Building or designing your new home?
Building or designing your new home? This is a guide to start a conversation between you and the people you are living with… before you talk to a designer! Rule #1 be prepared. You need to have some idea of what you want before you start talking to professionals or trades otherwise there is a risk of wasting time, money and energy.
This is so exciting! You’re at the stage of either thinking about, or taking steps to transform your space. Whether it’s an extension, renovation or knock-down re-build, by the end of this journey you will be living your best life in a home that reflects you, your needs and your lifestyle. 2020 and 2021 have been real eye-openers to how important our personal spaces are, spending more time than ever at our homes has really highlighted the obvious design and functionality flaws of our homes. This is most likely a matter of your space not aligning with your lifestyle and finally realising that its time to live in a home that truly works for you, your family and your lifestyle.
I guess when you bought your home you would never have bought it with the intention of spending 2 months (depending on which state you’re in) ‘trapped’ inside the same four walls for days and nights with no end in sight. If you have landed on this post you’re not alone. This time has gotten everyone thinking about their living situation, their home, how it functions (or doesn’t!) and the ‘what if..’ thoughts that are endless. Because of this mad rush of people wanting to change, expand, upgrade or even demolish their existing home it’s necessary to understand what you actually need and want before you go and approach a designer or pull out the hammer.
There are so many people googling ‘local designer/architect/draftsperson/designer-builder’ without actually having a clear direction and understanding on what they want and need in their space. Before you google, or approach a designer there are a few things you need to think about. Our job as designers is to find an alignment between functional and beautiful design with your brief and requirements which is why the 5 points below are crucial to understand before you talk to a designer!
1. Brief
This is exactly why you’re here right now. You have a pain point and you’re engaging a designer to help you solve it. In order to clearly communicate your brief you need to know what you ultimately want. What is your pain point? Where do you need more space? What do you need to align your home to your evolving lifestyle? The designer needs to not only know what is and isn’t working for you but also understand your lifestyle and living requirements to put together a story in their mind of what you truly need and how the spaces could flow and work together.
As a designer, when someone is explaining their brief in real time I’m creating a story in my mind as they’re speaking. For example if you love to entertain and you have a big family that gets together every Sunday for dinner we would note that in order to align the design with your lifestyle you would ideally need a large kitchen space, a dining table to seat everyone and a larger enough entertaining space to seat everyone comfortably. If you work from home, have any hobbies or specialised skills that you want to develop these spaces will play into the overall brief too. Below I have outlined prompting questions for you to answer while you’re thinking about brief. These questions are truly never ending so you can expand and go into more detail in the spaces that are the most important to you.
Type of Project
Renovation, Interiors, Extension, New Build, Dual Occupancy etc.
Project Requirements
This is your overall brief. What spaces (and size of spaces) do you need in order to live comfortably? What is your dream lifestyle post-pandemic? Think about specialised rooms, their sizes and your requirements. Do you have the rooms listed below in your home and is it working for you? or is there something listed that you really need or want in order to love your space that much more?
‘Private’ Rooms : Master Suite, Walk In Robe/ Dressing Room, master Ensuite, Bedrooms, Nursery, Ensuites, Main Bathroom, Shared Bathroom, Guest Suite, Granny Flat, Powder Room, Laundry, Study/Office, Garage, Store rooms/Storage Space.
‘Public’ Rooms : Entry, Mud Room, Kitchen, Butlers Pantry/ Prep, Living room, Dining room, Sitting Room, Formal Sitting Room, Rumpus/ Games Room, Generous Circulation or Hallway, Outdoor Dining, Outdoor Entertaining (Covered and Uncovered), Pool, BBQ Area, Pizza Oven, Cabana, Pool House.
