What the phrase usually covers
People reach for the phrase property makeover for work that changes how a home looks and feels. Paint, flooring, lighting, window coverings, cabinet fronts, tiles and fittings do most of the visible work. Structure, extensions and the position of walls usually sit outside the phrase.
Scope varies a great deal. A single living room given new paint, better light and different furniture is called a makeover, and so is a top-to-bottom rework of every room. The two projects share little beyond the aim of a fresher look, so the word on its own says more about the kind of change than about its size.
How a makeover usually runs
Most projects begin with decisions rather than tools. People gather ideas, settle on a palette and a style, and work out which rooms matter most and how far the spending will stretch.
The order of work often follows the mess. Repairs and preparation come first, then the surfaces such as paint and flooring, and last the pieces that finish a room: furniture, textiles, art and light.
Some people do the planning and the lighter tasks themselves and bring in trades for the rest. Others hand the whole job to a designer or a project manager who coordinates the trades and keeps the rooms moving in some kind of sequence.
What people usually weigh up
Cost sits near the top of most lists, and it moves with the scope, the quality of materials and how much of the work is done by trades. Time matters too, because a room in the middle of the work is a room no one can use.
People also think about the life left in the fittings already there, whether a small repair will do instead of a replacement, and how a change in one room will sit with the rest of the house.
The same room can read very differently once its surfaces and light have been reworked. A colour, a floor and a lamp can shift the feel of a space more than the furniture in it.
Words people meet along the way
Refresh, restyle and cosmetic update turn up in the same conversations, and people use them loosely and differently. Some of the words point to small changes, others to a whole set of rooms, and the overlap causes most of the confusion.
A mood board is a collection of images and samples gathered before work starts. A schedule or a scope of works is a written list of what will be done, room by room. Plain names for plain things, and worth asking about when a project is discussed.