Designer Christiane Hogner, Bruxelles

Though most of the home's interior comes without a splashy designer's name attached, the bathroom is kitted out with a toilet, sink, and bath/shower from Jasper Morrison's line for Ideal Standard. The cabinets are from an Ikea kitchen system.

The thrill of a home renovation can quickly be diminished by unforeseen circumstances, stretched budgets, and other unexpected issues. The good news is that most of the time these problems can be mitigated, if not avoided entirely, by keeping an eye out for warning signals. Read on as we go through essential home renovation tips to consider before kicking off your own revamp.

A flat roof and all-white interior unifies the home's three volumes.

The Balancing Barn in Suffolk: On the edge of a nature reserve a few miles from the Suffolk coast, the MVRDV-designed Balancing Barn cantilevers over the surrounding meadow.

The Lais designed their house to be theirs forever. As such, they were able to make design moves that made sense for themselves but that wouldn't have high resale value, like the Japanese-style master bathroom in the middle of the second floor instead of off of the master bedroom. The traditional setup features bath stools from Muji for washing off.

New interior finishes, furniture, and a guesthouse were part of the restoration/renovation of John Lautner's Chemosphere, a 1960s house that makes frequent cameos in film and television.

Lassen designed all the furniture with the exception of a few items, like the vintage Chairman armchair by Henrik Tengler and white IKEA sofas. “To keep it simple, we only used natural colors from wood inside, with everything else being white,” Lassen says.

Turin designed the bed, console, and side tables in the master bedroom. The room gets plenty of illumination through the windows, which she had remade to match the 1925 detailing and covered in translucent Trevira fabric curtains by Rogers and Goffigon. “They provide privacy but lots of light comes through.”

Choosing not to make a big to-do of itself, this cottage blends in with its surroundings. A wall of glass on one end allows a merger of the outdoors with the interiors, while white trim leaves the appearance of a snow-kissed façade year-round. Berlin, Germany. By Atelier st Gesellschaft von Architekten mbH from the book Rock the Shack, Copyright Gestalten 2013.

Transformer or beach hut? Positioned in a coastal erosion zone, this holiday retreat for a family of five is completely capable of being relocated. An oversized shutter allows for protection from the elements when not in use and opens to allow sun in during the winter or provide shade on hot summer days. Waikato, New Zealand. By Crosson Clarke Carnachan Architects, from the book Rock the Shack, Copyright Gestalten 2013.

The ever-changing, lush wooded surroundings of Minnesota, such as those experienced at this 8,000-square-foot Type Variant House outside of Minneapolis designed by Coen and Partners, are right near the small town of New Richland.

Konishi and Gaffney's bedroom is fairly austere, though a pair of dormers let in lovely natural light.

The interior showcases the roof's laminated wood beams. A Panton chair takes the seat of honor at the dining table.

A Chilean home’s dramatic stained-pine exterior references local vernacular architecture.

The Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin, designed by Russian firm SPEECH Tchoban & Kuznetsov, has a wooden door that mimics the structure's textured concrete exterior.

This Nordic kitchen shows why white spaces aren't all the same. Frosted glass and veiny marble offset the milky Eames shell chairs in this photo from @tinashome.

Shulman's shot of Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House No. 22 in 1960 became one of the most iconic photographs of modern U.S. architecture and many felt like it encapsulated Los Angeles during at that time. Shulman ultimately photographed 18 of the 26 Case Study Houses commissioned by Arts & Architecture magazine. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Used with permission. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute

In the kitchen, glossy white MDF and quartz countertops allow for maximum light reflection, as do the white walls and ceilings. The stools are from Zone Maison.

Women in Architecture Survey: According to the results of the Architect’s Journal Women in Architecture survey, the pay in the architecture field is still unequal and discrimination is common.

The Andersen Architectural Collection’s Eagle windows and doors provide the panes and passageways of the home.

Although the two apartments were stacked vertically, their individual systems and layout were quite different. The limited horizontal overlap meant that the owners and design team had to give careful thought to the connective elements, and how the family would ultimately circulate through the home. One of the key pieces to the puzzle was finding a place for the interior stairs. Says Bangia Agostinho principal Anshu Bangia, “There was a challenge to find an appropriate location to cut a new stair opening between the apartments, and then have the new stair coordinate with the existing one to form a logical sequence of circulation between the three levels.”

Two Black Sheds incorporates all the conventional aspects of a weekend retreat in a rather unconventional way.

Architectural ispiration and exhibition posters fill the walls of Juhl's home office. Two chairs of Juhl's design are placed on the side of his desk, designed in 1945.

Milman Road Renovation The Syte Architecture team referenced the past while assembling the two-story addition, cladding the exterior in zinc and reused brick from the original wall so it blended with the express chimneys and surrounding structures. Photos by Syte Achitecture

Teacher and resident Eric Schneider’s 450-square-foot space needed to be able to accommodate individual areas for cooking, storage, sleeping, entertaining, and, of course, working—without filling the diminutive abode with furniture, or eliciting claustrophobia by chopping it into tiny spaces. The simple and elegant solution was to knock down most of the apartment’s walls, and concentrate all of the living space’s functionality—kitchen storage, closet, bar, bed, lighting, and office—into a single, transformer-like cabinetry unit.

The U.S. State Department has just announced the representatives for the American pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale: New York's Storefront for Art and Architecture, helmed by the inimitable Eva Franch i Gilabert, will be programming the U.S. pavilion alongside Ashley Schafer of PRAXIS Journal and Ana Miljački, from MIT's architecture program. The trio—with input from Natasha Jen of Pentagram, Architizer, CLOG, and Leong Leong, who will design the pavilion's physcial space—will stage an "active, experimental architectural office that researches, studies, and remakes 1,000 projects designed by American architecture firms and exported abroad." To learn more about the players involved, take a trip with us through the Dwell archives.

Milman Road Renovation: Rear window view “What struck us as funny was the corner bay window,” says architect Oliver Barsoum. “It’s almost like you’re surrounded by glass on all sides. That’s where the project began.” The vision involved playing with and pushing that window into three dimensions. Photos by Syte Achitecture

Updating the A-frame of yore, this home’s liberal use of windows makes the most of panoramic views spanning two valleys. Catalonia, Spain. Cadaval & Sola-Morales from the book Rock the Shack, Copyright Gestalten 2013.

Espadrilles by Industry of All Nations.

The relatively simple construction incorporates clever sustainable design: a two-level wood roof structure keeps the sun’s heat away from the interior, and small windows at either end facilitate powerful cross-ventilation. It’s natural air-conditioning, and it works beautifully.

A wooden home nestled amongst a cluster of Japanese larch trees offers a perfect sanctuary from nearby Tokyo. Chubu, Japan. By Koji Tsutsui & Associates from the book Rock the Shack, Copyright Gestalten 2013.