Why 3D Rendering Is Essential Before You Spend a Dime on Renovation

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Renovating a home without falling into trend traps requires deliberate choices and a clear vision. Scott and I just purchased a mid-century modern house as an investment property, planning to renovate and sell it within six weeks. This process has sparked fascinating conversations about maintaining design integrity while creating broad appeal for unknown future owners.

Walking through established neighborhoods reveals volumes about renovation history—you can immediately spot which houses were updated in the 80s, 90s, or 2000s because they bear the unmistakable marks of those era-specific trends. Our current project house has suffered this exact fate, with multiple owners making disjointed updates that ignored the home's original mid-century character. Some elements added "old world" vibes popular in the 90s while others introduced modern touches from later decades, creating a visual disconnect throughout the space.

The revolutionary approach we're using involves comprehensive 3D visualization of the entire property before spending a dollar on actual renovations. This technology allows us to virtually walk through the transformed space, making critical budget decisions by seeing exactly how including or excluding specific elements will impact the final aesthetic. It's essentially "taking a photo in the future" of your finished space, eliminating the surprise factor that so often leads to disappointment in renovation projects. Whether you're planning a full home remodel or a simple kitchen update, investing in this visualization process saves time, prevents costly mistakes, and ensures your renovation honors your home's authentic character while thoughtfully updating it for contemporary living. Discover how you can apply these principles to your own projects by visiting twinteriors.com.

Learn more at:
https://twinteriors.com/podcast/

https://scottwoolley.com

Episode Transcript

Voice Over (00:00):
This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and
curiosity meet style and design.
Curator of interiors,furnishings and lifestyles.
Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, aninterior designer and a style
enthusiast, along with herserial entrepreneur husband
Scott, idesign Lab is yourultimate design podcast where we
explore the rich and vibrantworld of design and its constant

(00:23):
evolution in style and trends.
Idesign Lab provides industryinsight, discussing the latest
trends, styles and everything inbetween to better help you
style your life, through advicefrom trendsetters, designers,
influencers, innovators,fabricators and manufacturers,
as well as personal stories thatinspire, motivate and excite.

(00:43):
And join us on this elevated,informative and lively journey
into the world of all thingsdesign.

Tiffany Woolley (00:50):
Welcome to iDesignLab Tidbit.
Today we're going to discussdesign aesthetic, which you know
is kind of a big word with alot of different meanings, and
the reason I wanted to talkabout this topic is being an
interior designer obviouslymyself, and doing this every day

(01:11):
for other people.
I'm doing this as an investment, for the first time, for our
family and the one thing that issuper important to me, as I,
you know, help curate otherpeople's homes and you know like
try to take what their visionis for the house.

(01:34):
This time I'm doing it for anend user that I don't know, so I
don't want to fall into a lotof traps that I've seen a lot
through the years, where peopletry to.

Scott Woolley (01:44):
So we just bought a house that we're going to
renovate, remodel and then sixweeks later put it back on the
market to sell, and so there's alittle bit of back and forth
between Tiffany and I on whatare we going to spend money on
and what we're not going tospend money on and what's the
aesthetic going to look like inthe end.

(02:05):
You know, tiffany wants tochange the driveway, she wants
to change the color of the house, she wants to put a new roof on
the house.
She wants to put a whole newpatio in the backyard, redo the
pool, and we haven't even gotinside the house yet.
And that's the budget.

Tiffany Woolley (02:19):
And I guess.
So where I'm starting with thisis in any area around the
country, around the world, youknow, aesthetics kind of come
into play.
This particular neighborhoodwas started in the late 70s.
It has a very, very strongmid-century modern aesthetic and
it's actually super cool.

(02:41):
But as you drive through theneighborhood you realize what
house was renovated in the 90sand what house was renovated in
the 80s and what house wasrenovated in the 2000s, because
they've all fallen pitfalls to atrend.

Scott Woolley (02:59):
An aesthetic of that time frame.

Tiffany Woolley (03:01):
Correct, and that is my biggest, you know
kind of frustration when Iapproach a project is that
people just fall into trendsinstead of really accepting an
aesthetic that you're workingwith and bringing it to its best
up-to-date fruition.

(03:22):
So this particular house has afew decades.

Scott Woolley (03:29):
Well, it evidently has had a number of
owners over the years, and eachtime a new owner bought this
house, changes were made with noreflection or thinking of what
the house was when they addedonto it, or change the kitchen,
and the kitchen doesn't reallymatch.

