We recently bought a small but well-maintained 10-year-old condo unit. We have been advised to plan the reno ourselves, given our tight budget of less than $25,000. Is that viable or should we get a designer?

Sophie: The friends who have been telling you to plan your own renovation are right. You’ll get much more satisfaction and a deeper sense of involvement.

As your home is not too old and the structure is sound, what you are looking at is a design update. Look through issues of Home & Decor to narrow down what you like, then create a mood board from tear sheets and mount them on art boards – it helps you discover your decor style, potential colour schemes and so forth. The contractor can use your mood board as the basis of the design scheme too.

Shop around for the best quotes and a contractor you feel comfortable with. Ask friends and relatives who’ve renovated their homes for recommendations, then narrow your choices down after interviews and visits to their projects. The bigger firms have draftsmen who can flesh out your ideas into a floor plan.

Most interior designers won’t work with a budget of less than $35,000. If you really want to tap a designer’s expertise, one compromise is to ask him if he would be willing to just consult – in other words, he would do the design concept, but you would supervise the main contractor whom you would source. You can negotiate a flat consultation fee – it should be around $4,000 to $5,000.