When you meet your designer for the first time

Liza-Jayne asked this great question on the UA Facebook page this week …

“What should we take to a meeting with an architect? We have a

rough idea of what we’d like but have no idea where to start.”

Whoever you’re choosing to work with in renovating or building your home, that first
meeting is an exciting opportunity to kick off your project.

Whether you’ve decided that this is THE designer you’re working with, or you’re still
testing the proverbial water, this first meeting can be improved with a little effort on
your part.

A designer can expand your vision. Working with a designer provides a huge opportunity
to maximise the potential for your home. If you only want your ideas and instructions
converted into drawings, you may miss out on what is possible for your home.
A designer will bring their expertise and experience from many other projects, to yours.
Their ability to tailor that experience to your specific needs relies on understanding what
you want.

I’ve seen architects and designers gather this information in many different ways. Some
architects have schedules they work with their clients to complete. Other architects
speak with their clients to create a story of how they live. Others write lists of rooms,
and specific requests.

I provide my clients with a questionnaire that takes them through a specific process,
designed to illicit important information from them. I learn a lot this way … not only
from the answers to these questions, but also in how they’re answered. The type of lan-
guage used, the length of the answers, and whether a couple fills them out separately or
together.

Ultimately, it’s important to convey the story of you and your family. Your
designer needs to get to know you really quickly – and pretty intimately at
that. You can help them do this by sharing the answers to these questions:

Who are you?

A designer will potentially be making a lot of decisions on your behalf – from big ones
about the design of your home, through to more detailed ones about finishes and fix-
tures.

Understanding who you are helps them do this well. It’s hard to anticipate the sheer
number of decisions a designer will make as lines get drawn on a page, and your home
design takes shape. To help the design suit you now, and always, a designer will benefit
from understanding …

• Who you are

• Who is in your family and home (and whether that will change over the coming
years)
• How do you spend your time
• What do you enjoy doing together, and separately
• Why you are renovating or building
How do you want to live?

If you’re planning a renovation or new home, it is generally because you have a different
vision about how you’d like to live – compared to your current scenario.

So what does that look like? What lifestyle do you envisage this home will help you have?

This isn’t a case of thinking “we need a bigger house and more space”. It’s more about
why you need that bigger house and more space. For example …

• Because your family is growing

• You have active kids who need to be outside, be supervised and safe
• You don’t all want to be on top of each other – but you also want spaces and
places you can enjoy being together
• You’re busy, and need to do a few jobs at the same time as being able to keep
an eye on the kids
• And you need room to comfortably have family and friends over, because that’s
how you entertain and spend time with people.

Get the picture?

How big a home do you want?

You may not know the answer to this. Or you may have specific requests. Sometimes it
can be as simple as the types and numbers of rooms you’re envisaging. Or you could have
specific parts of the house you want to keep, or furniture you want to house.

Your designer will most likely ask you questions about this to determine the size and
type of home you want.

Remember too, though, that bigger isn’t better. So whilst you may be wishing for a 4
bed, 2 living, 2 car home, a compact design with flexible spaces may be a better choice
for your budget, lifestyle and location. That’s where the designer’s skill will come into
play.
How much do you want to spend?

Your budget is a key part of your brief.

From my experience, most of what I do is bring into alignment these two things: what a
client wants for their home, and what they want to spend on it.

It can be a bit chicken-and-egg … as you may not know what you want to spend, unless
you know what you’re going to get for it. And you may have no idea about what the cost
of your future plans may be either.

If you don’t know, be honest, and ask your designer for ideas around your budget. Don’t
leave this out and hope it will get sorted later … as your budget shapes the strategy, the
design approach and the overall project.

How do you want your home to look?

Everyone has personal taste, and things they are drawn to and love. It may be that you
have a particular style preference, and your designer is an expert in that area – and so
you’ve chosen them for that reason.

Sometimes, however, designers will do lots of different styles of work, and be much
more led by their clients’ preferences.

You may say “I love Hamptons style” but what does that look like to you? Often styles
will have lots of variations. Bring pictures, create a scrapbook, or share your Houzz Idea-
book or Pinterest board. When you have a collection of images of things you love, it’s a
powerful way to communicate quickly just what you’re looking for in your own home.

Do you have any information about your property?

To get started on any project, you need some base info about your land (and if you’re
renovating) your house. Things like survey drawings, existing plans and information
about services.
Sometimes these can be passed on to you by previous owners, and can help the designer
understand more about your home and site.

What ideas do you have?

Some clients bring drawings to me … they can be quick sketches or fully drawn up ideas
in Sketchup. Others will bring floor plans from homes they love.

As an architect, my role is to expand the vision my clients have for their homes. So, I will
never take the sketches they’ve done, or sourced, and convert them into their design.

These drawings do, however, give me big messages about what they like, and how they
want to live. So they form a key part of their brief … as much as the answers to other
questions.

Don’t feel you have to bring drawings. You may have words. You may have images from
magazines. You may have a story about a time you were on holidays and the bathroom
was just incredible (I’ve had a client brief me that way once).

It’s all part of the rich tapestry that builds the brief for your home … and builds the
design for it too.

Finally …

When you’re working with a designer, you’re bridging the skills gap between you and
your vision for your home.

So, if you’ve done your due diligence with choosing your designer, then …

Trust them
They may challenge you, ask hairy questions, suggest things that make you turn up your
nose. Sometimes finding out what a homeowner doesn’t like or want is just as powerful
as finding out what they do.

If you have chosen your designer well, and believe they have you, and your best inter-
ests, as the driving force for their work with you, then trust in their expertise.
Be honest
If you’re hiding information, keeping things close to your chest, or being secretive about
your budget or other things for your home, don’t be surprised if you can’t get the result
you’re chasing.

In my experience, the best working relationships come with total honesty and openness
– from both the designer and the client.

Give feedback
If you don’t feel you’re being listened to, or that your ideas don’t seem to be incorporated
as you wish, talk about it. Don’t wait.

The thing with design is that it’s a moving train … it will keep progressing down its track
towards its destination, and it can be difficult and expensive to move elsewhere once it’s
set in a particular direction. Always best to jump on early, provide the feedback, and
change the direction.

Don’t worry if you don’t know where to start

If you’ve done your homework, you’ll be starting a journey with a designer who is on
your wavelength, and has the skill and experience you need for your project. They’re
going to partner you in creating or transforming your home, so it’s perfect for you, your
budget, your site and your life.

They’re the expert, the professional that does this every day … and has taken other
happy homeowners along this journey.

They’ll guide you and show you the way – that’s part of their job. So go with the flow,
ask lots of questions, and get excited.

You’re about to embark on a fantastic adventure – enjoy the ride!

Other blogs you may find useful in choosing and working with an architect
or designer …
How do you choose a designer when you need to commit before they’ll design? This is
how …
Not sure whether you need an architect, draftsperson or building designer? These are the
differences between them …

Worried you’ll look like a fool making those first phonecalls to find your designer? Here’s
what to do …

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