The End of the Home Design Layout Process
The design process in my opinion is the most delicate part of any project. Homeowners often get side tracked and change their minds completely in the middle of the process which is understandable since the design decisions they have to make are ‘permanent’ once they get a permit. But in reality, if you are clear about what you need in terms of rooms and you can picture in your mind the flow you want to create for your home, then that is all you need to stay on track. 
I had a client who came to me countless times during the design process and said to me things like: “My mailman came today and he said that I should take this window out and put a piece of furniture here instead.” Believe it or not, that happens all the time during the design process because it is hard for the homeowners to make up their minds when they have people around them giving them their opinions all the time.
I need to say that an average project goes through many different layouts, between 5 and 25 in my experience. All because the homeowners get bombarded with ideas and opinions from neighbors and friends, family members, not to mention the mailman! and that makes them doubt what they wanted in the first place.
It is hard for the designers to go back and forth with totally different design approaches and ideas specially when they are coming from people who are not even going to live in the home. But our job is to find a way to get the homeowner back on track .
Designers are problem solvers and our goal is to collect a list of ‘design problems’ to try to solve them for you. Preparing the best design layout for the homeowners requires solving the circulation problems, the privacy problem, the safety problem, the accessibility problem, etc.
That mailman comment came from one of my former clients who wanted a Craftsman Style house since day one but by listening to everybody around her and asking me to change things around to accommodate everybody’s opinion, at the end of her indecision roller coaster, the house she had created looked like a Plantation Style house instead of the Craftsman Style house she wanted. By paying attention to everybody else, she went the opposite direction with the design. When she finally shared her frustration with me, I asked her to let me show her what I had in mind and I prepared a 3D model of what I thought should be built on her lot. To look at the project’s photos and the 3D shot we proposed to her as the final design, click here
Once the final home design layout is approved by the homeowner, process that can last from a few months to many years depending on the client, the Construction Documents preparation phase starts and it is then when the other consultants get involved. One thing I strongly recommend is not to bring the interior designer (if you have one) into the game until after the home design layout has been approved because that creates even more confusion. We all have opinions and the fact that the interior designer is going to come up with his/her own ideas will create more confusion and delays in the design process.
In my opinion, the home design layout needs to be developed between the residential designer or architect and the homeowners only. Once that phase is finished and the layout approved by the homeowner, the interior designer and the other consultants can start working on their part of the project.