Tiffany Woolley (03:48):
They tried to like fall into the old world
vibe of the 90s and then it wentto the more modern vibe of so
there's a lot of differentrenovations that reflect a lot
of different ages.
So what I'm trying to do iskind of take all that back, take
it away.
I really spent a lot of timereflecting on where I could

(04:14):
update, modernize and keep theoriginal aesthetic intention
Because there is a lot of beautyto that aesthetic intention but
also make it where it would be,you know, to some other.
You know a young generation, aretired couple, a young family,

(04:36):
you know.

Scott Woolley (04:37):
So this house can so what we're doing to achieve
that aesthetic and to get andcreate the goals of what what
tiffany's vision is, is wherewe're basically.
We've planned out the entirehouse.
We've 3'd the entire house so wecan walk through visually and
see exactly what the house isgoing to look like before we

(04:58):
even start.
And it's also a blueprint and aphotograph, for lack of better
words.
As we do it, you can hold upthe photograph, saying, okay,
that's not where that sconce issupposed to be, it's supposed to
be.
We're seeing everything what itlooks like before we even start
.

Tiffany Woolley (05:15):
And knowing what the budget has to be is so
critical and so important,before the overall investment,
but also for this aesthetic.
So, as Scott mentioned, I wouldlike to change everything, but
there's some things that have tobe changed and some things that
are not going to be changed.
So the house, for South Floridapurposes, it does have impact

(05:38):
glass already.
Now, if I was buying impactglass from the very beginning, I
would have selected and chosena different vibe, a different
color framing a differentproduct location, blah, blah,
blah.
Same thing with the driveway andthe pool decking Like it's new,
it's in beautiful condition,it's not necessary to change it,

(06:00):
so it's going to be staying.
So the items that we arechanging, which is a lot of
interior items, a lot of wall,different delineations of space,
as well as a roof that needs tobe changed we are working to
create a vibe that makes thedriveway intentional, so it's

(06:22):
not like, oh, they redid allthis, but now look at that
driveway.
So we're not going to fall intothose pitfalls, god willing,
because we'll talk back here inabout eight weeks.

Scott Woolley (06:34):
But in stepping into it, we came up with a
budget.
You're designing it, you'retaking the entire design intent
of what you've created and we'reputting it into the house
without spending a dollar or anickel and then looking at it
going, okay, this is absolutelybeautiful, but we're a little
over budget.
So if we take this out, howwill that look and how will that

(06:56):
affect?

Tiffany Woolley (06:57):
the aesthetic of the house, or if we switch
this for that.

Scott Woolley (07:00):
And so we've been able to, as you say, value
engineer and make those changes.
And, as we're- making thosechanges.
We're actually seeing what it'sgoing to look like with those
changes, which is an amazingprocess to go through.

Tiffany Woolley (07:16):
And it is a value of a service that you know
we can offer and extend toother people who are trying to
take on some of these routes forincome and for investment.

Scott Woolley (07:30):
It's really a way that everyone should be If
they're doing a remodel, ifthey're doing a new renovate.
You know building a new house,seeing a 3D, you know renderings
, you know it's not very costlyto do it.

Tiffany Woolley (07:44):
And it saves mistakes.
Oh, it saves mistakes and savestime.

Scott Woolley (07:47):
But then you know exactly what you're getting.
It's like going and buying acar.
You go into the car dealership,you're able to sit in the car,
you're able to drive the car.
You know exactly how itoperates, you know exactly how
it feels, you know exactly whatit looks like.

Tiffany Woolley (08:01):
And that way you're not designing it, picking
it up and being like wait.
I thought I had black headlinerbut it's white.
You know, like it's reallyknowing and getting into the
nitty gritty details, I reallydo just believe that it's going
to save you time and add value.
So whatever money you put upfront in your process of

(08:21):
investment, whether it be for anend user or yourself, we just
did a very small little projectfor someone.

Scott Woolley (08:30):
It's a little apartment where we basically
redid the kitchen.
They had a very, very smallbudget, but we 3D'd it.
They knew exactly what the costwas going to be.

Tiffany Woolley (08:39):
The client's done.
We kind of did it as a sweetlittle extra.

Scott Woolley (08:44):
Yeah, and they actually know exactly what it's
going to look like, like someonetook a photo in the future of
that kitchen.
So now, when they're spendingtheir money, they know exactly
what they're getting and exactlywhat it's going to look like
when it's done, and that'ssomething that people should be
thinking about very seriouslywhen they're getting ready to
remodel or to build a home.

Tiffany Woolley (09:06):
So that's our little tidbit for today.

Voice Over (09:08):
Happy iDesign iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW
Group production in associationwith the Five Star and TW
Interiors.
To learn more about iDesign Labor TW Interiors, please visit
twinteriorscom.