Working with the Design Center: The Meetings, Part 2
So you’ve already met for the first time with your Design Center professional and fleshed out all of your electrical, HVAC and rough plumbing choices. Now it’s time to move on to the elements that will come into play once the drywall is in place. The list is substantial: There’s paint color, trim (crown moldings, baseboards, wainscoting), stairwell styles (to include handrails and balusters), lighting, bath and shower surrounds, cabinets, hardware/ fixtures, countertops, appliances, flooring and window treatments, among other factors.
The designer’s job is to help you understand what’s available and how each selection will impact your lifestyle, thereby facilitating the process of making choices.
The other major function of center staff is to be sure you make your selections in time to meet production cutoff dates. Just as you had to decide on home technology wiring before the drywall went up, you will have to make your stair style choices in time for them to be installed on schedule.
“Our job at the Design Center is to partner with the buyer (and their builder sales agent) to get them through the process, meet the cutoff
dates timely, stay within their budget, and give them a great experience,” explains Kim Brehm, president of Chateau Interiors & Design, which manages the Design Center process for several area builders.
If you happen to purchase your home during the latter stages of construction, you’ll only have to worry about choosing late-stage design elements, such as flooring, appliances and countertops.
Most production builders offer a fixed set of options according to the lot and floor plan that you’ve selected. Many have robust online resources to inform you of what’s available:
For example, notes Brehm, “At Chateau, we use our own Design Center catalog software program called Studio Chateau. So when a buyer purchases a home from the builder, they are given a passcode to log in to a catalog of options available for their own lot and can see only what is available to them for that lot depending on the stage of construction it happens to be in at the time of purchase.”
William Lyon Homes offers a similar online tool, according to Design Center manager Meghan Peake. Even if the selection process is not reduced to a software program, your sales agent will make clear which options are available for your particular property.
Some options can be easier to sift through than others, notes Lisa Perlman, design studio manager at Taylor Morrison.
“When we get into flooring where there are a lot more choices,” she explains, “it does get overwhelming. That’s our job, to get an idea (of buyer preferences). We’ll ask, ‘Do you like a long, soft fluffy carpet? Or do you like a low-pile, short pattern carpet?’ They tell us, and then I pull out two or three choices.”
This kind of intervention eases the process, along with buyer nerves.
“Many times, buyers tell us ‘Thank you so much for picking out a couple (of selections)’ ” notes Perlman. “‘I would be completely overwhelmed ... trying to make all the choices myself.’ ”
And if decision paralysis rears its ugly head, it’s the designer who can step in to relieve the pressure.
“We try to redirect buyers, to keep them on track,” says Perlman. “And we always try to remind them that this is the fun part. This is the icing on the cake. This is where you get to make your house your home.”
The Design Center process requires some resilience from — and patience with — yourself and your homebuying partner. Fortunately, staff design professionals are committed to helping you move through the process easily and with confidence.