Makeover 1: Adding a Nail Department

As co-owner of True Envy for three years, Ramar Russell had envisioned all the ways in which he’d be able to add nail services to his hair salon — except for the way it finally happened. As fate would have it, the nail salon one door down closed its doors (and with it went an exclusivity agreement as the plaza’s only nail services provider), but True Envy couldn’t expand into that space because the plaza owner wanted it. So True Envy opted to replace two mostly unused hair stations with pedicure benches.

The benches posed challenges both in getting them inside the salon and in getting the plumbing in place. The delivery men couldn’t get the benches through the door on the pallets, so Russell unpackaged all of the pieces in the parking lot and hand-carried them in. For the plumbing, there was a lot of back-and-forth with the plumber regarding whether the salon floor would need to be dug into to install water drainage lines, but ultimately Russell located a pump small enough to fit under the benches. The manicure table is folded up and under the curtain (where it looks like a table with drawers). For manicures, the salon has the client sit at a dryer chair and performs the nail services on the table.

More Info: True Envy Salon Spa, Orlando

Renovation square footage: 77
Time frame: 9 weeks
Hired help? Yes, a plumber, and the salon may still hire a handyman to install a commercial light fixture. Russell installed a new wall finish (actually kitchen backsplash tiles from The Home Depot) himself to save money.

Key purchases:
> 2 pedicure benches with pipeless plumbed basins
> small Minerva discharge pump for pedicure basins
> pedicure bench accessories, including pillows, armrests, and stools
> 20 Fasäde wall tiles
> 4 white IKEA curtains (to separate the new nail area from the existing hair area)
> invisible curtain rod
> Pibbs 2009BL Foldable Manicure Cart
> storage units (including IKEA cabinets)
> miscellaneous decorative items
> miscellaneous nail service items
(The paint for touch-ups was left over from the original paint.)

Russell chronicles his first year with a nail department at blogs.nailsmag.com/blueprint.

Next page: Makeover 2: Uneven Floor, No More

[PAGEBREAK]Makeover 2: Uneven Floor, No More

When clients entered Shine, a boutique nail, brows, and lashes-focused salon, a year ago, owner Ericka Bates probably said a silent prayer that clients didn’t look down at the warped flooring. The laminate showed wear from water spills and other damage from the busy salon and, even worse, it was uneven — with new layers of flooring having been stacked on top of previous layers. For this renovation, Bates, with the help of friends, removed all of the layers of flooring until reaching the base concrete. The dip in the concrete was then filled and a brand new vinyl floor installed on top.

Clients now are greeted not only with a perfect new floor but with a whole new brightened look. As part of this makeover, Bates also re-stained the wood of the pedicure benches, moved the lash station to the back to open up more room in the entrance, removed a cabinet, and repainted the salon in brighter, shinier colors.

More Info: Shine, Chicago

Renovation square footage: 650 (entire salon)
Time frame: 1 week
Hired help? No professionals were hired, but Bates solicited the help of friends with renovation experience and paid them for their assistance.

Key purchases:
> flooring
> paint
> wood stain
> benches for waiting area
> chairs for eyelash station
> chandelier
> art pieces
> throw pillows

Next page: Makeover 3: Dreary to Upbeat Retro

[PAGEBREAK]Makeover 3: Dreary to Upbeat Retro

A former hair studio site, Nailed It! started in a dark, dreary space with a wall that bisected the space into two awkward areas, plus housed an inefficiently large coat closet. Deciding to open the salon with zero debt, co-owners Anne Schlegel and John Sidoti (wife and husband) relied exclusively on their savings to complete the project, which encompassed the entire working area of the salon. (Out-of-sight places like the break room weren’t done.)

Doing much of the work themselves, the salon has a whole new look after knocking down the wall, converting the oversized closet to a pedicure room, applying fresh paint, and adding checkered floor tiles. “We wanted the salon to feel like a soda shop from the ’50s or ’60s,” Schlegel says. She decorated the walls with retro tin prints of icons like James Dean and Rosie the Riveter, plus tracked down old advertisements for nail products no longer in production, which she framed before hanging. Her favorite wall decoration is one she unearthed during the demolition: a small handpainted sign from the plumbing supply company that originally built the building.

More Info: Nailed It!, Racine, Wis.

