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The Dividends of Investing in Office Renovation

 

An important viewpoint to change in doing business is seeing renovations as an expense. Renovating your office is actually an investment that will generate dividends for years to come.

 

Cut energy costs

One of the more tangible dividends you can get is cutting the costs of future energy use. This is a great opportunity to change the mechanics of your office interior to use energy more efficiently. Upgrade the electrical panel, HVAC system, and plumbing. Re-organise all the ductwork, pipes, and electrical wiring in the most straightforward way possible. Check the insulation throughout the office and bolster any areas that are lacking. Then replace all your lighting sources with energy-efficient ones. A great idea for rooms that see irregular use (e.g. supply room, photocopy room, conference room, etc.) is to install motion-sensor lighting so that it’ll automatically shut off when there’s no activity in the room. Finally, buy energy-efficient office machines to take the place of your old ones. You can then reinvest the savings you get from all these upgrades back into the company.

 

Enhance staff performance

Your staff is one of the smartest investments you can make. At the end of the day, they’re the ones who help you run a successful company. Renovating the office to give them a better working environment is one way to show your appreciation for their dedication. One of the easiest changes to make is to establish a colour scheme in the office through wall paint and furniture. The colour scheme can be your brand colours, colours that influence productivity, or a combination of both. Install larger windows so that your staff get more natural light during the day. And get rid of overhead fluorescent lights. Instead, use more ambient lighting in common areas and provide each desk with individual lighting – all with energy-efficient bulbs, of course. Making use of technology and re-arrangeable furniture in your conference room will make meetings more interactive and collaborative. Quiet zero-disturbance work zones throughout the office will help employees who need to focus on intensive work sprints. If your staff feels comfortable and well-equipped in the office, their productivity and performance levels will naturally increase to your benefit.

 

Reinforce company branding

When a business first starts up, it’s often concentrating on upping revenues and market share; it may not have the time yet to establish company core values. As the company matures over the years, its core values will start to solidify. These values are what will form the backbone of your company branding. And office renovation is the physical path to reinforcing company branding. That means making changes to office design all the way down to the materials so that that your office re-aligns with the updated company core values. Your clients will get the brand effect when they walk in as will your staff, who will then take pride in helping you spread the company brand further.

 

Increase potential clients/sales

All the above work in conjunction to increase potential clients/sales. If the new office design also optimises your company’s workflow, it’ll attract even more clients and sales with the new streamlined services you now offer.

 

Raises the bar on competitors

The beauty of renovating your office is that it shows your competitors that you’re confident in the future of your company’s growth. It makes them wonder at the source of your confidence. That’ll generate two different reactions: 1) they’re so shaken up that they bail out of the game; or 2) they push themselves to find creative ways to stay competitive. Both these reactions are good for your company. Yes, even the latter one because ever-flowing competition means that the industry is innovating as a whole, which enriches the lives of both customers and companies.

 

Want to get your money’s worth? Give us a call and we’ll help you maximise the returns of your investment.

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4 Design Considerations for Second Floor Additions

Heidan Construction - Custom Homes

 

Sometimes, building up with a second floor addition may be a better idea than building out. Or upgrading to an entirely new and larger house for that matter. It’s great if you’ve already maxed out your property lot and if you don’t want to buy into an overpriced market.

 

Whatever the reason, here are 4 major design considerations if you decide to build a second floor addition:

 

Structural strength of house

One of the most important preliminary steps of adding on a second floor is to make sure your house can hold up the addition. You also have to factor in the additional weight when the rooms fill up with furniture, fixtures, and potentially more people. All this involves having your contractor verify that the foundation and load-bearing structures are up to code. Older houses and areas that are prone to earthquakes also need careful attention to make them structurally sound.

 

Strategic placement of stairs

This can be a tough design choice if you have limited floor space. No matter how creative you try to get and still keep to code, the new staircase is still going take up a significant amount of room. The best-case scenario is if you already have stairs going down to the basement. That way, you can just put in the second floor staircase directly above that. Otherwise, it’s best to ask for help from your contractor’s professional creativity.

