Social Media Forums The increased popularity of sites like Houzz and Pinterest offer a plethora of visual images. Sites such as these are incredibly addictive and hours of looking on these sites, turns into weeks which can turn into months of laboriously trawling through the minefield of visual information that is so readily available at our fingertips. This can become incredibly overwhelming and incredibly frustrating. Tips:
- Create order with individual boards by room, theme or colour rather than one big bucket of images
- Periodically cull them as your tastes may evolve and change on your journey
- Look for patterns in what you pin, you may find you repeatedly pin the same colour or style
Enlist a the help of a professional
Enlisting the help of an Architect and/or Interior designer can immediately help you in a myriad of ways. They will take all of your collateral that you have spent sleepless nights and endless days collecting and start to make some sort of sense of it. More often than not, when we are too close to a subject we end up being able to see the forest for the trees and we can end up feeling helpless. Many people actually get to a point where they feel like they have lost track of what it is they even wanted and become disillusioned.
How an Architect & Interior Designer can help
The Brief
Seeking the help of an Architect for the structure or an Interior Designer for the Interior, will help you get back on track. Initially a client brief will be undertaken with you. This is an opportunity for you to sit down with your Architect or designer, and really start to have a verbal catharsis. It’s quite incredible the sort of information that they will be able to extrapolate from what you will say. While there may be information you don’t see useful, they will actually be able to take all of your likes, dislikes ,hopes ,dreams and visions that you discuss in the meeting, and turn it into a document that actually makes sense ! This document will immediately allow your Architect or Interior designer to discern what it is that you actually require. From the number of bedrooms right down to how many ovens you will need. The brief is a remarkable tool that allows the Architect or Interior Designer to start formulating conceptual ideas relatively quickly.
Story Boarding
Your visual collateral will also be sifted through, and interestingly at this point, what no longer may make much sense to you, you’re Architect or Designer will be able to start to see definite patterns and similarities forming in the collection of selected images. A select amount of images, along with the insight gained in the briefing session can then be used to create story boards. These boards are a great too for you to instantly have a visual reference of the vision for your home.
Finishes Board
Once these have been agreed on, all of the information gained up to this point will be reconciled to ensure that budgets are aligned with wishlists! This can be a more complex phase and involves a lot of managing to ensure the very best outcome is achieved. For instance, finishes in one area such as a laundry, may need to be more modest to allow for a feature stone on a kitchen island. The next phase becomes very exciting as forms and shapes and materiality starts to take shape. Stay tuned to a future blog for what you can expect for the next fascinating stage of how your home gradually starts to appear.
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