How can I get the home that I want – regardless of my limitations? 

Often, getting the home you want comes from analyzing what you have and opening your mind to other ways to accomplish items on your wish list.  

The main factors that most people consider to be limiting are size, location, and budget. If you can get enthusiastic about defining what you are able to achieve, and prioritizing your goals, we know that the rest of the dream can be achieved through great design! 

Having the home that you want really comes down to your personal preferences and making the house that you live in something that reflects you and something you truly love. There are many factors that go into this. Aesthetics for sure, but also considerations to how you live, who uses the spaces and for what purpose, and the spaces given to these important aspects within the house. 

When it comes to renovating a house, occasionally there is a real need for more space, at which point an addition can be considered, but often we find the issue to be that the space is not optimally planned for the way in which your family lives. If you are planning to build a house it is equally important to plan the blank slate in the way that will make that house into the best home that it could possibly be! Some investigation into space planning and organization can help a house to become a home that you will love… and often inside of your perceived limitations. 

The first step is figuring out what really matters most. This discovery needs to take into consideration all the members of your household, as in order for the house to work right for anyone, it needs to work right for everyone. Imagine for instance, that it is important to you for children’s toys be kept tidy, but that you don’t plan in a designated playroom with lots of storage for them, OR you can’t stand muddy paw prints tracked across your tile floor, but you don’t include a proper mudroom to deal with the mess before entering the main house (these are pretty specific considerations, you may not have thought this deep yet, but this is exactly the type of thing that professional custom design will dig into). Taking everyone into consideration is truly the only way to ensure that the house will work for your family. Everyone being set up with what they need to succeed within the house, sounds like a pretty happy home! So, take some time to make your list of the things that each member of your household NEEDS – remember, needs are the things that you absolutely can’t live without, and the things that your budget will go to first.

  

• 

• 

• 

 

The exercise of prioritizing what really matters to you and your household, will help enormously with the rest of the process… it will help you to be decisive, and as we will find out shortly, being decisive is a key to success! 

The next thing that will help you to create the home you want is the application of YOUR Style! Have you pinned down what your style is? Quite often people are not quite sure what their style is… but by browsing photos and saving some that you like – perhaps not whole rooms but certain elements within, be it cabinet door profiles, ceiling beam details, tile patterns or paint colours – a designer can put together a concept together that will define your personal style.   


Seek professional design help at any stage of this process, it’s never too early! You don’t have to have everything figured out, as that is what a designer can help you with… not only the application of your style, but in finding it, refining it, and coming up with unique ideas to help you make it all your very own.

Keep an open mind to trying the solutions and recommendations your designer makes. You hired them for a reason, their job is to bring it all together for you and trusting them to do so will result in the best outcome for the home. This does not mean carte blanche power to design the house as they like… quite the opposite, a great designer will keep your input and decisions in place every step of the way; guiding you through the process, bringing ideas to you that you would not have thought of, and staying mindful that all the parts work together to carry out the overall vision that was conceptualized for the house that you want… remember, that is what we are talking about here ????  

We often ask questions only to have our clients answer “Hmm, I hadn’t even thought of that!” and that’s the whole point!
As designers, part of our job is to offer solutions to problems you didn’t even know you had.  

Being decisive will make everything go smoother and your budget go farther. We have said it before and we will say it again – the success of your home renovation or new house build, and it turning out to be a dream come true, depends a LOT on YOU! Your ability to be decisive, and to stick to the decisions that you have made, will be what gets you the house you want. Those who waffle on finishes, or continue to shop around after their specifications package is completed, will have more trouble keeping their project in a state of cohesive design awesomeness. Every decision along the way is anchored to several that were made before it, and every upcoming decision is then in turn tied to all of these as well… so changing even a single material can be like tipping that first domino, and suddenly the beautiful plan of connected and complimentary elements begins to fall apart. As compromises are made because you change your mind, the house begins to look less put together, and less like the house you want. 

Lack of firm decision making can also affect your project’s timeline and drastically affect your budget. Changes to the completed plan can cause a ripple of adjustments to construction as well, holding up progress, and undermining the benefits of having that plan in the first place.  

So, to get the home that you want – in spite of your limitations – prioritize what you need, define your style, get professional design help to apply it, be open to creative design advice and decisive in your selections. Get on board with making the absolute best of what you can achieve, and we know you will fall in love with the home that results! We see it happen all the time ???? 

 

Tags: new home, planning, renovation, style