Whether you are moving into a brand new home or redecorating a few rooms in the house you currently own, there are some very common interior design mistakes you should try to avoid. Our talented interior designers at the Lake of the Ozarks are able to guide you away from these mishaps. Until you enlist a little help from John Elliott Interiors, here are a few of those common mistakes to keep in mind (and not make!)


Not Paying Attention to Scale
You'll need to do a little research before blindly going into our Lake of the Ozarks luxury furniture store to pick out a few new pieces. Everything that is included in your new interior design should fit together nicely, both with each other and with the room being furnished.

Lots of small pieces of furniture in a very large space may seem awkward and cause the room to look unbalanced. On the flip side of that, trying to fit large pieces into a small space can make a room appear cluttered and overwhelming. Know your room's measurements before shopping and be sure to measure the furniture you're interested in purchasing so you can be positive it will fit into the space easily. Many pieces are available in different sizes, so always ask if you don't see exactly what you're looking for. 

Over-Furnishing a Room
Trying to squeeze in more furniture than is actually needed can cause a room to look like a dumping ground of collected pieces. Overly furnished rooms can feel small and cramped. You want to arrange furniture to be functional, look appealing, and leave enough space to create movement and flow.

If you notice this to be a problem in any of your rooms, try moving the furniture around first. Sometimes simply arranging the pieces in a new way can alleviate the cramped feeling. If that doesn't help, then pick and choose the furniture you truly need and move the rest to another room.


Over-Accessorizing a Room
The accessories you will find in our home decor store at the Lake of the Ozarks are meant to add to the beauty of your interior design, not overwhelm it. A good balance of items scaled to compliment each other and arranged in an eye-pleasing fashion is your goal. Too many knick-knacks placed around a room will make it look cluttered rather than decorated.

Go through everything that you have and choose a few favorite pieces to display. Move the rest to other rooms, get rid of them, or store them away to use later by switching out items currently on display.

No Focal Point
A focal point provides direction and order in interior design. This is a statement piece that draws one's eye immediately when entering a room. A few examples of a good focal point are a beautiful piece of furniture, an awe-inspiring piece of art, a large fireplace, or a big window with a view. When imagining the room's interior design, begin at the focal point and build out around it. It is possible to have more than one focal point in a room as long as they don't compete with each other for attention.

Pushing Furniture Against Walls
Some furniture may need to be placed directly against a wall, but don't think that you have to outline the room with furniture. Pulling some, or all, of the pieces together into a tighter arrangement will create groupings that are conducive to conversation. The space behind the furniture not placed against walls will add to the flow of the room.


Limiting Lighting Options 
Lots of natural light is always the best way to highlight a beautiful interior design. On top of that, "layer" a variety of lighting options to add depth and interest to the room. A combination of floor lamps, table lamps, overhead lighting, and wall sconces allow you to create different ambiances. Placing mirrors to reflect the natural light of windows or another light source will bounce it all around the room, creating additional illumination.

Rushing Decisions
It can be tempting to buy everything at once so that you can have a finished room perfectly put together right away. Sometimes this is possible, but there is nothing wrong with picking up a few pieces here and there over time, curating a collection you can be proud of. Take your time to find exactly what you have in mind and build the room of your dreams step-by-step.


Now that you are thinking about the design tips from John Elliott Interiors listed above, you will be on the lookout for possible problems and avoid them before they can happen. Knowing what to keep an eye out for will also make it much easier to find the perfect pieces to furnish your new rooms when you shop at our home interiors store at the Lake of the Ozarks. Don't be afraid to ask us all of your interior design questions too. We're always happy to help! 

Each year the experts at Pantone choose one color to be the "Color of the Year" along with a few other standout shades they are seeing used often and predict will gain popularity. For 2019, Living Coral is the color of choice and today John Elliott Interiors is here to share some information about this lovely color, plus a few ideas on how to incorporate it into your Lake of the Ozarks interior design.


Living Coral
Pantone describes Living Coral as "An animating and life-affirming coral hue with a golden undertone that energizes and enlivens with a softer edge." This shade is vibrant while at the same time gives off a mellow vibe. It's a standout color when you see it in nature and offers energizing and warm feelings in a mesmerizing way. At first glance, it might not seem like the most versatile color to use, but there are actually all sorts of possibilities when it comes to this fantastic shade.


Living Coral can be used as a focal point when combined with muted shades like grays, olive, mauve, and tan accents. Amidst the other colors, it is a beautiful attention getter. When combined with bright and bold colors, the palette can enliven a room and bring a wonderful energy to it.