 

Behind the walls

With the addition of extra rooms in the second floor, you have to make sure that the HVAC, electrical, and plumbing systems can take on the strain. Can the existing systems handle the extra outlets, fixtures, and vents? What’s the most efficient way to install the necessary ductwork, wiring, and pipes to connect the second floor to the rest of your house? These are important questions your contractor can help you answer. The solutions will ensure that the inner workings of your house will run properly after the addition. A second floor addition is also a timely opportunity to overhaul the internal mechanics of the house for future energy savings. Think about upgrading your furnace, electrical panel, and hot water tanks as well as their respective delivery systems. Then install energy-efficient fixtures that will minimise the use of electricity and water. Beefing up insulation while you’re at it will also help in reducing HVAC costs.

 

Roof over your head

How you decide to deal with your roof will have a huge impact on your budget. The more expensive way is to completely demolish the roof and build a whole new one on top of the second storey. The advantage of this option is that you’ll get a brand-new roof that’s custom-fitted to the second floor addition. The more economical way is to temporarily lift up the entire roof and replace it as soon as the framing’s done for the second addition. A lot of work has to be put in afterward though to seal in the roof properly since it won’t be a perfect fit. Of course, if you’re simply building a small second-floor space on top of your garage or porch, then the existing roof wouldn’t be an issue at all.

 

The finishing phase of a second floor addition melds the style of the new structure to that of the original one. A successful addition is one that looks as if it belonged there the entire time.

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Making a Grand Entrance to Your Luxury Home

Exteriors - St. Clements Avenue

 

When you look at all the luxury homes you’ve drawn inspiration from, you’ll probably notice that many of them are designed to take people on a wondrous journey from the front yard all the way to the deepest rooms in the house. That’s a concept to keep at the top of your mind when you think about designs for your house exterior.

 

The journey begins with the front yard:

 

Landscaping

With your front yard being the closest to the curb, it’s the landscaping that first draws people’s attention to your house. The possibilities of landscaping design are endless. Recently, the idea of functional landscaping along with cultivating useful plants has been gaining popularity. Whatever design choices you decide on though, make sure they don’t block the sightlines to your front door. Plants are a great way to create a border along the walkway – just remember to trim them to keep the path clear and the front yard decluttered. If you opt for easier maintenance, consider using potted plants so that you can re-arrange the landscaping whenever you like. You can also further display your personal style by making outdoor sculptures part of the landscaping.

 

Walkway

Have you ever gazed down an overgrown forest trail that’s choked with more shadows than should be normal in broad daylight and turned away? Most people don’t like to navigate through sketchy, uncertain paths so make sure you have a clear walkway that’s at least 3 feet wide. Rather than the usual concrete walkway, a more striking choice would be a flagstone or brick path to your entrance. If you have a stone exterior for your house, you can even line the sides of the walkway with those same stones to visually guide people to your home. The walkway doesn’t have to be in a straight line either. A winding walkway will allow guests to enjoy more of the landscaping in your front yard.

 

House front

Now we arrive at the front of the house. One of the easiest ways to make it stand out is with colour, especially when it comes to the front door. First, think hard what colour you’d like your front door to be. This is a fun way to showcase your personality based on the front door colour. After you’ve selected your ideal colour, you can then design the rest of the exterior colour scheme to accentuate the front door colour.

With that filled in, let’s light it up! Exterior lighting is important not only for safety, but also for creating an inviting glow about your house. Make sure the front door and garage doors are brightly lit with sconce lights. For the walkway and driveway, install lantern posts on both sides of the paths so that guests can find their footing in the dark. Use low-voltage, motion-activated lighting to conserve electricity.

The porch is another area you can impress guests. You can do that by using premium materials like tile or through architectural finishes like columns and mouldings. Again, the design should enhance the front door and not draw focus away from it. You may also want to build an awning above the porch to protect guests from the elements. This also means you can have your morning coffee or evening mug of hot chocolate outside on the porch even when it’s raining.

