so, well, wet!

I love having the warmth of timber in the bathroom and it's a beautiful piece, but timber on the top? Never again.

Ours probably lasted a year (if that) before it started to go downhill (and we want a good decade out of a bathroom, right?!). 2.5 years on, everything else in this bathroom looks virtually brand new and the water marked vanity top was really letting the side down and making me sad!

But I'm so pleased with this solution, I have to say! Took the plumber less than an hour to remove the sink, install the top and connect the sink back up. We didn't need to move the tap and it isn't too close to the basin.

The kids are allowed to brush their teeth and wash their hands (liquid soap 🥴) in here again and I can leave my hair straightener on there with gay abandon 😆

The reflective surface (which I can clean with whatever I like!💪🏻) brightens the room up too!

Next week I'll tell you what I really think of my brass tile trim too 😉

#interiorsaddictbathroomreno2 #interiorsaddictfamilyhomereno #timbervanity
Is there a more decadent and delicious soup than F Is there a more decadent and delicious soup than French onion?

I think not!

Grab the recipe on the blog this morning via link in bio.
Get to know me! I haven't done one of these in YE Get to know me!

I haven't done one of these in YEARS so there's possibly thousands of you who don't know my back story. Here's a few things you may not know about me!

✔️ I'm English 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and I moved here (just for one year) back in 2008😆 

✔️ I can't end the day without a bath, even if I get home really late or on a really hot day. It's a mental health thing and my happy place. 🛁 

✔️ Before becoming a blogger and running my own small business, I was a journalist from the age of 18. My favourite news gathering times were as a newspaper crime reporter (bit different to interiors!) 📓 

✔️ I once worked at New Scotland Yard in London 🚔 

✔️I had an interview at Oxford (didn't get in!) but chose not to go to uni at all after being offered a job on the local paper #universityoflife 😁

✔️ My mum died when I was 3, I have an excellent dad and one sister (younger) in the UK ❤️ 🇬🇧 

✔️ At school, my favourite subject was French 🇫🇷 and I was head girl 🤓🤓

✔️ I'm addicted to ☕️ , long hot baths and💄 (been wearing it since I was about 14!)

✔️ I'm not a phonecall person and will never ever pick up an unknown number. Ever. They can leave a message 😁

✔️ My favourite cuisine is Japanese 🍣 🍜 and Damian and I honeymooned in Tokyo and Venice 

✔️ I have zero design qualifications. I just started blogging about my passion, which is trying to persuade everyone to #heartyourhome That was 11 years ago...

✔️ My favourite tipple is a good GnT or🍷 

✔️ Cheesy as it sounds, 💁‍♀️being a mum is my absolute biggest joy in life 🧒👦

✔️ I will never give up my old school paper diary! Has to be A5 and week to view 📖 

✔️ My official surname isn't Bishop. I kept my maiden name for work after I got married but changed it for everything else. Often confuse myself!

✔️ I didn't get my Ps until I was 37 and I'm still a terrible parker 😯 🅿️

Hope you feel like you know me a bit better 😘

📸 @vanlowvanlow
Blue, green or lilac? 🎨 @nood_co coloured con Blue, green or lilac? 🎨 

@nood_co coloured concrete basins is a great Aussie business success story. Although co founder Matt Di Costa first found fame as one half of Matt and Kim on The Block, he hasn't relied on this to build his brand.

“We are very honoured to have been a part of The Block, and all they have done for us. I am, however, a believer in letting the product take centre stage,” he says.

Read our interview with Matt via link in bio now.

🙏Share your favourite colour basin in the comments!

#colouredconcrete #noodco #colouredbasin #blockheads #the block #bathroomtrends2022

Pic 1 by @naibudesign_ and 2 by @twostyleinteriors
I'd love to see more colour in Aussie interiors! I'd love to see more colour in Aussie  interiors! 🎨 

At the end of the day though, it's a matter of personal taste. I love pops of colour but it's not for everyone. 

We couldn't resist featuring this Canadian house tour today. The amazing Kelly Green  hutch (swipe) was an upcycled $200 find 🤗

Head over to the blog via link in bio to see the rest including one of the best playrooms we've seen in ages!

Project by @in.house.design
📸 @philcrozier
Create an unexpected city oasis with an emphasis o Create an unexpected city oasis with an emphasis on light and nature.

That was the brief for the conversion of a corner shop and a warehouse bakery into a luxury family home in Sydney's Newtown. And how about the library?!

Take the tour of this very special @annacarindesign project on the blog now, via link in bio.

Pic: @justinalexanderphoto
The things that excite me as a 40 year old 🤭 N The things that excite me as a 40 year old 🤭

None of us enjoy laundry (OK, there are a few of you out there who do. Weird!) but we have to do it. And often. So if your laundry bin can be as good looking, functional and space saving as this, then why wouldn't you?!

I've lost track of how many baskets I've thrown out because they've gone soggy or mouldy. They look pretty, sure, but they're not fit for purpose and they're often messy and overflowing.

Here's what I love about his @brabantia_australia one:

✔️ ventilation holes
✔️ no need to remove the lid for small items plus it hides your dirty laundry from view
✔️ easily removable and washable inner laundry bag that velcros back on 
✔️ corrosion resistant so fine in bathroom or laundry 
✔️ Brabantia make things as sustainably as possible
✔️ compact, sleek, European design
✔️ 10 year warranty
✔️ tall and skinny so takes up less floor in my tiny laundry

The Rolls Royce of laundry bins? I think so 👌🏻

TOLD you this was going to be exciting!

Now I need to know, do you have your laundry basket in the bathroom, the laundry, every bedroom? We used to have one in each bedroom but moved to the laundry-only situation which I much prefer (one for colours and one for whites). My boys know to put their used clothes in the bin in the laundry each night and they're 7 and 3!  #raisingfuturehusbands

#gifted
"Living rooms are important spaces where our publi "Living rooms are important spaces where our public and private lives intersect."

So says stylist @nataliewalton in her gorgeous new book Style, the Art of Creating a Beautiful Home.

"They are where we gather to welcome guests and entertain. But they are also where we decompress and relax at the end of the day. Increasingly, they are open-plan spaces and need to work within a greater scheme. Bringing all the elements together cohesively requires care and consideration. And, if you want a space that lives up to its true potential, make it personal and create with conviction."

Read an extract, the chapter on elevating your living room, on the blog today via link in bio.

Published by @thamesandhudsonau Pix by @chriswarnes 

#livingroomdesigns #nataliewalton #coffeetablebooks #designbooks #interiorsbooks #livingroominteriors #elevateyourspace
Kids and husband messing with my vignettes again🤨

PS. The coaster was RIGHT THERE 🤪
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About Naomi Foxall

Naomi Foxall is a freelance writer, content and social media manager, living on the NSW South Coast.

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