Since this shade was named after the coral that lives under the sea, it is perfect for using in a nautical or beachy interior design. Imagine the different colors you would see "under the sea" such as blues, greens, sandy browns, and even the bright shades you might see on tropical fish that could be found swimming among actual coral.

You can even mix Living Coral with a palette of extremely bright and bold colors to bring about a wildly fun look. Here are a few palette suggestions from Pantone in the photo below, but this is just the beginning of the many possibilities.


Get Creative
When matching colors to create a palette that you enjoy, one thing you can do is visit a paint store. The cards of color samples can be mixed and matched until you find a combination that is pleasing to your eye.

Never be afraid to ask for help, though. Our Lake of the Ozarks interior designers have years of experience and training in finding the perfect color scheme for every room. We are able to go beyond the small swatches of color on paper to actually showing you furniture and home decor items that fit your vision, then come up with beautiful ways for all of those pieces to work together.


John Elliott Interiors is more than just a furniture store. We not only provide you with the luxurious items to decorate your home or office but also go the extra mile to help you find creative and magnificent ways to display all of those pieces. Living Coral is a gorgeous color to incorporate into your interior design, and we've got a rainbow of other possibilities for you to consider too! Together, we will find the perfect combination to fit your life.

If you remember from the last two weeks of blogs, John Elliott Interiors has dedicated the month of January to focus on bringing balance, organization, creativity, and joy to your home. We have already covered bringing balance to your interior design and today our Lake of the Ozarks luxury home interiors store has a few organization tips to share. 


There's a very old saying that goes "A place for everything and everything in its place," which simply means that to stay well organized you should keep things in their correct positions. Not only does keeping your home organized make it look more beautiful, but you also get a good feeling walking into a room that is organized and tidy. Here are a few simple ways that you can get started. After a while organization will become a habit that you don't even have to think about. 


Designate a "Drop Spot"
A big culprit of an unorganized house is the stuff that gets "dumped" daily when you walk in the door. Sure, you're probably anxious to get home and relax at the end of a long day, but if you take a few seconds to put your things where they belong instead of dropping them on the coffee table or a chair, they'll be a lot easier to find later when you need them.

Designate a special place to keep paperwork, mail, keys, and other items that you carry into your home. This could also include jackets, kids' backpacks and homework, and anything else that will likely be going right back out the door the next day. A family calendar fits nicely here too. Once you have all of these things gathered together where they belong, they won't spill out into other areas of the home where you go to relax and socialize with the rest of the household. 


Buy Furniture with Storage
Most homes need more storage space than is built into the house's design. Look for furniture to fill your rooms that can be used to store your things. Even though the idea of these pieces is functionality, all of the choices from our luxury furniture store at the Lake of the Ozarks are also gorgeous in addition to being useful!

Look for pieces that offer a variety of both open and enclosed storage areas, like an armoire with open or glass shelves on top and drawers on the bottom. This way you will have a place to display decorative items, collectibles, books, and more plus you will have space to hide things away that you don't necessarily want to show off but are needed in that room. 


Use Decorative Containers
You can also store items inside beautiful containers, like baskets or specialty boxes, and those decorative containers will help to bring beauty to a room's overall look displayed neatly on open shelves or placed strategically in a corner of the room. This is an excellent solution when you don't have space for more furniture but still need additional storage solutions. These are also useful for collecting out-of-place items. Once you have the time or the container is full, then you can carry it from room to room putting everything back where it belongs. 


Make Your Bed
Believe it or not, the simple task of making your bed every day is one of the easiest and most helpful organization tips. It will do wonders for motivating you to first, keep the rest of your bedroom tidied up, and eventually, that will inspire you to carry over that tidiness to the rest of the home. The good feeling you get at the end of the day when you walk into a beautiful bedroom to rest for the evening will be a feeling you want to have when you enter every room in your home.


The tips we've shared today are fairly simple to implement. When you get into the habit of keeping everything in the place you have designated for it, your time at home will be much more relaxing and enjoyable. As an added bonus, once everything is organized and in its place, you can see more easily which areas need a fresh look or new pieces from our luxury furniture store at the Lake of the Ozarks!

January is designated as many different types of "national months." Three of them happen to be "Get a Balanced Life Month," Get Organized Month," and "Creativity Month." Our luxury furniture store at the Lake of the Ozarks chose these 3 particular January topics to focus on because each of them can be very helpful in creating an interior design you can be happy to live within.


