Hi, I’m Kristen. Welcome to maisoncoutts! I hope you’ll find inspiration on this page to turn your house into your dream home, one project at a time.
If you can’t get enough, make sure to follow along on: Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok!
While I’ve always had an interest in design and building, I was your classic lover of Pinterest - always pinning, but never doing.
I’ve been through a couple of home renovations of my own - the basement in my previous house and a pretty significant renovation in my current house. And through those experiences, I learned a few things.
1. Contracting a renovation is EXPENSIVE.
When doing the reno on my current house, a General Contractor was going to charge an additional $30k vs. me managing the project on my own. Was there some risk doing it myself? Yes. Did I learn a ton? Yes. Do I love the end result? Abso-fricken-lutely! And now, I spend my days fighting for women to have the dream homes they love without the high price tag.
2. Women have a tougher time being taken seriously in the reno world.
Through both big projects I undertook, I was constantly asked where my husband was, if I knew what I was doing, quoted prices much higher than my husband was for the same project, and met trades who tried to take shortcuts because they wanted to take advantage based on their assumption that I didn’t know what I was doing (spoiler alert: I *didn’t* know what I was doing at the time, but that’s not for them to know ;))
3. You are capable of picking up power tools and building your dream space.
Each project I’ve taken on has required me to learn a new tool each and every time. I had to figure out how to do it, and so can you. You can find every tutorial you need for a project on my page or from any of a thousand sites online. But all you have to do is try. Once you take the fear out of using tools, you can build anything! No really, anything. Check out some of the projects I’ve built: this home office, this nursery, and these custom bedside tables from scratch.
Keep following along on Instagram for tutorials, and if you’d like to work together on a project, drop me a line or check out the services I offer.
Let’s build together!
Kristen xo
Kristen brought my vision to life! As a busy professional, my unfinished home office was simply not cutting it. Kristen not only took the time to learn what I want, but learned how I work so that she could better the space for me. And she absolutely achieved this! In addition to having a beautiful home office to call my own, it is also extremely functional. My office has become the centerpiece of our home. It is the nicest room in our home and we have shown it off to all our friends and family. I certainly would recommend Kristen to anyone looking to freshen up their space and/or manage a renovation project.
Johanne, "The Blue Boffice" project
