When you work with a Building Designer, you benefit from their support throughout the entire process of bringing your dream home to life.

Whether it’s navigating planning approvals, helping you maximise every inch of your space or connecting you with construction professionals, you have them in your corner the whole way through.

IF you bring your Building Designer on at the right time, they can weigh in one the big decision of choosing the right existing home or block of land for you.

Conventional wisdom might suggest that you should purchase your new home BEFORE you bring a Building Designer on board.

In my experience, most people take this path.  But what if I told you to flip conventional wisdom on its head…and save money, time and potential frustration in the process?

While it may sound counterintuitive to hire the Designer before you have your space, this isn’t actually the case.  Your Building Designer isn’t just an asset during the design and build of your space, but in the pre-design stage too.

IN FACE, I’M A BIG BELIEVER THAT THE SUCCESS OF YOUR HOME PROJECT COMES BACK TO THE CONSULTATION WORK THEY DO RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING.  THAT’S EXACTLY WHY I HAVE MY OWN CONSULTATION SERVICES AS A PRECURSOR TO ANY HOME PROJECT.

The power of THE PRE-DESIGN STAGE:

The pre-design stage can involve:

• effectively curating your inspiration for your home 
• articulating your family’s needs, values and lifestyle so you can embed these into your home
• distilling everything into a tangible design vision
• generating initial concepts and designs that take into account exactly how you want your ideal space to function, as well as considering your budget

All of the above is going to give you more clarity on how you want your home to function, look and feel.  It’s going to help you define your budget, your timeframe and what your priorities are for your space.

That’s why it can be SO beneficial to bring your Building Designer into the process BEFORE you’ve gone and made that investment in a fixer-upper home or block of land.  Because it means that you’ll go into the process with conviction and clarity around what it will take to realise the design concept you really want – and whether it’s truly possible within your chosen space/site.

To understand why you might miss out by bring your Building Designer into the process too late, let’s look closely at two potential scenarios:

Without being able to consult with your Building Designer prior to signing your name on the dotted line, you can wind up facing some (avoidable) lifestyle and budgetary challenges.

1).  You’re more likely to rush through – or skip – the essential pre-design stage of your project.

This means that you don’t have an expert alongside you who can help you build that rock-solid foundation that will drive your overall design concept.

As a result, those all-important initial design decisions around how you need your space to function, look and feel aren’t made with all the necessary information in hand.  Without the clarity of working with a professional to articulate your priorities and non-negotiables, it’s easy to make choices that don’t truly fit with your family lifestyle now or for the longer-term.

2).  Without generating initial design concepts before choosing a home/site, you might run into several issues that compound the costs of your project.

Maybe it’s that it requires much more work to convert the existing property to the particular layout you now know to be the best fit for your family.  Or maybe the problem comes in at the compliance stage. This can be a stumbling block for people because it’s difficult to accurately estimate how lengthy and complex a council or town planning approvals process will be, unless you’re well-versed in this field.

An example might be that you have particular plans for your home design that will be complicated by the specific zoning restrictions within your location.  This then results in blown-out timeframes, as you wait in an approvals limbo-land, accumulating costs all the while.

1).  Your designer will help you understand your vision for your family home.

One of the greatest benefits of consulting with a Building Designer is their ability to ask the right questions.  When it comes to your family home, they’ll help you dig into your values and priorities and consider what kind of functionality is going to suit your family’s evolving lifestyle.

Through a detailed consultation process, your designer will be able to canvass all your possible options upfront and show you what features your space will need in order to sustain the vision you have for it.

2).  They’ll be able to help you make the right design decisions, based on your budget and timeframe.

Consulting with your Building Designer from the beginning means that they can sense-check your own projections when they might not be realistic and offer accurate estimates in their place.  This can save you frustration and financial strain because you’ll have a true understanding of how long the design and build process will really take and the kind of budget needed to realise your design vision.

Plus, they’ll shed light on the planning rules and regulations of certain properties.  By liaising with your Designer before you lay down any money on a residential property, they can advise you on what zoning regulations you’ll need to be aware of and the relative complexity of town planning and council approvals for particular builds.

IF YOU WANT THIS KIND OF EXPERTISE IN YOUR CORNER BEFORE YOU EMBARK ON YOUR BUILDING DESIGN PROJECT? I’VE GOT JUST THE THING FOR YOU – FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY SOULFUL DESIGN STRATEGY SERVICE HERE.