Perfection is in the details so don’t forget about the hardware. Make sure they match one another in material and style. This includes the lighting fixtures, door hardware, mailbox, and even the house number. For the finishing touch, put in windows on either sides of your front door to make the entrance seem larger. It’ll also give guests a tantalising glimpse of the warmly lit foyer inside.

 

Foyer

At last, the door opens and we’re in the foyer. If you have large foyer, place a round table in the centre for a grand hotel lobby effect. With smaller foyers, choose a table that can stand flush to the wall. Shop around for a table that matches the main theme of your interior as it’ll give guests a taste of what to expect in the rest of the house. For a classic interior, choose antiques with a lacquer finish. For modern interiors, marble or glass tables with metallic pedestals are great choices. Place a unique lamp and/or arrange fresh flowers on the table. For the pièce de résistance, hang a framed artwork or decorative mirror above the table. Round out the setting with a plush bench for guests to remove their shoes. Depending on your interior style, you can even combine the bench idea into an antique hall tree.

It’s even better if you have a high ceiling in your foyer because it’s the perfect location to install a chandelier or an artistic light fixture there. Finally, lay down a large area rug at the centre of the foyer floor. It’ll muffle the footstep echoes in the foyer and give guests a cozy feeling early on in their visit.

 

Once you’ve gotten folks into the foyer, there’s no turning back for them because they’re hooked – they can’t leave now without seeing the rest of the house. And that’s the mark of well-designed luxury home.

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Preparing for a Successful Restaurant Renovation – Part 2

Restaurant Contractors Toronto

 

Once you’ve figured out what you want for your restaurant renovation in Part 1 of this two-part series, you can start making it a reality:

 

Team up with the right contractor

It’s important to look for a contractor experienced in restaurant renovations. By now, you already know what you want done, but it takes a commercial restaurant contractor to instinctively understand how to transform your ideas into a functional restaurant space. Communication is crucial in this working relationship so feel free to go in detail about what you’d like to see happen in your restaurant. Make sure to also ask your contractor what their thoughts are on improvements. They can identify what works, what doesn’t, the timelines as well as the estimated costs. Seeking your contractor’s input makes their years of experience a part of your restaurant design.

Keep in mind though that the cost options will always be different from what you expected. To deal with higher costs, honestly ask yourself whether you’re financially comfortable with taking on the difference. If not, work with your contractor to cut back on non-priority ideas. After you’ve arrived at a good number, nail down the renovation timeline with your contractor. It’s best to schedule the renovation during your restaurant’s slow season to minimise the financial impact of lost business on you and your staff.

 

Putting the money to work

Once you have a solid budget number, adjust the financing amount with the bank. The financing should have been pre-approved by now since you’d started the process with them early on. As soon as adequate financing is in place, confirm with your contractor that renovation work can start at the scheduled time you agreed on. Discuss what materials to order right away. It’s a pain to have renovation held up by waiting on shipments to arrive.

 

Updates and reinforcing staff loyalty

Update your staff on the renovation timeline as soon as it’s finalised. Post signs around the restaurant for both your staff and your customers on the restaurant’s closing and re-opening dates. Update your restaurant’s website and social media as well with that information.

Find opportunities to talk with all your staff individually and see if there’s anything you can do to help them out while the restaurant is closed. You can go as far as referring them to temporary work for other restaurant owners you know. You can also encourage them to go on a vacation if you already offer vacation pay to your employees. The main point is to start that conversation with your staff and show that you care about how they’re affected by your decisions. Often, that gesture in itself is enough to cement their loyalty to you and even help keep on most of your staff after the renovations are done.

 

Training day

When it looks like the renovation will finish on schedule, set a soft opening day/night where invited guests are treated to a free meal. Send invitations out to family, friends, investors, associates, and vendors to fill the restaurant to capacity on that date. You can even invite regular customers, too, if there’s space. Mention on the invitation that this is your way of thanking them for their support over the years. Ask for their patience as well during their soft opening experience as your staff is undergoing training. The soft opening will give your staff a chance to get used to the new layout of the restaurant and to the new changes in its workflow. You can also tell whether the renovation changes work well in a simulated peak customer rush. This will give you the chance to smooth out any issues before the grand-re-opening.

