Why the Best Remodels Are Designed for More Than Today
There’s a misconception that remodeling begins when we become tired of the way something looks.
Sometimes it does.
But some of the most meaningful remodeling projects begin for an entirely different reason:
Life changes.
A family grows. Children get older. Parents age. The way we entertain changes. The way we spend our time changes. And suddenly, a house that has served us beautifully for years needs to serve us differently.
Right now at Lee Meier Interiors, we’re working on several remodeling projects that couldn’t be more different on the surface. One involves renovating the third floor for a wonderful family who just welcomed baby number six. Another is a primary suite remodel and addition that includes creating a dream closet over an existing garage. And another includes adding a lower-level bathroom so aging parents can eventually move into the home’s main bedroom suite.
Different families. Different projects. Different needs.
But all three have something important in common:
They’re making room for what comes next.
The Best Remodeling Starts With Life, Not Finishes
It’s tempting to think remodeling begins with cabinetry, countertops, flooring, tile, or paint colors.
For a designer, it begins much earlier.
It begins with questions.
How are you living now? What frustrates you about your home? What do you love about it? Who lives here today—and who might live here five or ten years from now?
How do you entertain? Where do you retreat? What would make your mornings easier? What will you need as you get older? What might your children need as they grow?
Those conversations shape everything that follows.
Beautiful finishes matter enormously. They’re part of what makes a finished project feel special. But the prettiest bathroom in the world is still unsuccessful if it doesn’t function well for the people using it.
Great remodeling isn’t simply about making a house look better.
It’s about making life inside that house better.
When a Family Grows, a Home Can Grow With It
One of our current projects feels especially joyful right now. A wonderful family we’ve been working with just welcomed baby number six a few days ago.
Six children bring plenty of life, love, activity—and naturally, a need for a little more room.
Their home already has a bedroom on the third floor, and we’re transforming the rest of that level by adding a second bedroom and a full bathroom. The additional space will give visiting Grandma—and other overnight guests—a comfortable place to stay.
But there’s another part of this project that I especially love.
The family’s oldest child is a delightful eight-year-old girl. And with the arrival of her newest little brother, she is now the only girl among five little brothers.
And sometimes a girl just needs a place of her own.
We’re creating a special bedroom for her—a beautiful retreat where she can close the door, find a little quiet, and have a space that feels distinctly hers.
Right now, she’s eight. But we’re not designing the room for an eight-year-old alone.
As she gets older, this will be a place where she can have girlfriends over, talk and laugh, do homework, listen to music, and enjoy a little independence—safely removed from five inquisitive little brothers who will undoubtedly want to know exactly what she and her friends are doing.
Today, it’s a special bedroom for a little girl.
A few years from now, it may be where she and her friends stay up too late talking and laughing and making memories.
Meanwhile, the additional bedroom and bathroom give the entire family more flexibility. Grandma can visit comfortably. Guests have privacy. And the third floor becomes a genuinely useful part of the home rather than simply extra square footage.
That’s one of my favorite things about thoughtful remodeling: we’re solving for today while imagining tomorrow.
Instead of looking at the existing footprint of this home and assuming the family had reached its limitations, we asked a different question:
What else could this house become?
Unused or underused square footage can sometimes hold enormous potential. Attics, third floors, spaces above garages, lower levels, and awkward rooms can become bedrooms, bathrooms, offices, retreats, or gathering spaces when they’re approached creatively.
But the goal isn’t simply to squeeze another room into a floor plan.
It’s to think about the people who will live there and create spaces that genuinely enhance their lives.
Sometimes Remodeling Is About Finally Creating What You Want
Not every renovation begins with necessity.
Sometimes you’ve lived in a house long enough to know exactly what you wish it had.
One of our current projects involves a primary suite remodel and addition that will create a dream closet over the garage.
Is a beautiful, generously sized closet essential to survival?
Probably not.
Can it dramatically change someone’s daily experience of her home?
Absolutely.
And that’s something I wish homeowners would give themselves permission to consider more often.
We spend an extraordinary amount of our lives at home. There is nothing frivolous about making it function beautifully for us.
Luxury, to me, isn’t about adding things simply for the sake of having them. It’s about identifying what would genuinely improve the way you live and then designing it exceptionally well.
Maybe that’s a beautiful dressing room.
Maybe it’s a quiet sitting area in a primary suite.
Maybe it’s a laundry room located where laundry actually happens.
