With drywall getting ready to start, it was time to begin choosing our interior finishes. We had done a bit of this already – we already chose the general palette for our kitchen, which looked a little something like this:
We had also received some guidance from our interior designer, but she needed to quit the project due to some personal issues. Here boards gave us some ideas for what we wanted, but we never got to the point of actually choosing specific products (or verifying they were in stock).
The Issue of Stock
One issue on our radar was the fact that interior finishes weren’t super expensive, like lumber, but a lot of people were building, so it was hard to find things that were in stock. The solution was for Shaun to send us a spreadsheet of all of the things we needed to purchase. We only had, oh, 100 or so things to pick out:
| ROOM | SIZE | AREA (s.f.) | COLOR | MATERIAL | UNIT COST | TOTAL | BUDGET | DELTA | NOTES |
| Master Bedroom | |||||||||
| Door (LH Swing) | 34″x80″ | ||||||||
| Pocket Door | 30″x80″ | ||||||||
| Ceiling Fan | |||||||||
| Floor | 201 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Master Closet | |||||||||
| Closet Door (LH Swing) | 30″x80″ | ||||||||
| Floor | 66 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Master Bath | |||||||||
| Vanity | 48″ wide | ||||||||
| Countertop | |||||||||
| Sink | |||||||||
| Faucet | |||||||||
| Toilet | |||||||||
| Shower Floor | 18 | ||||||||
| Shower Walls | 75 | ||||||||
| Floor | 45 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Backsplash | |||||||||
| Office | |||||||||
| Door (RH Swing) | 34″x80″ | ||||||||
| Exterior Door | 36″x80″ | ||||||||
| Floor | 160 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Powder Room | |||||||||
| Door (RH Swing) | 30″x80″ | ||||||||
| Vanity | 30″ wide | ||||||||
| Countertop | |||||||||
| Sink | |||||||||
| Faucet | |||||||||
| Toilet | |||||||||
| Backsplash | |||||||||
| Floor | 33 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Great Room/Kitchen | |||||||||
| Pantry Door (RHR Swing) | 18″x80″ | ||||||||
| Sink | |||||||||
| Faucet | |||||||||
| Backsplash | |||||||||
| Vent Hood | |||||||||
| Ceiling Fan | |||||||||
| Floor | 1051 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Bedroom 1 | |||||||||
| Door (LH Swing) | 30″x80″ | ||||||||
| Closet Door (Sliding?) | 60″x80″ | ||||||||
| Fan/Light Fixture | |||||||||
| Floor | 159 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Bedroom 2 | |||||||||
| Door (RH Swing) | 30″x80″ | ||||||||
| Closet Door (Sliding?) | 60″x80″ | ||||||||
| Fan/Light Fixture | |||||||||
| Floor | 159 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Lower Bath (Tub Area) | |||||||||
| Pocket Door | 30″x80″ | ||||||||
| Tub Surround | 60 | ||||||||
| Faucet | |||||||||
| Shower Head | |||||||||
| Toilet | |||||||||
| Floor | 16 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Lower Bath (Wash Room) | |||||||||
| Pocket Door | 30″x80″ | ||||||||
| Vanity | 80″ wide | ||||||||
| Countertop | |||||||||
| Sink (qty 2) | |||||||||
| Faucet (qty2) | |||||||||
| Wall Lights | |||||||||
| Backsplash | |||||||||
| Floor | 42 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Laundry | |||||||||
| Door (RH Swing) | 30″x80″ | ||||||||
| Floor | 37 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Mechanical Room | |||||||||
| Door (RH Swing) | 36″x80″ | ||||||||
| Floor | 60 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Hall/Gallery | |||||||||
| Floor | 85 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Mudroom | |||||||||
| Fire Door (LH Swing) | 36″x80″ | ||||||||
| Floor | 132 | ||||||||
| Walls | |||||||||
| Activity Room | |||||||||
| Door (Barn?) | 36″x80″ | ||||||||
| Ceiling Fan | |||||||||
| Floor | 356 | ||||||||
| Walls |
The good news was that we had some idea of what we were going for in terms of “look,” thanks to our Big Pinterest Board. And now we had general budgets to work with: $3.00 per square foot for tile and flooring, and rough budgets for most of the large line items like appliances etc.
General Goals and Process
Overall, we wanted to keep our interior finishes fairly streamlined without being dull. We have big views and a fair amount of art to work with, so we didn’t need to draw a ton of attention to most of our paint/flooring/etc. We also didn’t plan to pay much attention to trends. Both in the sense of not chasing what’s “hot,” but also not avoiding something just because it’s currently popular (looking at you, marble-look quartz). We were fairly lucky in the sense that our tastes aligned for the most part, and we were also willing to give-and-take if one of us cared a lot more about something than the other did.
Once we got the big spreadsheet from Shaun, we started to work through it, taking some time most evenings to flag a certain area – bathroom vanities, for example – and hunt around online until we found something we liked. Then, due to the stock issues, if we found something that we both liked that fit our needs and budget, we bought it and had it sent to the build site. This was risky in one sense, since we hadn’t set eyes on the specific piece of tile or faucet we were ordering. But it was fast and cost-effective, and we also knew that if we placed the order we could actually get the thing we were looking at, rather than waiting until we could see it in-person only to find it was sold out.
Against that background, we’ll cover a lot of the specific choices and issues in later posts.