 

Hype up the grand re-opening

While renovations are ongoing, use social media to update your customers on the progress. Take lots of before-and-after photos, too, and send some of them exclusively to the regular customers who took the time to give you renovation ideas in the beginning. As you get closer to the grand re-opening date, ramp up the social media marketing campaign to remind everyone when that is. Again, make your regular customers feel special by inviting them to the grand re-opening and offering them a discount that day. Not everyone will love the new renovation at first, of course, but the special invitation and discount will give them an extra opportunity for the renovation to grow on them. Once that happens, they’ll work just as hard as you to promote your restaurant.

 

The great thing about taking care of all these details outside of the renovation itself is that you get the best of both worlds in the end. You’ll keep most if not all the people loyal to your restaurant and still give the restaurant a fresh, new look.

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Preparing for a Successful Restaurant Renovation – Part 1

Restaurant Contractors Toronto

 

Your restaurant has been your pride and joy ever since it first opened many years ago. Or perhaps it’s been a lifelong dream of yours and you’re now ready to make it come true. Whatever phase you’re at, renovations play a big part in your restaurant business. If you want to always present a fresh face to your customers, you should plan to renovate your restaurant every 5 to 7 years.

 

Restaurant renovations are tricky to manage though because, unlike home renovations, they affect a lot more people. Not only do you want to improve the restaurant for your customers and staff, but you also want to ensure they’ll stay after the changes. With so many factors to consider, preparation is as vital as the renovation itself.

 

Let’s break down the preparation needed for a successful restaurant renovation. Here’s Part 1 in this two-part series:

 

Efficiency by earning your staff’s trust

Renovating your restaurant is not just about the aesthetics – it’s also an opportunity streamline the way it runs. Think about operational issues you’ve been having for the past few years. Are there any bottlenecks in the workflow to fix? Feel free to ask your staff for input on what changes they think would help them do their job better. They’re always in the front lines after all and probably know better than you what needs improvement. By engaging them right from the beginning, you’ll boost their buy-in to the renovation.

It’s also a good idea to reassure them that there’s always going to be a spot for them in the restaurant once it re-opens. Tell them you’ll give them more details on the renovation timeline as soon as you finalise it. Let them know that you’ll also chat with everyone individually to see what options are available while the restaurant’s closed.

 

The customer is always right

Besides changing the restaurant look to your ideal vision of it, you should always remember the customers who help you stay in business. Study the demographics of your customer base. Are your customers mostly families with young children? Do you get a lot of young and trendy customers? Are your repeat customers more artsy or business class? You should cater to the tastes of your clientele majority and make sure that the new renovation ideas will match their style. At the same time, you don’t want to lose the old charm of your restaurant that keeps drawing your loyal customers back.

So reach out and get feedback from your regulars. Hand them a comment card at the end of their next meal at your restaurant. Explain that the restaurant will be renovated soon and ask them to write down what they like about the current décor and what changes they’d like to see. Invite them to write down their e-mail addresses as well to get exclusive updates on the renovation. You can even give them a discount on that meal to encourage a well thought-out response. Your regulars will appreciate you asking for their opinion and they’ll be much more excited to see the results of the upcoming renovation.

 

The bottom line in your budget

Take down all the suggestions from your staff and customers as well as your own ideas. Decide which ones are critical issues to fix right away and place them in one list. This is your priority list. The rest of the suggestions are luxuries that will only be considered if there’s still room in the budget and they don’t get in the way of the priorities. Next, go through your restaurant’s finances and figure out the highest cost you’re comfortable with taking on for the renovation. This is also the time to discuss your renovation plans with your landlord. See if you can negotiate to have your landlord contribute some funds or even to take on a percentage of the renovation costs. It doesn’t hurt to ask and some landlords would be willing to do so since it’s their property after all. In addition to your own money and hopefully some of your landlord’s, make sure to also tack on a contingency fund to take care of any unexpected issues that come up.

