After working nearly 8 years in the custom home building industry, there are 3 common mistakes I’ve seen over the years when meeting with couples who are looking to start the plan design process as they prepare for their custom home build.
Let’s break them down below and walk through what you can do instead to best prepare for your future home build.
Mistake #1: Requesting Trends vs. Considering Your Personal Lifestyle & Preferences
This may seem like common sense, but as we use Pinterest & Instagram to curate picture-perfect inspiration for our homes, it’s often easy to forget that something that looks good may not actually be functional for your family’s lifestyle.
And this isn’t only applicable to interior design. I’m talking about layout inspiration too.
Think about it. You pin a beautiful Laundry Room that you enter into from your garage with an open mudbench.
You think “How lovely! This would be PERFECT for organizing backpacks, shoes, etc.”
You’re not 100% wrong, but it’s important to note that the image you pinned likely doesn’t show the over-crowded shoe cubbies, Paw Patrol backpacks (I’m a boy toddler mom if you can’t tell, haha), diaper bags, or your husband’s work boots.
Not to mention the baskets of laundry on the floor that need washing & folding.
See what I mean?
If seeing all of this would drive you absolutely nuts every time you walk into your home from your garage (since it’s a pass through space, remember?), you may want to consider modifying your preference on (1) Laundry Room Location and (2) Mud Bench Style.
For Laundry Room location, consider having it located off a hallway instead so that it can be shut off when needed. Out of sight, out of mind!
For mud bench style, consider a design that has doors or drawers that hide the clutter. Beauty & function!
See how those simple shifts can impact how you curate your home inspiration?
In summary, my main advice to avoid this mistake is to be mindful when saving home inspiration -> Visualize yourself interacting with the space & decide if it would actually be functional for you and your family vs. just looking pretty.
Mistake #2: Not Communicating Spatial Priorities with Your Spouse Prior to Meeting with a Design Professional
This is a huge one.
If the first time you sit down to talk with your spouse about your design preferences is in front of a design professional, it may result in an unproductive meeting and ultimately a waste of time…#awkward.
It’s extremely important for you & your spouse to be on the same page when communicating your spatial needs.
Consider discussing the following topics to get the ideas flowing:
- Define what spaces are the most important to each of you.
- Is there any overlap or room for compromise?
- Ask “Is this our forever home?”
- Whether the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’, be flexible and try not to obsess over perfecting every detail. Design each space with flexibility in mind and think about your life in 5, 10, 20 years from now.
- Ask “How can we design this home to align with our lifestyle?”
- Do you love entertaining? Consider a larger living/kitchen/dining area. Do you host guests overnight often? Consider prioritizing your guest bedrooms & bathrooms or designing a guest wing.
In summary, my main advice here is not to rely on your plan designer or builder to be a mediator between you and your spouse. Start those conversations with your spouse sooner rather than later!
Mistake #3: Having an Undefined or Unrealistic Square Footage Goal
Lastly, I’ve seen this countless times.
Couples come in to start the plan design process with a square footage number in mind (i.e. 3,000 sq ft). After discussing the number of rooms & how they want each space to feel, it’s not uncommon for me to quickly realize that what they’re asking for is a good 500 to 1,000 sq ft more than their goal.
If you’re not familiar with the standard room sizing and common spacing practices, it can be tricky to figure it out on your own!
Things you can do to get a feel for how big spaces are in real life:
- Attend a Parade of Homes
- Measure rooms in your current home to gauge if you’d prefer more or less space
- Visit and talk with friends & family who have built a home before
In summary, my main advice is to do your research early on and really try to get a feel for how big or small spaces are. The best way to do that, in my opinion, is through experience.
If you’re tired of sketching your plan ideas on graph paper and counting squares to calculate your square footage, I also have a tool that can help you.
I made a SQUARE FOOTAGE QUIZ that takes you through a series of questions and options room-by-room while simultaneously calculating your ideal home size range based on your answers.
Pretty cool, huh?
At the end of the QUIZ, you’ll learn what square footage range your preferences fall into and receive an email with tips for communicating that size range to your floor plan designer and builder.
šš» Access the quiz HERE to find your square footage sweet spot. šš»
I hope you’ve found these tips helpful and that you feel better prepared as you begin your home building journey.
Reach out to us HERE if you have any further questions regarding your custom home build prep and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for more tips and resources!