This week we'll tackle "Get a Balanced Life Month" and over the few weeks, we'll feature the other 2 topics mentioned above. The three of them together can go a long way in creating living spaces that you will enjoy spending lots of time in. 

The Art of Feng Shui
One popular technique for balancing your life through the interior design of your home decor is known as Feng Shui. This is an ancient art and science that has been in practice for thousands of years. The definition of feng shui is "the Chinese art or practice of creating harmonious surroundings that enhance the balance of yin and yang, as in arranging furniture or determining the siting of a house."

An even simpler way to describe it is that it's the art of placing items in such a way as to achieve a feeling of harmony and balance. The practice is based on the idea that our homes are a mirror of what's happening inside us. When you align your environment with the person you are and strive to be, energies are in harmony and balance can be achieved. 

Getting Started
A person can get very in-depth with the practice of feng shui, but since the goal is to reach harmony and balance in life, you don't want to take it to a place where you end up stressed out in the attempt to reach that harmony. Get started with a few basics and if feng shui seems like something that fits your lifestyle, then you can move on to more complex ideas. 

Clear the Clutter
Feng shui claims that everything, even inanimate objects, has energy. You should aim to guide that energy so that it flows freely and unobstructed through the home. If you can't easily walk through a room, the energy cannot easily flow through it either. Getting rid of clutter, both the kind that shouldn't be there and the things you just have too much of, frees up a lot of space.  

This includes decorative items that don't really have a place in the room. A person can "over-decorate" with too many items in one room and end up creating a sense of anxiety rather than beauty. Display only the pieces you truly love and either get rid of the rest or simply store them away for later. That way you can switch out other favorite home decor pieces when you feel like updating the space.   

The 5 Elements
Translated, the word "feng" means "wind" and the word "shui" means "water." In Chinese culture, wind and water are associated with good health. Good feng shui should bring you good fortune, while bad feng shui lends to misfortune.

It is said that all things are made up of varying degrees of 5 elements; wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. When these elements all work together, they will create a balanced cycle. Using these basic elements in specific places in each room can bring that balance to your daily life.  


You can take that literally by displaying a fountain to represent water or candles to take care of the fire category. Representations of ideas can work too. For example, it is said that rectangles represent the wood element, triangles for fire, squares for earth, and round or oval pieces for metal. This is definitely one of those areas where you should start small but research in more detail if you are interested.  

Let There Be Light
Letting natural light into a room is essential for good feng shui. It brings with it incredible energy that your body and soul both feed off of. Pull back window coverings during the day to let as much light in as possible. If you don't have a lot of windows in a room, add lamps and other lighting options to replicate it. Consider using full spectrum bulbs in some of the fixtures. Placing mirrors opposite windows is another way to double the light in a room. 

Map Your Energy
One idea claims that specific areas in your home are connected to specific areas in your life. You will find two schools of thought on this, both a classical version (as shown in the picture below) and a western version. Both incorporate the same general areas (love & marriage, creativity, travel, career, knowledge, family & health, wealth, and reputation or fame,) but classical aligns them with compass directions and the other aligns them with the layout of a room in respect to the wall containing the main entrance. Items placed in particular sections can enhance those areas of your life. 

    


Even though feng shui is a fairly simple idea, there are many aspects that can go into a feng shui design that can make it a very involved process. As we stated earlier, give it a try by starting small. If you would like some assistance, the specialists at our Lake of the Ozarks home interiors store are always available to offer expertise and advice. John Elliott Interiors knows that a balanced life is important and if your home furnishings can lend to that peace and harmony, then it's worth the effort to find the furniture and decorative items that are right for you and your home.  

'Tis the season to pull out all of those holiday decorations you've had in storage since last year and start decking the halls. Over time, a person tends to collect more than they actually need, so eventually, you will need to find a way to get rid of some of the "old," especially if you're bringing in more of the "new." 

As you begin to decorate, it's important to evaluate what you have to make sure that the style still matches your home and the quality is up to par. This will not only help to keep the holidays merry and bright but will add to your peace of mind when you decorate with only the things you love. Here are a few tips from John Elliott Interiors to help you weed out what can stay and what should go. 


Unused Decorations
Every year when you are finished decorating for the holiday season, do you have a few items that are still left in your storage box, unused? If you don't like it enough to display it, you really don't need for it to take up storage space for another year. Just in case you're worried that you might change your mind next year, store all of the items you don't use and can't bear to part with inside a special box until next year. If once again you don't use anything from that box the following year, that means you're safe to part with it. 