You now have an idea of what you need and how much you can spend, which is the basis of any budget. You want to hit the sweet spot of making noticeable upgrades to your restaurant’s look and operation, but not so much that they become a runaway train. With your target budget number in mind, start talking to your bank to get the financing approval process started. The final budget may change after talking with your contractor, but that’s easy to adjust further down the road.

 

Stay tuned for Part 2, where you’ll start off collaborating with a contractor experienced in restaurant renovations.

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Minimalist Trends in Modern House Design

Dunloe Road

 

The foundation of “minimalism” comes down to one phrase: “Less is more”. Condensed in that one phrase is a broad philosophical landscape wherein art, design, music, and even a way of life has found a home. So it was only natural that when house design needed a new expression in the modern age, minimalism was there to welcome it with open arms.

 

The introduction of minimalism to house design can be traced back to British designer John Pawson when he released his book, Minimum, in 1996. With that, minimalism became the defining image of modern house design. Every designer and architect has a slightly different take on minimalism, of course. Even so, you can find common minimalist trends in many modern house designs nowadays:

 

Function as primary objective

Minimalism strives to simplify life to its essentials. In doing so, every object and feature must then serve a specific function in the design. Whether it’s for utilitarian purposes like the least number of chairs needed in the room or for aesthetic purposes like accentuating a piece of artwork, everything is there for a reason. Nothing is extraneous.

 

Open spaces are not emptiness

With the choice of each item so well thought-out, space starts to open up everywhere. But far from being mere pockets of emptiness, these open spaces are maintained for the most important function of all: giving you the room to breathe in complete content. And that is definitely not emptiness.

 

Simplicity of neutrality

You’ll often see a lot of minimalist spaces that primarily use neutral colours of black, white, and/or grey. Some people may look at that as boring or even cold. In the eyes of minimalism, however, it’s the ultimate representation of simplicity. There are no kaleidoscope of colours, no cacophony of overlapping hues, no veiled tones you’re supposed to pick up on. What you see is what you get. It’s a return to innocence where everything is black or white or both in the form of grey. It’s simply a world without complications.

 

Bursts of intentional colour

Minimalism doesn’t mean shunning all non-neutral colours though. It’s about choosing your colours carefully and using them with intent. And when your base colour palette is neutral, any burst of colour you add to the space will speak volumes. The intentional use of colour then becomes a powerful statement that stands out as opposed to lost in the chaos of competing colours.

 

Balance of textures

So, if colour is to be used sparingly, how do you distinguish between zones in a space? Textures. Mixing and matching textures will allow you to bring balance to a space of few colours. That can take form in different materials or patterns for the walls and floors. You can also make use of area rugs or even throw pillow covers. Just don’t go overboard by adding too many layers of complexity in textures though. Always design from the perspective of function as the primary objective.

 

Lines flowing into curves

With all the space that minimalism opens up, the straight lines of a room become all the more apparent. A design trick often used to soften the sharp angles is setting down furniture with smooth, organic curves. As our eyes travel from the lines to the curves, our pattern-seeking brains will work their magic to blend them together. This is what binds everything in one cohesive space where zones flow seamlessly into one another.

 

Floating shelves, hidden hardware, and streamlined lights

The seamless illusion is also supported by small details like floating shelves, hidden cabinet hardware (e.g. push latches or recessed handles), and streamlined or stripped down light fixtures. It’s hard not to gush over features that seem to just materialise out of the wall or ceiling.

 

Centred by art

Designing a house is always an art, but the careful scrutiny of each minimalist design feature feels especially like an art masterpiece. It’s no wonder that many minimalist spaces often highlight an artwork or photograph print centrepiece as the focal point.

 

Wall of the jungle

Greenery can play a part too in the sleek modernity of minimalist spaces. In fact, it’s a perfect embodiment of the minimalistic spirit; after all, what can be simpler than returning to the roots of nature?

 

Every feature is crucial in a minimalist space and requires a solid design to ensure function and aesthetics work as one. We can help bring simplicity back to your life.