Our 2026 Renovation List
Sharing all of our renovation plans for the year ahead.
One of my favourite things about a brand new year rolling in is dreaming up the possibilities that the year ahead might hold. I love to take the time to dream up all the things. Will it all happen? Probably not. But, it always helps me to focus our energy through the year when I know what we’re aiming for.
2025 turned out to be more of a pause for renovations around here – Brady was working an unprecedented number of hours through much of our Spring and Summer and, rather than focus his limited time off on renovations, we chose to spend it travelling with our family instead (Hawaii and Europe!). While we still managed to accomplish quite a bit around the house (you can catch up with our recap here), we’ll be carrying many of our reno goals through to 2026. Keep reading to see all of the projects we’re hoping to tackle through the year ahead…
Our 2026 Renovation Goals
ONE: Finish the Guest Room.
This has been Carson’s bedroom for the past three years as we worked through reconfiguring and renovating the rest of our second floor. Now that Carson has officially moved into his new bedroom, we’re planning to make this space a cozy guest bedroom. We still have baseboards and closet doors to install in here and that wall colour will also be changing before we can start moving furniture into this space. I don’t anticipate the last of the construction work to take long in here. I have a feeling it’ll be my choosing the wall colour that might take some time though.
TWO: Finish the Hallway trim.
The door casings and window trim are already done, so it’s just the baseboards left to install along our hallway.
THREE: Paint the Hallway doors and trim.
All of these new doors, casings and baseboards still need paint, but I am undecided on a colour. Should I paint them all out in Cloud White to match our walls? Or go with a soft beige to add a bit of contrast?
FOUR: Paint the stair railing.
I’ve been trying to decide on a paint colour for our stair railing for more than a year now. I think I’ve ruled out white or black, but I’m still undecided on what a do like. Currently leaning towards a light beige colour, but it would need to match/coordinate with whatever we go with on our hallway doors and trim.
FIVE: Paint the Basement.
Again, I’ve been stuck on a wall colour for our basement for ages now. Thinking a light beige simply because I think it’ll feel warmer than white. Whatever I choose, I know I want it to be lighter than the brown we’ve got down there now. Thoughts?
SIX: Paint the Basement ceiling and swap out the lights.
Our basement ceilings are the only ceilings left to paint in this new/old house of ours. I’d love to give them all a fresh coat of paint and swap out all of the pot lights for a more streamlined version like we did on our main floor. Maybe we’ll even get around to swapping out those 90’s brass sconces while we’re at it too!
SEVEN: Re-build our deck.
This old deck is in desperate need of a re-build. Parts of the structure still feel quite solid while others we know will need replacing. The entire top needs to be replaced. This is something we’ve been talking about for a few summers now, hopefully this will be the year we can make it happen!
EIGHT: Renovate the Pyramid Bathroom.
This might be a small little bathroom, but I’ve got some really BIG ideas for it. This will eventually be our guest bathroom and, truth be told, it likely won’t be used a whole lot, which has me questioning how much time we really want to pour into this space. I’d love to rework the layout in here, but with our radiant heat, moving plumbing is extra complicated and will likely add a few month’s worth of work to the timeline of this project. I’m not sure it’s worth it for a bathroom that is rarely used. Still thinking the scope of this one through, but regardless, here’s hoping we can finally knock this project out this year.
The Maybe List
BONUS: Update the Living Room.
I’ve been toying around with a few ideas to update our living room for a while now. We have bigger plans down the road to renovate our entire main floor, so I want to be really intentional about an changes we make so that we’re not being wasteful with our time and money. For now, I’d really love to update the flooring (we purchased enough hardwood with our second floor reno to run the flooring in here as well). Replacing the flooring will also mean ripping out the built-ins though as well as re-tiling the fireplace. This will be a pretty big job and, with our efforts currently focused on the second floor, I’m not sure if it makes sense to tackle this one this year. Time will tell.
BONUS: Build a new shed.
Our old shed has seen better days. We’d love to build a newer version that functions better for our family – something much bigger and in a better location on the other side of our yard where it would be far more useful for us. I’d say the new deck is a bigger priority for us this year, so a new shed might just have to wait.
These always feel like lofty lists and, to be honest, we’ve never once made it all the way through one of them. Things take longer than we’d expected (always!), new projects pop up and real life will always take priority. I love rolling into the year with a loose plan though, just some ideas to help guide our way. Are you planning to take on any renovation projects this year? If so, I’d love to hear about them!
Wishing you such a lovely day my friends!
