Going PRO

Three best friends and self-taught renovators divulge more than 400 renovation tips they’ve learned while flipping homes and sprucing up spaces.

- DANI GRACE

If your job has lost its appeal, usurped the more meaningful facets of your life or isn’t at all your dream workplace, do you stick it out or instead embark on an exciting adventure? For Erin Cayless, Bonnie Hindmarsh and Lana Taylor, doing Plan B meant abandoning their corporate jobs and banding together to forge a new life journey: a home renovation business.

The women wanted to share hard-learned lessons and their favorite design tips to help readers discover the renovation prospects right under their noses. In their book Three Birds Renovations, the three best friends delve into the design expertise they have picked up, from their inaugural “rookie reno” to more recent massive transformations.

“Life’s too short to live in a home you don’t love, or at least like,” the Three Birds write. “Start thinking about what you could improve in your home today, and don’t let perfect get in the way of better.”

Here are some of the crucial tips they’ve collected since starting their business four years—and nine renovated properties—ago.

IN AND OUT