Merry Multiples
Whether you found it in the clearance aisle last year or you bought one, found another, and were gifted yet another, there's really no reason to keep more than one of certain items. Take stock of your inventory and if you find that you have duplicates that won't be used or needed for a replacement piece, let them go. For example, if you have more wreaths than spaces to display them, save the storage space and give away the extras. 

"Vintage" Greeting Cards
It can be hard to throw away Christmas cards received from years past. You may think there is too much sentimental value attached to allow yourself to get rid of them. When you have some free time, fix a cup of hot cocoa and spend an afternoon going through all of those old cards. If they are only signed with a name, there's really no need to save it, but if there is a handwritten note inside that brings a smile to your face, that one may be worth keeping. You could even make it a holiday tradition to re-read those special memories every year. As for the rest of the old cards, either throw them away or use the pretty card fronts to make a useful decoration. They also make wonderful gift tags.  

Outdated Seasonal Clothing 
Your closet is another area where you are likely to find a lot of pieces that never see the light of day. Winter clothing is bulkier than most, so if you won't be wearing it, it's best to clear the space for other items. Something you wore to a holiday party years ago may have been perfect for the time, but styles change, and the only item that might be used again eventually is an ugly Christmas sweater. Still, how many of those do you really have time to wear in a month? Also, take stock of outerwear like coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. It's good to have a backup or two, but you don't need 10 for each per person, and definitely get rid of pairs that are missing their match. 


Out With the Old, In With the New
Once you've made some extra space by getting rid of all of those seasonal items you no longer have any need for, you just may discover that you have room for something shiny and new! You'll find a large selection of home decor items at the Lake of the Ozarks inside our showroom in a wide variety of styles and sizes. Whether you're looking to fill a large space in a room or a small section of a side table or bookshelf, you're bound to find something to fit the spot beautifully at John Elliott Interiors. 

Although red and green are the two most popular colors associated with Christmas time, there are quite a few different color schemes that show off your holiday spirit beautifully. Choosing which holiday colors you will decorate your home with could be personal preference, an attempt to work with the current color scheme of the room, or you could choose to reinvent an entire space with an entirely new look. John Elliott Interiors has a few festive ideas for you in today's blog.


Red & Green
You simply can't go wrong with the classics! Bright reds and greens always bring a festive feel to any holiday display, like the glorious shade of Santa's suit and the consistent look of an evergreen. This will probably be the easiest color scheme to find Christmas decorations in due to the popularity of this pairing, allowing you to mix and match decor you have used in the past with new items. 

Silver & Gold
This color pairing is so perfect for the holidays, it even has a song honoring it! These metallic colors bring an upbeat energy to your holiday decor. They are neutral enough that you can choose just about any pop of color to go along with them if you like. Many silver and gold decorations are perfect for carrying you through a New Year's Eve celebration too.

White Christmas
Here is yet another gorgeous idea for your holiday decorations that has a song named after it! Bring the snowy look of the outdoors inside when you choose to decorate everything in a crisp, clean white. Alone this color can be absolutely breathtaking, but it is also a great color scheme for allowing you to add pops of color here and there. The best part is that you can leave many of your snowy decorations out all winter long. 

Blue & Silver
Winter wonderlands not only have snow but plenty of icicles too. Shiny silvers and icy blues are a good way to duplicate those naturally shimmery decorations of the outdoors.


Purple & Gold
If you prefer a bolder, more royal look during the holidays, purple and gold pull this off beautifully. Purple and yellow are complimentary colors on the color wheel, and shining up that yellow to a glorious gold makes everything seem a lot more merry and bright.

Green & Brown
If you'd like to incorporate a more rustic look of the outdoors, the green of the evergreen needles and brown from the bark give you just that. Other natural elements like firewood, pine cones, jute string, and more lend to the natural feel of it all. Pops of red plaid ribbons also look beautiful alongside this type of decor. 

Cranberry & Cream
Muted shades of red and white offer a soft, cozy feel to any room. Off-white and cream decor paired alongside cranberries, poinsettias, and other classic holiday red items give off a very warm and inviting vibe in any room.


If you simply can't make up your mind about which color scheme you want to incorporate this year, go all out and decorate every room in your home with a different one! You can find many beautiful accent pieces in our home interiors store at the Lake of the Ozarks that not only fit into your holiday decorating plans but also look beautiful on display every day of the year. Come into John Elliott Interiors and have a look around, and if you don't see exactly what you have in mind, don't hesitate to ask for help.

