When A Renovation is Too Many Decisions

There’s a moment in almost every renovation when the excitement starts to wear off.

The demo is done. The layout is finalized. Pinterest has been scrolled for hours (maybe days). You’ve saved every kitchen you’ve ever loved and finally feel like you’re making progress.

Then reality sets in. Your contractor starts asking a bazillion questions… no joke.

Suddenly you’re choosing countertops. Then backsplash. Then cabinet paint. Then hardware. Then lighting. Then hood finishes. Then grout color. Then plumbing. And somehow every decision feels like it costs thousands of dollars and will live in your house forever.

It’s exciting... until it’s overwhelming.

That’s exactly where this client of ours found herself.

KC was in the middle of remodeling the kitchen in her beautiful Pennsylvania Tudor. The floor plan was already in place, construction had started, and she had a clear vision for how she wanted the space to feel: timeless, collected, and a little more relaxed than the home’s traditional architecture.

She also came to us with something that made me smile. Screenshots of our High Desert Tumalo Ranch kitchen.

She loved the warmth of the natural materials, the softness of the palette, and the feeling that space created. And honestly, I took it as the biggest compliment.

But here’s where I think good design looks different than simply recreating what you see online.

Our job wasn’t to give her our kitchen. It was to help her create her kitchen. One that honored the character of a nearly century-old Tudor while capturing the same feeling she loved in ours.

That’s exactly why she booked our Designer for a Day service (learn more about our offerings here).

She didn’t need someone to redesign her entire home. She needed an experienced designer to step in, help her sort through the overwhelming decisions, explain why certain choices made more sense than others, and give her the confidence to keep moving forward.

What neither of us expected was that those two sessions would become something bigger.

By the time we wrapped up the kitchen, she’d reached another realization that I see happen more often than you’d think.

She asked us, “Can you help me with the bathroom too?”

And just like that, what started as more consultation help, naturally evolved into a Signature Virtual Design project.

Today, I want to pull back the curtain on both services and what happens behind-the-scenes in these sessions and projects. The conversations we have. And why designing a kitchen isn’t about copying inspiration—it’s about translating it into something that feels like it always belonged.

Before we could talk about countertops, backsplash, or hood finishes, we had to understand what she was actually responding to in our Tumalo kitchen. Because most of the time, clients don’t really fall in love with one material. They fall in love with a feeling.

For her, it was the warmth. The softness. The way the natural materials made the kitchen feel relaxed without feeling too casual. She wanted that same ease, but inside a home with a completely different story. So we started there... With, “How do we create that same feeling in a way that belongs in a Pennsylvania 1oo-year-old Tudor?”

That is where design guidance becomes really valuable. Because when you are in the middle of a remodel, everything starts to feel equally important. Our job is to help clients see which decisions are actually carrying the design, which ones need to support quietly in the background, and which options may be beautiful but not quite right for the home.

And yes, sometimes that means talking a client out of the thing they thought they wanted.

Lovingly, of course. 😉

Here’s some of the beautiful things we all agreed worked great for her home that she loved equally:

• This faucet in a beautiful Aged Brass (uncoated) finish

• This Zellige tile; which originally she had planned to go around the entire backsplash, but we talked through the issue of cleaning spaghetti sauce splatters behind the range etc and settled for creating a moment just at the beverage/bar area instead (and continued the slab material chosen for countertops to an exaggerated backsplash).

• My favorite white paint for depth and warmth, Farrow & Ball, Shadow White for her perimeter cabinetry color

This project is exactly why I love our Designer for a Day service. We spend dedicated time talking through real decisions in real time. Sometimes we confirm a direction a client is already leaning toward. Other times, we gently steer them somewhere slightly different.

Either way, the goal isn’t to overwhelm someone with more options.

It’s to help them move forward with confidence with the help of a designer’s eye.

One thing I don’t think people talk about enough is how emotional a kitchen remodel can be. A little advice I’d give anyone renovating:

If you’re planning to renovate your home in phases, I almost never recommend starting with the kitchen. I know… Everyone wants to start there.

But they’re expensive. They’re technically complex. And there are hundreds of decisions packed into one room.

If you’ve never worked with a designer before, I actually think another room is often a better place to begin. You learn how we communicate. You experience our process. You build confidence before tackling the room that carries the most pressure.

Of course, that’s not always possible—and this client’s kitchen turned out beautifully. But it’s one piece of advice I find myself giving more and more.

However, by the time we’d worked through the kitchen together, she was simply tired of all the decision making.

I’ve walked through enough renovations—both personally and professionally—to know the mental load is often heavier than the construction itself.

Once the kitchen was behind us, there was a level of trust that hadn’t been there on day one. We understood how she lived, the direction she was drawn to, and the way she made decisions. Instead of another consultation, it made sense to approach the guest bathroom differently.

That wasn’t the plan when we started, but it’s actually something we see quite often. Clients come to us thinking they need help choosing finishes. Then they experience what it’s like to have someone organize the thoughts, drive the vision, narrow the options, and explain why one direction makes more sense than another.

Suddenly, another room doesn’t feel quite so daunting. I want to share with you some of our presentation and we sent her once we had finished all our selections and recommendations. There’s some really pretty materials we found for her adorable guest bathroom.

To see what we sourced for her guest bathroom, upgrade to the paid version of Between The Layers for all of the materials.