Renovation square footage: 400
Time frame: 5 months (~3 months of hands-on work; the rest was waiting for permits and scheduling conflicts)
Hired help? Yes, a flooring installer, plumber, and electrician. Self-professed DIY junkies, Schlegel and Sidoti did the rest themselves, asking friends and the local hardware store for advice as needed.

Key purchases:
> flooring, including plywood for subfloor, baseboards, and tiles
> drywall
> Behr paint
> cabinets
> door
> 2 IKEA chairs for pedicures and vinyl headrests
> 2 IKEA tables for manicures
> IKEA eight cube shelf for retail
> 2 FootsieBath pedicure basins
> 2 Dina Meri pedicure carts
> 2 ceiling fans
> garage sale finds: 8 chairs (redone completely), reception cafe table (stripped and painted)
> miscellaneous accessories including lamps, storage containers, and shelves

Next page: Makeover 4: Head to Toe Revamp

[PAGEBREAK]Makeover 4: Head to Toe Revamp

Renovating Head to Toes Salon was like going back in time. With her family pitching in, owner Anne Clarizio diligently removed the paneling and paper off the walls, where she uncovered a page from a hairstyling magazine from 1973. She also removed the asbestos tile (being careful not to let flakes get into the air) and Berber carpet. When replacing the HVAC unit, the technician commented that he had never seen some of the things he pulled out of the unit when he replaced it.

Clarizio says, “I refurbished the shampoo cabinets. The bones were good — they don’t make them like that anymore — and kept the cast iron sinks. I had the painter match the wall color to the sinks. We turned the dryer area into the nail area. The only part of the salon we didn’t renovate was the mixing room in the back,” though she then adds that even the mixing room was given a new layer of paint and new shelves.

More Info: Head to Toes Salon, Conway, Ariz.

Renovation square footage: 935
Time frame: 5 weeks
Hired help? Yes, a plumber, painter, electrician, and HVAC technician. Clarizio did a lot of the work herself including paneling removal, wallpaper application, mudding and prepping the walls, refinishing the cabinets at the shampoo stations, and tiling the backsplash.

Key purchases:
> flooring
> HVAC unit
> 2 Minerva Beauty double-sided styling stations
> Minerva Beauty pedicure chair
> 4 CCI Beauty styling chairs
> CCI Beauty manicure table
> paint
> bathroom sink
> bathroom cabinets

Next page: Makeover 5: Ageless and Timeless

[PAGEBREAK]Makeover 5: Ageless and Timeless

Just because she’s past the so-called “retirement age,” Ruth Gurry didn’t let that stop her from renovating a former apartment (now zoned for commercial use) into a stress-free sanctuary for nail clients. Gurry (at 68) and her husband (over 70) sanded the floor, which took more than two days. After the sanding, and with the help of an interior designer friend, Claudine Calvin (over 70), they whitewashed the floor to make it look old like the building. The color scheme started with a local regulation that the awning outside be burgundy or hunter green; they chose the former. Calvin then suggested painting a burgundy border on the floor and a burgundy “rug” in the center to give the salon a signature look.

“It was much work on both our parts, laying on the floor and painting this rug,” Gurry remembers. “I asked Claudine how she was going to get up off the floor. She said not to worry, she recently took a course that, in case she fell, taught her how to get up.”

Gurry enjoys catering to bridal parties, and the space’s kitchen is handy for that. However, she wasn’t able to fit two whirlpool spas into the space, so she decided on a pipeless whirlpool spa and a European Touch Petite Spa. Gurry saved some money on her manicure table: her original Dina Meri granite-top boomerang table from 1993 is still in great shape.

More Info: Sensationails by Ruth, Manchester Center, Vt.

Renovation square footage: 300
Time frame: 2.5 months
Hired help? Yes, an electrician put in the track lighting and a plumber helped with the pedicure chair.

Key purchases:
> pipeless whirlpool spa
> European Touch Petite Spa
> paint
> replacement window
> awning
> sign and sign post
> air conditioner

Next page: Makeover 6: From Carpeted Drab to Overall Fab

[PAGEBREAK]Makeover 6: From Carpeted Drab to Overall Fab

Salon owner Nikki Clifton had one month to turn a former printing shop into a stylish nail salon. One priority was to ditch the carpeting, since (by British Columbia province standards) carpeting is not allowed in salons. The salon also needed drywall installation and a new paint job. To stay within her no-debt budget, Clifton enlisted her husband and her father (both in the construction industry) for help. Her husband installed the laminate flooring, as well as the drywall, painting, and fixtures (sometimes working until 3 a.m., while Clifton stayed home with their two toddlers). Her father installed the pedicure spa plumbing, the hair sink, and milled the red cedar for the salon’s reception counter and two nail tables.