Maybe it’s finally having enough storage that everything has a place.
Custom interiors should feel custom—not simply because something was fabricated specifically for the house, but because the home was designed specifically for the people living there.
Making Room for Aging Parents
At another project, we’re adding a bathroom to the lower level with an eye toward something that may happen in the future: aging parents eventually moving into the home’s main bedroom suite.
This is the kind of design conversation I think we’ll be having more and more.
Multigenerational living doesn’t always mean designing an entirely separate apartment or addition. Sometimes it means making thoughtful changes now that provide flexibility later.
Could a first-floor room eventually become a bedroom?
Is there a full bathroom nearby?
Could a shower be designed with accessibility in mind without looking institutional?
Would wider openings, better lighting, or fewer thresholds make the house easier to navigate later?
Good design can anticipate these needs quietly.
A home doesn’t need to announce, “We designed this for aging.”
It can simply be beautiful, comfortable, and easier for everyone to use.
And when those decisions are made during a remodel rather than years afterward in response to an urgent need, they can often be incorporated much more gracefully.
Design Five Years Ahead, Not Just for Today
One of the most valuable things a designer can bring to a remodeling project is perspective.
Our job isn’t only to solve the problem directly in front of us.
It’s to ask what comes after it.
If we’re opening walls, should something else be addressed while we have access?
If we’re changing a bathroom layout, is this the moment to think about future accessibility?
If we’re renovating a kitchen, how might the family’s entertaining habits change over the next decade?
If we’re creating built-ins, what will they need to hold five years from now—not simply what needs storage today?
And if we’re renovating a bedroom for an eight-year-old girl, how can we make it just as wonderful for the thirteen-year-old and sixteen-year-old she will eventually become?
You cannot predict every change life will bring. Nor should you try.
But thoughtful planning can give a home flexibility.
And flexibility is one of the greatest luxuries we can build into a house.
Remodeling Requires Trust
There is another common thread running through these projects: trust.
Remodeling is incredibly personal.
Clients invite us into their homes, tell us what isn’t working, share how their families live, and trust us with significant financial investments. During construction, they also tolerate dust, noise, disruption, and a period when their home may look considerably worse before it looks better.
We don’t take that trust lightly.
A designer’s responsibility extends far beyond selecting beautiful things.
We have to understand the big picture while managing hundreds of small decisions that ultimately create it.
We need to anticipate problems before they become expensive.
We need to know when something that looks good on paper won’t work particularly well in real life.
We need to communicate with contractors, tradespeople, showrooms, workrooms, and vendors so everyone is working toward the same vision.
And sometimes, we need to tell a client that the idea they originally had isn’t the solution we’d recommend—and explain why.
That’s part of the trust, too.
Why Your Designer Should Be Involved Early
One of the costliest mistakes homeowners make is waiting too long to bring an interior designer into a remodeling project.
By the time construction begins, many decisions have already been made.
Walls may be located. Electrical plans may be underway. Plumbing locations may be determined. Windows may have been ordered.
And each completed decision narrows the possibilities.
Early design involvement allows the architect, contractor, designer, and homeowner to consider the project as a whole before expensive work begins.
It gives us the opportunity to think about furniture placement before determining electrical locations. To consider cabinetry before finalizing walls. To coordinate lighting with architecture. To select materials with realistic lead times.
It also allows us to ask the less obvious questions.
Who might sleep here someday?
How will this room function when the children are teenagers?
Could this space accommodate a parent later in life?
Will this decision still make sense ten years from now?
The earlier those questions are asked, the more options we have for answering them well.
A Remodel Should Do More Than Look New
Eventually, the construction dust disappears.
The furniture is delivered. The artwork goes up. The last accessory finds its place.
And yes, we want the finished home to be beautiful.
But beauty alone isn’t enough.
Months from now, I want that family of eight to wonder how they ever lived without their newly transformed third floor. I want Grandma to feel completely at home when she comes to visit. And I want one eight-year-old girl to close the door to her beautiful new bedroom and know that, in a very busy house filled with five little brothers, there is one special place that belongs just to her.
I want the client stepping into her new closet every morning to still love it.
And years from now, if aging parents move into that main-level suite, I want the family to be grateful that someone thought ahead.
Those are the moments that define successful design.
The best remodels don’t simply give us newer homes.
They give us homes that are better prepared for the lives we want to live within them.
Because ultimately, remodeling isn’t really about changing a house.
It’s about making room for what comes next.
