Kristen Coutts knows a thing or two about stretching a dollar, and she is using this valuable skill set on Beer Budget Reno. The new home renovation series premiering April 12 sees the self-taught DIYer pull from her own experiences to help others transform spaces. And doing it for those who may not be able to afford it otherwise. She’ll realize these visions through clever and cost-saving hacks.
The new addition to the Home.Made.Nation family got her start while on maternity leave for her first child. She and her family just moved to a fixer upper. After receiving astronomical quotes from contractors, Coutts decided to take matters into her own hands.
She gained a huge following on social media while chronicling the project progress. The response inspired her to leave the corporate job and go all-in with the home improvement industry. A business the busy mom and wife runs out of her own residence. Canadians may know Coutts as a guest expert on the lifestyle talk show CityLine. We sat down with the innovative go-getter to talk about what makes her new series stand out and hopes for the future.
I love the name of the show.
Kristen Coutts: Doing renovations on a beer budget is actually something I’ve been doing from the start. My tagline on social media has been champagne reno on a beer budget. It’s just something that came out of my own home.
How did this concept come together?
The way my business started was we purchased a home that was a fixer upper. I was on maternity leave with my first child. We spent all of our money on the house, but it needed a complete gut. I didn’t’ have the money to renovate. I was going to do quick fixes here and there. I wanted it to look beautiful. I have a certain taste and been saving things on Pinterest and Instagram and really wanted it to look a certain way. I received a series of quotes, and they were all things we couldn’t afford and often quotes that were higher when I called versus when my husband called. That also made me certifiably angry.
I just decided I was going to self teach and do the renovations myself. I did. I documented the entire process and put it all on social media. I had a line of people outside my door asking me if I would do client projects and take on their renovations. The idea of doing a renovation on a beer budget really resonated with folks. I had a production company reach out to me and say that they’d like to center a show around me. It was just an idea that spoke to my values. Everyone deserves a beautiful renovation and have a home they love. It shouldn’t matter what your budget is. That’s how the show came to be.
A&E
What makes the show unique to me is you empower the clients to have a hand in the renovation and be part of the process. It’s not just leave for a bit and come back to see the finished product.
Oftentimes my clients, even outside the show, are women. I find that women can be intimidated to use power tools because they’ve never used them before. I certainly was when I started. There are things that people find scary about them. We had someone within the show that was scared of the noise. She knew how to use the tool because I showed her how, but the noise scared her. Or the safety element can scare people. I really wanted to take the fear out of the power tools because once you learn the tools and the skills, there is no end to what you can do inside and outside your home. I just wanted to empower people to learn the tools. It was something I was super passionate about incorporating into the show. It also brings down the costs of the projects because it was homeowner homework I could leave my clients with and they can work on the project while I worked on some other area of their home. In the end, they were contributing to their own cost-savings of their own renovations as well.
You’re also reusing things that they may not even have realized still has value.
Exactly. Don’t throw out things that ain’t broken. Even if they are, there is probably a way to fix them. I do a lot of flips. I use big box furniture and customize them so they work really well for my clients. Doing custom carpentry is very expensive, even on the material alone. I find it’s cheaper to start with a big box item and then customize it exactly to what you need. A lot of people have these in their homes, whether it’s bookshelves or desks or dressers, they already exist. People throw them out because they say it’s from the 1990s and does not suit their style anymore. We can customize it so it suits your style.
How is it showing the family life side of things?
They were all excited. This felt like a natural continuation of social media. If you’re okay putting your face out there, then for the most part it feels like a natural evolution. They were excited. Jodi, who is a design expert on the show, I’ve known her for 20 years. We are best friends, so it feels like we’re supporting each other. My husband and kids are very supportive. They have been so excited to take part in the show as well. It has just been a fun experience for everybody.
Talk a bit about the people we’ll meet this season and the projects you’ll be tackling.
Katie and her husband Andy are on the show. I really resonate with Katie a lot. She had her first baby at the same time I had my second baby, so our kids are born a week apart. I really empathize with the struggles she went through where she had to give up her home office, gym, place she gets ready in the morning. It became a nursery. She lost herself a little bit and wasn’t sure where to put her things and where she should get ready and feel like herself again. That renovation was really special to me because it’s a phase of life I’m in right now as well. It felt really great to be able to help somebody when I’ve come through to the other side. That was fun.
I also have a childhood friend on the show who I’ve known for 32 years. Her name is Melissa, and we went to elementary school together. She now has a British husband Steve. We lost touch over the years because she moved to London. When she moved back, she was now staying in her parents’ basement. The childhood home I used to have playdates five minutes from where my parents’ lived. I got to renovate her basement. They had three rooms there and were making way for a baby. They didn’t want to spend a ton on the renovation because they are saving up to move into their own place, but they needed a nursery for their baby who was very quickly on the way. That was special for me as well.
Kristen Coutts (A&E)
What kind of challenges do you face really stretching your skills?
They all had their own unique challenges. It’s really about how far you can stretch your budget. The one I mentioned, Katie, they wanted to do their whole basement. It was a 1,200 square-foot basement and they wanted a full kitchen down there. There is a real cost to material and renovations. They were getting quotes of over $100,000. The budget they were giving me was $40,000. I had to come up with enough cost-savings to be able to do their project on a beer budget but at the same time there is the reality of permits, engineering costs and things required of putting a kitchen in a basement. Sometimes it’s not necessarily possible. I would say my solution here is really to listen to my clients and what they are asking me for. When I actually discover what their needs are and focus on their needs instead of all their wants, then I can really hone in on what that renovation has to entail.
This all takes place in the Toronto area. Anything that stands out about this region in terms of real estate and renos?
The homes are small. Toronto’s real estate market is incredibly expensive. Something here that would cost $1.5 million here might cost half a million across other parts of Canada and the United States. We’re working with small budgets, but the spaces tend to be on the smaller side. It’s really trying to make sure the rooms are both beautiful and functional within a small footprint and budget.
What does it mean to your first show and be part of a lineup with some heavy hitters? What are your hopes beyond this?
I’m a big planner and big dreamer. It’s interesting because if you scroll back to the very beginning of my social media, the very first post I make is where I declare I start a renovation and design company without having purchased a single power tool or have done a single project. When I left my corporate job, I envisioned everything I’m doing now. I envisioned the social media account, a TV show. I envisioned all this before I started. I feel like I worked very hard and diligently to make it all happen. I’m so honored for this show to live on Home.Made.Nation and so excited to see what’s to come in the future. I’d love to see a furniture line, décor line. I’d love to put out a book. These are all things I put on my vision board of mine. I’m just so thankful for partners like A&E and Home.Made.Nation for allowing this to happen. I’m so excited for all this. Even though I feel I’ve planned it all and dreamed of this all to happen, it still feels surreal that it is happening. Especially with names like Rachael Ray and Buddy Valastro, I feel like I’m among lifestyle TV royalty. It’s a very exciting time.
Beer Budget Reno premiere, Noon/11c, April 12, A&E