3 Tips To Use When Meeting With Your New Home Designer

Meeting your new home designer is the first step you can take in your journey of building a custom designed home. It’s exciting – are you excited? You should be! This is your chance to relay all of the exciting ideas you have about your dream home. This meeting is all about you you you. So how can you have a really successful meeting and give yourself the best opportunity for your home design to be as close to what you wanted, the first time round.

Tip 1 – Be Yourself

I know some of you are thinking, “who else would I be”? But you would be surprised at how many people sit in their design meeting acting like they’re attending a funeral instead of taking one of the most exciting steps life has to offer. Relax. Great home designers know what it’s like to bring your dreams to the table, they are tasked with the responsibility of delivering it.

If this is the first time you’ll be building a million dollar home, don’t think you have to act like a millionaire (or what you think millionaires might be like – some people will be surprised to find out they’re often very common). If you are yourself the home designer will get to know you, and more about what you’re like which will give them the best opportunity to putting your personality into your new house.

Tip 2 – Be Brutally Honest

If you like sex in the hallway, then tell us and we’ll make sure that hallway is the best damned hallway to have sex in. You need to be brutally honest with your lifestyle and what is most important to you. Communicating your lifestyle is the biggest challenge for most people as they may not want to draw attention to aspects of their life or perhaps they think something may just be common sense. Don’t assume that the person sitting across the table thinks like you, walks like you, talks like you or has the same values. If you love teddy bears and need additional room in the bedroom for your 101 teddies, then say it. If you’re sporty and want a gym with mirrors on the walls, then say it. If you’re an enthusiast photographer and will use one of the bedrooms as a dark room then say it.

All of the above are examples that I’ve come across during my time as a custom home builder. What’s more, the items that were being discussed had to be coaxed out of the home buyers over time. More importantly, we modified the design to suit which gave them a far better outcome than they would have got had they not told us. We changed window heights in the hallway (in fact, we did a lot of adjustments through the entire house!). We created teddy niches in the bedroom, we removed skirting boards in the gym and added a TV and power outlet point in one corner at 2.0m high and we switched the window in the dark room to the south side of the house to avoid the sun but still give enough ventilation.

Tip 3 – Enjoy The Process

Remember this is your time, relax and enjoy yourself. Make jokes and get to know the people sitting opposite you on the table. You’ll find the more comfortable you feel with your designer, the more information will flow during your design brief and the better your home will be.

If you’re using a custom home builder and are looking to ensure you have the best home design suited to your needs you should follow these three tips. Your new home designer will appreciate how much easier you made the meeting and love the fact that they’ll have the best opportunity to make you happy first time around.