My first apartment makeover: 5 renovation mistakes I learned the hard way, and how you can avoid them

Two images from my apartment makeover. The left is a modern small bathroom with black fixtures, blue vertical tiling and wooden vanity. The second is a pale green bedroom with floating shelves and check throw cushion.

If you're planning your first apartment makeover and are worried about making remodeling mistakes, I am uniquely qualified to comment as I have quite literally been there, done that, and learned from my renovation errors.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you undertake a renovation project. It’s expensive, messy, time consuming, but oh-so-worth-it. I renovated my first apartment between 2021 and 2022 and I made painful errors along the way, so I am sharing what not to do in your apartment makeover to save you time, tears and wasted cash.