We're Building A Townhouse: Part II
The Design Appointment: Preparation & Meeting Our Interior Designer
Before The Appointment
We received three e-catalogs of all the aspects we'd be covering and options we'd be selecting with our interior designer. These catalogs were dense, and I felt overwhelmed reading about our options. There weren't any prices included in these either, so we took notes of the things we liked but ultimately understood that we may need to let some of our selections go if they were out of our budget.
We had an orientation at the design center to get us acquainted with all the different areas that we'd be selecting products from. Again, I was overwhelmed, and nothing had a price tag on it. I took some photos of tiles, faucets, and hardware that I liked, but I couldn't get ahead of myself. We also learned that we wouldn't know the prices until we selected them at our upcoming appointment. The anticipation was high!
We received an email detailing our design appointment, which would be from 9:30AM-4:30PM with an hour lunch break. It was requested to have childcare arrangements for that day to give our full attention to the design process. We only had ONE DAY to design our home and wanted to make sure we made the best decisions with a clear mind. Thankfully, my sister came to babysit Mason, and she knows him like the back of her hand. B and I were put at ease knowing that Mason would be with her, and we could go into our design appointment stress-free regarding Mason's care. (HUGE thanks to my sister!!)
Our Interior Designer
The builder assigns an interior designer to each home. I must say, we got very lucky with our interior designer. Up until our design appointment, we heard a few stories of past interior design sessions (among different building companies) going sour due to :
Future homeowners selecting items and materials out of their budget - think of "a kid in a candy shop" scenario - only to be disappointed and upset when learning the total design costs at the end of the appointment.
Future homeowners feeling pressured by their interior designer to select pricier products and materials.
After discussing our design direction (and, of course, showing her my Pinterest board), we told her our budget and that we obviously wanted to stay within that budget as much as possible. Our designer was sincere and helpful throughout our appointment. She knew each product inside and out, what we could have a contractor upgrade at a later time for a much more reasonable price, and when to let us know which pieces were worth the investment. We appreciated that she was respectful of our budget, and she never pushed a product or design on us.
While we already had a few structural elevations for our house (i.e., gourmet kitchen, opening railing staircase, pocket door, expanded outdoor patio, and more), we also had to decide on the interior layout from a design perspective:
Electric: pinpointing where we wanted our extra outlets. For example, we mount our TVs, so we opted for some of the outlets to be installed higher up on the wall to avoid wires running down the wall or having to hide the wires behind the wall.
Lighting: Marking locations for recessed lighting, pendants, and chandeliers.
Flooring: Deciding on where to have tile, carpet, wood floors, and the types for each placement.
Room Layouts: kitchen cabinet options and closet design.
After thoroughly understanding our design goals and outlining the design process, we started with the big things: the kitchen, appliances, main living space floors, and the master bedroom and en suite.
More on our design appointment coming soon!