Though themajor projects were completed in a month, Clifton says the frequent tweaks make it feel as though the project has been ongoing for much longer. “It’s taken me two years to get the salon looking the way it does now — with the decor, retail, and the coffee bar. I’m currently looking at expanding again as I just purchased a tanning bed.”

More Info: Killer Nails & Esthetics Day Spa, Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada

Renovation square footage: 550 (entire salon)
Time frame: 1 month
Hired help? No, Clifton’s husband and father are both in the construction industry, so they were able to handle everything.

Key purchases:
> laminate flooring
> pedicure chair
> drywall
> paint
> fixtures
> materials for custom-made reception desk and manicure tables

Next page: Makeover 7: Complete Salon Makeover

[PAGEBREAK]Makeover 7: Complete Salon Makeover

There was no part of All Dolled Up that wasn’t renovated and reconfigured to owner Carmen Hayward’s vision. “It was bad!” Hayward says. “The carpet was worn, there was wood paneling on the walls, the hot water tank was in the dated bathroom. I just couldn’t see myself being happy working here every day in the condition it was.” The carpet was replaced with tile and laminate flooring, the lighting was replaced, the storage room was torn down and rebuilt in a more convenient location (its walls weren’t load-bearing), the hot water tank was re-routed from the bathroom into the storage room, the wood paneling was removed, a half wall was built for privacy, new baseboards were installed, as were a new bathroom sink and vanity. The whole place was also given a fresh coat of paint. Now that the salon has been “dolled up,” Hayward can focus on her clients.

More Info:All Dolled Up, Invermere, British Columbia,Canada

Renovation square footage: 600 (entire salon)
Time frame: 4 weeks
Hired help? Yes, a tile setter and an electrician. Hayward’s husband is in the construction industry and did the bulk of the work.

Key purchases:
> tile and laminate flooring
> lighting
> paint
> drywall
> baseboards
> bathroom sink, vanity, toilet
> electric heaters

Next page: Makeover 8: Different Location, Similar Feel

[PAGEBREAK]Makeover 8: Different Location, Similar Feel

When Janelle Lamont had an accident a month before her lease was up, she suddenly found herself salon-less, losing the 500-sq.-ft. space where she’d worked for just shy of two years. “So without being financially prepared, I needed to take a risk and expand sooner than planned. We were hoping to not make this move for at least another year, but I had worked so hard and would not lose everything. So we moved to the other side of town and are in the first year of our new location,” Lamont says. She’d done a great job of branding Tickled Pink Beauty Bar (evening winning a business excellence award for the most improved business of the year), so she wanted to keep the intimate girly feel of Tickled Pink — a challenge considering that, at 1,600-sq.-ft., the new space was more than three times the size of her previous one. To keep the intimate feel, the pedicure room has two separate entrances, so, even if two pedicures are being given at once, the clients won’t cross paths (unless they want to). Windows are inside the space to create separation without isolation. The pink, of course, stayed. “My first location had a crazy bright pink and a pastel hue with a soft feeling accented by brushed steel. I wanted big change because we were now offering so much more and decided that I would accent everything with zebra print,” Lamont says. The salon moved two huge mirrors, two pink chandeliers, a pink chaise, the client chairs for the nail desks, the fridge, sink unit, washer/dryer, mirrored sliding doors, wax bed, an accent chair, a flatscreen TV, and storage shelves to the new space.

More Info: Tickled Pink Beauty Bar, Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada

Renovation square footage: 1,600 (size of new space)
Time frame: 2 months
Hired help? Yes, the new space’s landlords own a contracting company called Sprucelee and contracted plumbers, electrician, painters, dry-wallers, flooring installers, and more. An interior designer helped with paint colors and placement.

Key purchases:
> flooring
> custom glass shelves for retail
> custom zebra high heel chairs
> custom front desk
> 2 custom nail tables with Eat My Dust nail vents
> 2 vanities
> paint
> various chandeliers
> 2 pipe-free European Touch Pedicure Thrones

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