Becoming an adult usually means that you are sharing your home with a spouse and possibly children. That may leave you longing for a space that you can have all to yourself. One that allows you to get away occasionally, enjoy some personal time, and focus on hobbies you enjoy. Today John Elliott Interiors has a few suggestions on how to create this personal getaway.


Man Caves & She Sheds
The room we are talking about is often referred to as a "man cave" or "she shed." This space should reflect you and the things you love to do most. It's where you will keep your hobbies and favorite things so they are ready and there for you when you have the time to enjoy them.

If you want to get completely away from the house, you can build a nice shed in the backyard. (These have been greatly upgraded from tool sheds of the past.) If this is the case, you will also want to work on the "curb appeal" of it as well. Your private space can also be a room inside the house, or possibly an entire floor if you have a basement or loft that isn't being used for another purpose. If you don't have to worry about others in the home running through and interrupting you, it will work!

Here are a few questions to ask yourself before you start thinking about the interior design of your personal man cave or she shed. 


How Will It Be Used?
What activity do you wish you had more time and space to do? This room could be a quiet place where you can escape into a good book or catch up on a pile of magazine subscriptions. You may be desiring a space where you can work on art or craft projects where you can leave your work out without worry of it being disturbed. This room could be where you set up a great sound system for watching movies or sporting events, or it could be where you enjoy playing games of your own like pool or poker.

Deciding exactly how you want to use this space will help you decide which pieces you will need from our luxury furniture store at the Lake of the Ozarks to decorate it with. Function is key, but comfort is a priority too. If you will be installing a large item, such as a pool table, use that as a focal point and work the rest of the interior design in around that.


How Many Should It Hold?
Decide if this is an area that you want to use as your private getaway, all by yourself, or if you will use it to entertain friends. This will make a big difference in the amount of seating needed, as well as other items you will want to have on hand.

If you are the only person allowed, a giant comfy chair or a cozy chaise lounge or loveseat that you can spread out in can be perfect. For rooms where you'll be inviting others to join you, in addition to extra seating you may also want to have a bar area set up or maybe even a table you can all sit around.


Do You Have To Share It?
If space is limited, you may have to share your man cave or she shed with your spouse or roommate, or it may be a spare room that needs to be used for overnight guests occasionally. This can be done, even if you don't expect to use it for the same purpose. (The hardest part may be working out a schedule!)

In this case, make sure there are plenty of storage options so that your hobby items can be kept separately and also out of the way when the other person is using the room. Multifunctional pieces will go a long way in making sure you both have what you need in the room to accomplish your goals.


When you were a kid, if you were lucky enough to have a bedroom to yourself, it was a wonderful, private oasis where your personality shined. In a way, man caves and she sheds are the adult version of this.

Whether you are getting to set up your personal getaway in a fancy shed away from the house, a basement or loft, or a spare room in the home, our Lake of the Ozarks interior design specialists can make it work for you, turning it into an oasis you will truly enjoy. You should be able to find the perfect furniture and decorative items you need right here at John Elliott Interiors. Stop by and take a look around. It may be just the inspiration you've been looking for!

Every profession has its own terms that are used often, but unless it involves a hobby that you enjoy or something you deal with on a daily basis, many of those terms can sound like a foreign language to you. For example, our team of talented interior designers at the Lake of the Ozarks may use words that are unfamiliar to you when discussing your new look for a particular room.

Today John Elliott Interiors has definitions for 10 common design terms that you may run into. Some are easy to figure out and mean what you would expect, while others might need a bit of explanation as to how they relate to interior design.   


Contemporary
Rather than being one specific style of interior design, the word contemporary is attached to a style of the present time period. As time goes by, the style associated with this title will change.

Contrast
Contrast happens when unlike things of opposite natures are put together. In interior design, this can be done by using opposite textures like glass and wood, light and dark colors, and solids with patterns for a few examples.

Curated
When an interior designer uses their talent and expertise to create a collection of furnishings for a client, that collection is said to be curated. The pieces have been carefully put together to reflect a particular style or meaning as requested and sometimes has historical tie-ins.

Edited
This is a minimalized approach to the furnishings in a room. Everything is well thought out, organized, and has a distinct purpose, but done in a way that does not feel empty or cold.

