Design Principles for Every Rental Property

Designing a rental property differs from designing your home. When you are designing your home, you can decorate it to your taste. But this is not the case with your rental property. Here, you cannot read the minds of your prospective tenants to know their preferences and you can not project your taste on them.

Most tenants choose a particular rental property over the other because of the interior design. This is because your potential tenants will first imagine themselves in the rental properties and determine if it will be appealing to them, explains Real Canadian Management. Your prospective tenants will survey to know if their furniture will match with the design of your rental property.

Because of this, you should choose a neutral backdrop so that your potential tenants can envision themselves in your rental property. Below are some design principles for every rental property:

1. Use neutral colors

If you want to increase the lifespan of your chosen design schemes, then you should consider using a neutral accent and clean material. Avoid the temptation of using trending hot paint colors on your rental property. This is not an opportunity to experiment with designs.

Light neutral colors allow all your protective tenants to visualize themselves in the property. No matter the color of their furniture, the neutral colors in your home can accommodate them. Your potential tenants will notice that their furniture wouldn't look odd in your property.

Subtle accents, natural elements, and white paints are an excellent choice to use for your interior decor. You can also make use of natural lights and plants where possible.

2. Keep it simple

Always keep your design beautiful and straightforward when you are designing your rental property. This is because the decor is for your prospective tenants to picture themselves living in the house. Your choices may not be the same as that of your potential tenants, and you are not sure if they will loathe it if you personalize the rental property.

Don't be tempted to spice up the room with so many details because too much of it can clutter to their judgment. Apart from making the rooms appear smaller if the details are many, your tenants will not be able to visualize their furniture in your rental property.

Extraneous details such as books, collectibles, candles, vases, and other miscellaneous accents should be kept at a minimum to avoid clutter.

3. Avoid the temptation of using only one design

Do not use only one pattern of design in your rental property, this is because not all your prospective renters will have the same decor preferences. If you are using a single decor that doesn't match with what your potential tenant has in mind, it will be a turn-off.

However, if you have several designs, some of them may appeal to your prospective tenants. Your design should also be the type that is easy to flip if you need to make changes. This way, you can make alterations to match your tenant's preferences.

4. Maximize the storage space of your rental property

Tenants prefer to have enough storage space for their properties. There are a lot of creative ideas to increase the storage space of your rental property. Your kitchen should have sufficient storage space to accommodate appliances, glasses, dishware, and the food items of your tenants.

You can maximize the storage space with smart storage options such as pull-out baskets, built-in cutlery organizers, and slim-but-tall cabinets.

5. Maximize different light options

Your rental property needs to have adequate lighting. Ensure that there is a lot of room for natural light by opening the blinds and curtains when showing your potential tenants around the property.

If the natural light is not enough, use other creative options to brighten your rental property. Stage the property with table lamps and floor lamps. Dangling lights are an excellent option for the kitchen.

In a nutshell: Design Principles for Every Rental Property

Designing your rental property is not the same as designing your home. This is because you do not know the preference of your prospective tenants, and you can not impose your taste on them.

It is difficult to know what appeals to your potential tenants or the design patterns that they will prefer. Before tenants rent a property, they will first imagine themselves in the rental properties and check if it will appeal to them.

But there are ways that you can design your rental property so that it will look appealing to all your prospective tenants. Below are some design principles for every rental property.

·         Use neutral colors

·         Keep everything simple

·         Avoid the temptation of using only one design

·         Maximize the storage space of your rental property

·         Maximize different light options

Finally, you can employ professionals' services to assist you in designing your rental property such that it will be impressive to all your prospective tenants.

Written in collaboration with Real Canadian Management.

Ada Blvd - Net Zero Build Pt.2

After purchasing the property we took a look at the existing structure & overall floor plate of the house. We quickly determined that the base structure of the house was not ideal to work from for our infill. We had considered using the existing foundation; however, we would have needed to connect a new foundation with a settled existing foundation giving us concern for the potential long term issues that could arise.

Dismantling a House

Although we had decided to start from scratch, we wanted to make sure we salvaged and repurposed every item we could. In June of 2019, our contractor began the task of dismantling the existing house and garage!

The process began with removing all working fixtures (plumbing, lighting, appliances, cabinets, etc.). We are quite proud to say that most of these items found homes through Buy and sell sites, Upcycling, Kijiji, Friends/family and neighbours.

See below some of the gems we were able to find future homes for:

Cabinets, appliances, sunshine ceiling all reused.

