What is great design?
Modern Home did a study a few years ago, looking at homes that were remodeled with great design vs run of the mill design. They found homes with great design increased the equity by 12%. But what is great design?
It’s not hiring the star architect who will force feed you their egotistic idea of what great design is. I’m sure you’ve heard of Frank Lloyd Wright, famous 20th century architect. He was known for his amazing designs and for his control over every aspect. Yes you might get an amazing home, but it was like living in a museum. I toured one of his homes years ago (now a museum) and they told us a story of how years after the owners who had built the house moved in he saw a photograph where they’d moved the couch. The couch! And he sued them for ruining his design!
No thanks, so though his homes make beautiful pictures the truth is I don’t think they make great design.
Why?
Because great design is about being a home that’s welcoming, beautiful, adaptable, and here’s the key... celebrates you.
Not the architect.
And that’s what I stand by.
Now can I ask you? Does your home match that? Is it welcoming, beautiful, adaptable and celebrating you and your family? Does it bring you joy spending days on end stuck at home?
Why should your home celebrate you?
There’s a lot of reasons but at the end of the day, we spend a lot of time in our homes. Especially now with COVID, many people working from home in greater numbers, and the question of if kids will be homeschooled this year. That’s a lot of time everyone is at home.
Which is why you should prioritize making your home the space that you love. Whether as small as getting the paint to a color you love, adding on that home office you desperately need so you can stop working on the kitchen table, adding a master suite so that you have your own bathroom finally and don’t have to trip over toys to put on your makeup, or taking that home that feels clobbered together and making it the home you absolutely love.
The truth is even if you undertake any of those projects unless you have great design that celebrates you, it’ll just look like one of those clobbered together homes, we’ve all seen them that you secretly hate, despite how much you spend on it.
Why? Because actually doing nothing can sometimes be better then doing something you don’t love.
What do I mean?
I spoke with a homeowner who had hired the cheapest architect he could find. And he got that result. It was ugly, expensive to build, and not adaptable for changes in his future needs. He was looking to spend easily $300,000 on this build, and it would possibly decrease the home value vs add to it.
He’d come to me too late in the game unfortunately, and just wanted a quick fix to the bad design vs a design he actually loved. I could hear it in his voice exhaustion in the whole process. Defeated.
I don’t want that to be you.
I want you to have a design that you wake up excited about, that you look forward to with pleasure, and doesn’t give you heartburn. Or worse yet, be riddled with change orders to try to fix it. Or the even worse option... it doesn’t last, all those years of investment down the drain when you finally tear it down in ten years.
But why? Maybe you can stomach the design...
But do you really want to just stomach it?
So can I ask you which do you prefer?
And what about the next aspect of great design? That’s quality.
I’ve seen build sites over the years that are built with quality and ones that are built cheaply such that there’s all sorts of problems in the future with the home. The truth is, the first place you ensure quality is with a detailed well thought out design. Because that sets the standards for the whole project.
And for what you’ll be investing in your home you want to invest quality.
Let’s look at an example.
You have two standard design options, a permit set and a full design set.
Typically a permit set is just a few design revisions and a quickly put together drawing set, with only the minimum to pass permit. There’s then a lot of change orders and things are decided, and a lot of oversight from yourself to make sure it’s what you really want.
A full design set, though can take longer, gives you a better product. It’s a complete design before construction starts, going down to the details of how the walls are constructed, the finishes selected, and all design decisions made and documented.
HOW?
Though a full design may mean more decisions during design it also means a better end result and less stress during construction.
So at the end of the day, it’s worth it, investing in great design. If you’re ready to invest in great design for your home, book a call with us today to get your plan for doing that. Book it at Ellenlind.com/call.