Do you dream of having a beautiful home with lots of space, privacy, and style? Well, most people do. But how does a person go from dreaming to building a home? Most people never get past the planning stage because they lack the knowledge within the house design process.
Understanding the house design process
Understanding the process of how to design and build a house can seem overwhelming. When you build with MyHomeBuild you will experience working alongside our expert design team, with confidence to bring your vision of your dream home to life.
What are the steps to design a house?
We’ve broken down the various stages to help you follow the home construction process. Here’s what’s involved in designing a new home:
1. Have a design consultation with an expert
Before starting the home renovation project, it’s important to sit down with a professional design team who knows what it takes to create beautiful spaces. It is recommended to create a wishlist of what the home you want to build includes as a starting point. You don’t need to have a house plan sketched up, but if there are certain non-negotiables that you really want included in the design concept of your own home, be upfront with the building company.
When designing a new home, it’s also helpful to have an idea of what your budget is before you get started because while we love dreaming big, it’s good to stay firmly grounded in reality too. While the cost of building a home comes down to many factors, MyHomeBuild’s free, no obligation consultation can help you better understand what sort of home you can afford to build with your budget. Our experienced team will talk with you about the practicalities of the house construction process, your design ideas and goals, and how we work with you every step of the way to realise them.
When you hire a custom design construction company, you should receive a detailed proposal outlining exactly what needs to happen during the construction phase.
After the initial planning stages, the designer will present his or her final vision to you. At this point, you’ll decide whether you’d like to proceed with the project or not. If you choose to continue, the designer will then oversee the entire build process. They will coordinate with the contractor and subcontractors to make sure the project runs smoothly.
2. Know your block
The reality of building and designing a new home is that the design elements will be influenced by the block of land you’re building on, and the orientation and shape of the block will have just as big an impact as the size of the block. When we conduct a land assessment for our customers, we use the certificate of title to establish the dimensions of their land and check council and zoning requirements to determine the type of architectural design decisions and builds that are suitable.
It’s important to understand exactly what kind of space you’re working with when looking at your initial sketch designs. Knowing your block before the building process begins can help you decide whether a particular space would be appropriate for your needs. Once you’ve determined the layout of your home, it’s time to choose colours and materials.
3. Designing a new home’s floor plan based on your likes and lifestyle
At MyHomeBuild, our expert designers work with you to create a customised design solutions to suit your needs and lifestyle.
Things we discuss include:
- Your preferred style of home (double storey, bungalow, contemporary, classic, country chic)
- Your block limitations (and opportunities!)
- Your living requirements (number of bedrooms, bathrooms and type of rooms you need – studies, retreats, etc)
- Your wishlist of favourite features (butler’s pantry rather than a typical walk-in-pantry, a mudroom, a laundry with internal and external access)
- Your unique design aspect needs (accessibility, solar panel placement, outdoor living space)
It’s a good idea to think about what you’ve liked and disliked in terms of the layout of previous homes you’ve lived in, as well as what you’ve always loved about friends’ and families’ homes. When you design your own home, you get a chance to create a dream floor plan, so really take the time to think about small details, lifestyle luxuries and practical function. You may not be able to tick every single thing off your dream list, when it comes to the final design, but you definitely want to give yourself time to think about your floor plan seriously!
We encourage you to browse our extensive portfolio of floor plans to get inspiration for what sort of home design you like. You might know that you want to have your master suite and kids’ bedrooms in separate zones of the house, but might not know how to make that happen. We’ve got designs to suit all types of families and lifestyles that will open your eyes to the layout opportunities available, and our expert designers will work with you to meld your favourite features into a custom floor plan to suit your needs so you have a home that makes your life easier and enjoyable!
Want to learn more about the house construction process? Head here to find out more about the building stages.
4. Get your design approved
Of course, when you’re building a home, your design decisions have to be approved. At MyHomeBuild, we handle this part of the design process so that our customers have a stress-free experience. Once the floorplans and the elevations (the two dimensional construction drawings of how the house will look from the outside) have been designed, we begin the approval process.
This involves us liaising with all parties to create and orchestrate council and development approval, building rules consent, engineering designs for footings, working construction drawings, structural framing details and energy efficiency reports.
5. Start personalising your home design with your selections
The selection process of a custom design construction is extremely fun, but it can be a bit daunting when you’re first getting started, because there are plenty of decisions to make. The selection stage of designing a new home is when a house really becomes your home, as it involves choosing all the stylistic features and colours that reflect your design preferences.
There are important selections to be made on the external façade of the home that make a big impact on the street appeal of the home: What colour is your render? How about your roof? Which colour brick are you going to use if they’re going to be exposed? What sort of front door do you want?
Then there are the selections to be made about the internal finishes throughout your home, such as in your living areas, bedrooms and bathrooms. Think flooring, tiling, paint colours, and all the fixtures and fittings.
It’s important to know that, in many situations, your selections (or at least some of them) will be impacted by the inclusions of the building contract you selected. For example, MyHomeBuild offers two great inclusions package options: Expressions and Aspect. These guide what you can choose from for your selections, for example, the range of brick colours or laundry/bathroom tiles that are available in your package.
From an initial free design consultation through to the selections process, our friendly team is here to help you bring your dream for your home to life. You don’t need to know how to design and build a house (that’s our job!) but you get to be part of every step of the design.
Our customers benefit from access to MyHomeStudio, a showcase home within a studio where you can view our range of interior and exterior inclusions, to go hands on with how to design and build a house and start visualising and planning your dream home. Keen to find out more? Contact us today.