Bathroom vanity was reused.

Toilet, bathtub & all fixtures were reused.

Some really interesting light figures throughout the house all found new homes:

Hot water tank & furnace too!

Once these items were carefully removed, all of the base materials were pulled and separated – even down to the nails! Metal was recycled. Wood was partially recycled, partially re-homed and partially set aside to reuse on the project for some feature areas if all goes well. Older homes really were made with some beautiful wood. Doors, windows, hardwood, roof trusses… you name it, we tried to give it all a second life.

See below some photos of the dismantling process:

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Some questions we were asked about the dismantling process:

Q: What was not able to be reused or recycled?

A: The items we didn’t recycle or reuse were drywall (Yes, there is a location in Calgary that can recycle it, however, when weighing the benefits of recycling against the fuel and transportation, we chose not to), fibreglass insulation, shingles, and the chimney. We were very impressed at how much was taken by people completing DIY projects around the city, including the most surprising to us – wood chip attic insulation!

Q: Did this add a lot of time to the project?

A: Honestly, yes. We knew at the onset of the project that environmental impact would be a priority. With the expectation in mind that we wouldn’t cut corners to simplify or speed up construction, we were able to view this process as the only way to achieve our goals. By adjusting our expectations we were not deterred by the time. That being said, our total time to dismantle was approximately 16 weeks for the interior, 3 weeks for the exterior/structure, and 3 days for the foundation.

Christine's Kitchen Renovation Pt. 2

Continuing from part one of our kitchen renovation plan, our plan includes the addition of a sliding door to a new deck with a pergola in the backyard. We recently received our permits allowing us to add an exterior door and build the new deck, so we are very excited to move forward with this new space plan for the kitchen:

Items that are on our wish list to incorporate:

• pantry and fridge close to food prep areas

• sliding door to the backyard

• coffee bar

• counter height peninsula eating bar

• the new sink centered on a existing window

• exposing the brick chimney between the kitchen and living room

• compost and recycling station

• lots of storage for small appliances

• pet food storage

Below are the labelled millwork elevations. This was a very important step to make sure we design the right amount of storage.

It goes without saying that putting together these drawings has allowed us to feel confident in the space we are investing in, not to mention that having these specifications will help us plan a budget that won’t leave us with unwanted or costly surprises once construction begins.

In addition to these drawings, I put together a basic render to get a more realistic impression of what our new kitchen layout will look like.

And these are a couple renders that were discarded through the design process. We were wanting to avoid cluttering the peninsula with a sink that could look messy when dishes pile up, and a cooktop that could obstruct the eating area of the bar.

Stay tuned for part three, where I will share the finishes we chose and inspirations for the general look of the materials that we want to use!

Ada Blvd - Net Zero Build Pt. 1

The Idea

We would finally like to introduce the world to a project that has been in the works within the Red Frog office since the winter of 2016. As a member of the interior design community for over 10 years now, I have seen how much damage we can create to the environment as humans. The desire for beautiful, awe-inspiring spaces is a consistent request, but with a priority placed on being economical, not sustainable. This being said, I have also seen an alternative path presented. It was with the idea in mind to help make a positive impact; a group of people came together and began with one house!

We started here!

This 1952-built corner lot home in the Highlands neighbourhood was in desperate need of attention. Unfortunately, the existing exterior walls were not salvageable due to some long term insect inhabitants. Located on the boulevard, the view of the Edmonton river valley was too good to pass up!

The Inspiration

While travelling in New Zealand a few months after we acquired the property, we were inspired by this home and the way it pulled together many elements we love. The glass and visibility to the river valley were a priority (and would also become one of the harder compromises - more on that later). The I-beams paired with the warm wood gave me many ideas on pairing natural elements with a modern flair that I hadn’t seen much in Alberta at that point.

The Concept

After many layouts and revamps, our team came to a consensus. Our priorities were to help increase density in a desirable area, to provide the best possible views of the green space across the boulevard, and to build as environmentally conscious as we could while showing that the aesthetic and open concept didn’t need to be sacrificed. The build will include a main house with an attached garage and a separate garden suite as shown in the rendering (Thanks Jade Technologies for turning our design and sketches into this initial rendering).

I am looking forward to taking you all on our journey as we build this beautiful home. From design decisions, to what is net zero, and explaining the construction process along the way – Hopefully we have plenty of good, bad and unexpected to share that can be of value to you. We would love to hear your thoughts and questions along the way, so please reach out!