3 Mindset Shifts with Design and Home Renovation In This Digital Age

Design

Published on:

Jul 2021

3 Mindset Shifts with Design and Home Renovation In This Digital Age

I'm glad to be able to write something again as it has been a while. We have been (gratefully) busy since the end of MCO, resuming hungover works and also commission of new projects. I hope the year is ending better than it started for everyone too. Seeing that small operators/ business owners getting back on their feetgives me great pleasure, as it is something I can relate to.

Now that I have some downtime to reflect, as I try to always do, I have been thinking about how the industry has been changing over the past 5-10 years.

There has always been taboos (usually bad ones) that is affiliated with home design & renovation, even if you have never personally gone through them yourself. It is then most likely through our parents/ family or older peers that may have gone through things like:

contractors who always take short cuts or low quality materials
good designers/ builders are hard to find
designers who make something look good but not practical

While these are not baseless accusations, there are plenty are opportunities these days for homeowners to take control of the situation in their own renovation endeavours.

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These are some of the old problems that are already bring solved along by digital technology namely social media, whether directly or indirectly, that can help shift our mindsets moving forward and save us a lot of headache/ heartache.

1. Lack of technical information

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With abundance of information online (even people are looking at medical information here), designer and builders are not the only ones holding on to valuable information any more (prices, material types, construction method).
Same goes for real estate agents too.
There are plenty of blogs like this one you're reading too, and e-books.
Not saying everything you read works for your context or Malaysia, at least you an cross-check with information from service providers.

2. Can't do/ manage it yourself

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Now that everyone is reachable, contacts are not just passed through by word of mouth.
Most importantly this affects individual sub-contractors who started reaching out to end users to expand their reach instead of just relying on main contractors.
With a bit of basic knowledge, you can project manage a renovation endeavour yourself, provided you have enough time to manage them.
Be clear, you are trading time for money, but it's an option that is getting popular.

3. Lack of design ideas/ knowledge

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In short; Instagram & Pinterest.
Everyone has got their own preferences and ideas and originality is not always the goal if there are no apparent benefit, or if you're not in the commercial space.
This benefits even the designer as what you like is as vivid and objective as it comes.

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The (renovation) world has changed and it doesn't benefit anyone to hoard information anymore. Not like they are able to, or they will be left behind.

Have a safe CMCO.

Nick