‘Specialised’ Spaces : Home Gym, Movie Theatre with Custom Integrated Seating & Candy Bar, Underground Carpark, “Man Cave”, Studio, Billiards/Pool Table Room, Outdoor Gym, Ampi/Outdoor-Theatre, Art Gallery, Digital Art/NFT Display, Security and Fireproof Safe Concealed Room, Show Room, Sauna/Cryo & Recovery Chamber, Plunge Pool, Wine Cellar, Scotch Bar, Consultation/Meeting Room, Recording Studio, Filming & Podcast Studio, Acoustically Sound Proof Zones, Design or Art Studio, Library, Games Room, Green House, Tennis Court. This is any sort of space that you need to carry out your hobbies, interests and truly live your best life.
Once you have outlined what you want and need in your home then go deeper and think to yourself “In order for these rooms and spaces to work as I imagine - what are my non-negotiables? How do I see these spaces functioning and being used? What time of the week/ Day will I be using these spaces?“ Its time to really create a story in your mind and further understand your desires.
Style
Do you have a specific style in mind? You may have already started a Pinterest board filled with inspiration and spaces that you love. These spaces showcase the overall feeling you desire including the colours, materials, furniture, design and style of the space. If you don't really know what style you love, the process of elimination is just as important!
2. Budget
It’s necessary to understand how much you’re wanting to spend on the transformation of your home. Everyone has a budget even if they don’t realise it. When you speak to a designer usually the budget amount you disclose is the total project build cost not including design fees and (sometimes) not including GST. So make sure to be very clear what your budget actually includes. This is sometimes the driving factor of narrowing down your top designers, some designers you approach will either be able to work to your budget or wont be and it is their responsibility to inform you if your budget is realistic with their project cost predictions.
3. Timeline
This is important for the designer to see if your timeline aligns with their project schedule or not. If you want to be living in your space before Christmas the designer will let you know if this is a realistic expectation or not. If you really want to work with a particular designer and your project brief + budget aligns, its good to be more flexible just in case the timeline doesn’t align and you need to wait longer than you initially expected in order to fit into their schedule.
Other things that will alter the timeline is the stages the designer is engaged for (expanded in point 4 below), how big your project is and making sure that there is a builder interested and available when you need them (expanded in point 5 below).
Whether you think you have one or not, everyone has some sort of timeline. You may very well want to move in ASAP or be on the other end of the scale where you want the design completed now but the construction to start in 5 years. This is still a timeline and something the designer needs to know.
4. Designers Scope
Understanding what is actually possible on your site and what stages the designer is engaged for will not only alter the timeline of deliverables but also effect the designers fees. This step ties in nicely to step 5 below.. So keep on reading! When you’re approaching a designer it’s good to understand what design services you really need and this can be something that is negotiated with the designer or something that the designer makes clear to you in the initial consultation. Just like any other profession we have stages and things we need to complete before we hand you over the final designs to be built. Depending on the designer and who you engage they may have a minimum amount of stages they like to complete for any project and this will vary from firm to firm.
A general overview of the design stages for any project are :
Measuring spaces, setting up base plans/drawings and receiving site information in order to move onto the next stage.
Brief evaluation and sketch / concept design.
Developed Design.
Approvals. (If required.)
Documentation for Construction.
During Construction / Contract Administration.
These stages vary greatly in time and intensity, which are generally reflected in the fee proposal. Depending on your project brief and the deliverables you need form the designer stages and design milestone may be added or deleted,
5. Builder
Have you chosen a builder already? Do you have a particular builder in mind? Are you going to build the project yourself? These are all questions that are fairly easy to answer on your end and is important because it will affect not only the involvement of the designer but also if the designer has to find a builder for your project this will need to be coordinated into the overall timeline. Generally designers have their preferred builders and a team they regularly like to use, but depending on the designer they could be open to working with someone new if they have a strong portfolio and work into the agreed upon timeline.
Congratulations, you made it to the end of the post! All of this information may be overwhelming, or you might just not know where to start. if you need some help or want to have a chat about your potential new space fill out an enquiry form to get in touch for a no-obligation chat. Its a great way to truly understand what you want, what you need, and how we can help you live in the space of your dreams.