Focal Point
This is an item in a room that immediately draws your eye, catches your attention, and generates interest. It can be a special piece of furniture, a fantastic piece of art, or an element of the room such as a fireplace or a large picture window. Generally, the rest of the design will be planned around the focal point.

Layered
This pertains to the many different layers in a room to be designed. From the flooring to the window treatments and art on the walls to the furniture itself and all of the accessories, each of these layers must work together to create a cohesive design.

Rhythm
This is the description used to explain the flow that the room design generates. The way that everything works together to urge your eyes to move around the room in a specific way, touching on one design element after another.

Tailored
This is an element that has been customized especially for a particular space. It could also be used to describe a room that has been customized to match specific wants and needs. 

Textured
This word is often used to describe the different fabrics, colors, and patterns used to decorate a room. All of those things give the space a tactile and visual appeal, giving it the look of being textured.

Well-Appointed
A room with this description is one that is designed with high-end furnishings and outstanding execution of interior design principles. This perfectly describes every room curated by the experts at John Elliott Interiors! We take your dreams and wishes for a particular room and turn it into a reality with our exquisite furniture, unique home accents, and beautiful wall art.


Now when you hear or read these terms while preparing to design a room in your home or office, they will make a lot more sense. If you ever have any questions at all when it comes to interior design, everyone at our luxury home furnishings store at the Lake of the Ozarks is happy to answer them and give you an explanation that is easy to understand.

Remodeling a room, or multiple rooms, in your home is not only a wonderful way to bring new life to it, but the changes can add value to the overall worth of the house too. A home renovation is dirty and noisy, and if you will be living there during the remodel, it will definitely disrupt the regular flow of your day to day life.

The thought of the finished product combined with some wonderful pieces from our luxury furniture store at the Lake of the Ozarks may help you get through the process, but some careful planning ahead of time is the best way to truly get through it. John Elliott Interiors has a few tips for you today that should help you do that. 


Plan Before You Demo
Make as many arrangements for your remodel as possible before any work begins. Set appointments, work out a schedule with the contractor, and make sure the necessary items are ordered and on their way. If you wait until everything is "in the works" to make your calls, you may end up adding additional waiting time before everything can be finished.

Plan For Everday Life
If you will be living in the home while the renovation is happening, it is best to tackle just one project at a time. That way you still have the rest of the house to live in and try to do things as close to your normal schedule as possible. Depending on which room is being remodeled, you will need to make plans to move tasks you regularly do in that room to another one.

For example, during a kitchen remodel, you will want to move things you will need to use to a new makeshift "kitchen" area. A place where you can set up the microwave, toaster, a mini-fridge, etc... If it is a bathroom remodel, you will need to have access to another usable bathroom, and if there are a lot of people in the house, you may need to come up with a schedule for use. If the water will be turned off at any point, have lots of bottled water on hand.   

Plan to Keep Things Clean
There will be lots of debris as things get torn apart and removed, and even more construction dust settling over everything in its path. Speak with your contractor about making sure that all trash that can be removed is taken care of daily, and hang tarps in the doorways leading into the room being renovated to try to contain as much of the dust as possible.

Make sure that electronic equipment, furniture not in use, and other valuables are covered or even packed away if they will not be needed until everything is finished. Every evening you may want to give everything a quick sweep and wipe-down to better keep the mess under control. 

Plan for the Unexpected
No matter how many plans you make or how prepared you are, most likely something unexpected is going to happen to throw a wrench into those well-laid plans. The more flexible you are, the easier it will be to handle any surprises that may arise. Your budget should have enough set aside so that unforeseen expenses won't break the bank. Also, there's a very good chance that the expected timeline for finishing projects will run over schedule. If you expect that the remodel will take longer than planned, you will be ready and a little less disappointed if it does. 

Communication is Key
In addition to planning, good communication during the remodel is extremely important. Throughout this entire process, keep the lines of communication open with your contractor, as well as the other people living in the home. When you know what to expect from each other along the way, there will be fewer "surprises" that could drive you all crazy. The better you work together, the smoother the remodel will go.


There will very likely come a time when you will need to leave your home for a day or two. When that happens, plan to make a mini-vacation out of it. That will give you a refreshing break after all of the construction you have been living through.

Once the rooms are completed and brand new, head on over to John Elliott Interiors to find the home furnishings to dress up those gorgeous new rooms. Our Lake of the Ozarks interior design team can put the finishing touches on the new room you have long been waiting for. Then you can sit back, look around, and know that all of the "hassle" of the renovation was truly worth it.