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What is the first step to designing your dream home? Many people who are about to build a custom home get this wrong, and we understand why. Most people start their search online by looking at house plans and Pinterest boards for inspiration and ideas.
In our information era we have access to so many inputs that we forget the entire reason behind why we want to build a custom home.
If you are wondering where to begin designing your forever home, you are in the right place.
In this article, we will give you a framework to begin designing your home from scratch. No, it's not more work for you, just some silent thinking about what you actually want your home to be.
Read about Why We Build if you'd like to know why we care so much about building the perfect home for you...
Here is the TLDR of this article to navigate through and learn about where to start when designing your custom home.
- Where Do I Begin When Planning to Build my Dream Home?
- Reflect on What Home Means to You
- Think About Your Favorite Houses
- The Family Estate: How Land Guides Home Design
- Think About Your Great Grandchildren
- How We Help Design Your Dream Home
- Conclusion
Where Do I Begin When Planning to Build my Dream Home?
The answer to this question is quite simple if you pause for a minute to think about it. You have to decide what is the most important thing that you hope to gain by building a custom home designed for you. It's important to not overthink it at this stage in your planning process.
Deep down, there is a type of home that resonates with your soul more than any other. Grandma's house in the hollow, a luxury family estate you visited as a child, a historic home in the heart of your hometown that you always adored.
Ask yourself the following questions to begin thinking through what is important to you when you start to design your custom home...
- What do I feel deep within myself when I think about being at home?
- Visualize yourself at home and let your mind engage all your senses as you consider what you love about home. - What are my favorite houses that I have lived in or visited in my life?
- What are the things that are common between all the houses you love the most? What about those houses brings joy to your mind and soul as you reflect on the house?
- How will this dream home look and feel on your property?
- You want to design not only a beautiful home, but a cohesive site plan with driveway, outbuildings, gardens, and landscaping. You will be much happier if your home feels like it fits on the land and is meant to be there - What type of home will you be proud to pass down to your great grandchildren?
- Your forever home is a great opportunity to begin thinking about your legacy. Long-term thinking during home design makes you think bigger and make decisions that you won't regret decades from now.
These big picture questions might seem impractical, but they provide clarity for you as you begin to design your home. Let's break down these broad ideas and make them practical for you to use as you begin planning your home build.
Reflect on What Home Means to You
What does home mean to you and your family? Is it just a place you go to sleep at night or is it more than that for you? Do you love being at home? Do you enjoy decorating and hosting others to share in the beauty of your spaces?
For some, home is an expression of who they are and what they love. The home has historically been more than shelter for those who had the means to build something lasting.
We encourage our clients to contemplate what home means to them before we begin designing their home.
As you start to think about building your dream home, it helps to have a clear picture of what makes home important to you and your family. If you love to host dinner parties with your friends and family, write it down. If you are excited to have a quiet retreat away from your busy life, take note of that.
Provide as much detail as you can about what you expect to feel and do in your custom home. This will make it easy for you to make design decisions once you begin the design process.
Think About Your Favorite Houses
The next thing to think through before designing your home is even more practical and helpful.
I want you to close your eyes and think back to your favorite home you have ever seen or been in. It doesn't have to be the one you thought was the best looking, it can be the one that made you feel the happiest.
Was it grandpa's old farmhouse surrounded by green pastures? Maybe it was a friend's home that was always decorated well and felt welcoming every time you visited. Sometimes it can be a house you have driven past every day for years going to work that you love to see and you always wanted to build a home to look like that one.
For example, the home in the photo below is a beautiful colonial home that my family loves. We plan on building a home that looks similar to this one when we are ready to build our family estate home.
Try to visualize your favorite home or homes as you do this thought exercise. The act of visualizing will help you decide what things about that house make it one of your favorite homes.
Create a list of each room in your favorite house. Under each room, write 2-3 sentences describing your favorite things about the room and how it makes you feel. If you can figure out which details of your favorite house made it your favorite, you can than use those ideas to build your new home to fit your vision.
The Family Estate: How Land Guides Home Design
You have thought through what home means to you and have remembered your favorite homes and their features. You have got to feel the emotions of what it feels like to love a home and envisioned how you can build a home you love.
We now have to look at another factor that will affect home design; the land you are building your home on.
Your land and home need to fit each other well. More than just a piece of dirt that you own, your land is the real asset that you are building your home on. The way a house sits on a lot determines both the curb appeal of the home and the overall aesthetic of the exterior of the home.
Think about your driveway and where your property connects to the road. It normally makes sense to face the front of the house directly towards or slightly offset from the road.
Here is a list of questions to consider for your home design when thinking about the land + outdoor living of your home:
- How do you want the driveway to interact with the landscaping and outdoor living areas?
- Are you going to have a guest house or carriage house (detached garage)?
- What type of driveway do you want? Circular? Teardrop? Straight with Parking Area Behind Home?
- How far from the road do you want your home to be?
- How much yard do you want around the house?
- Are you going to have any walls/gates or gardens in your landscaping?
- How many acres is your land? Where does the home look the most natural on the property?
- Where can I maximize the views from the house while keeping the home private?
- How does the sun and weather interact with the property?
Write out answers to each of these questions to make sure your home design and layout will interact well with your land. The way a house interacts with a piece of family land is truly a wonder that must be considered when designing your home.
Think About Your Great Grandchildren...
Most people don't begin home design by thinking about their great grandchildren, but it really can be helpful. You might have grandchildren, or you might not have any children at this point. This advice is more about thinking long-term and designing a home that will outlast you.
Most homes today are designed to last 20-30 years before the house needs major remodeling or repairs. One of the things we care about as a home building company is building homes that last 100 years or more. If you want to design a home that truly stands out and is beautiful for decades, you might want to think about how your future great grandkids would feel about inheriting this home.
Below is a podcast we created talking about timeless design and building forever homes. Listen below to get some ideas how to use long term thinking to design a remarkable home for you and your family.
If you design a timeless home that is beautiful in 50 years, it will bless you now and even more as time goes on. For a large investment like a custom home build, a long term thought process will set you up for success while building your home.
The next section will outline our Design + Build process and how we help you think through these questions to design your dream home.
How We Help Design Your
Custom Home Build Lebanon TN
This is an outline of our design process that we use to help our clients build forever homes that they love.
Our comprehensive design + preconstruction process was created to bring clarity to our clients to make sure the home we build for them exceeds their expectations.
Conclusion
Before you begin designing your home, there are a few questions that will make sure that you are thinking through all of the details that will make your home exceptional.
- What do I feel deep within myself when I think about being at home?
- Visualize yourself at home and let your mind engage all your senses as you consider what you love about home. - What are my favorite houses that I have lived in or visited in my life?
- What are the things that are common between all the houses you love the most? What about those houses brings joy to your mind and soul as you reflect on the house?
- How will this dream home look and feel on your property?
- You want to design not only a beautiful home, but a cohesive site plan with driveway, outbuildings, gardens, and landscaping. You will be much happier if your home feels like it fits on the land and is meant to be there - What type of home will you be proud to pass down to your great grandchildren?
- Your forever home is a great opportunity to begin thinking about your legacy. Long-term thinking during home design makes you think bigger and make decisions that you won't regret decades from now.
In Cookeville, Lebanon, + Murfreesboro, we have a good mix of different types of builders and designers. The question you have to decide for yourself is "Which type fits me and my home the best?". A truly custom home built to last 100 years requires more detail in planning to execute well.
If you’re dreaming about a home that is built to last 100 years or more, our team at Doxa Custom Homes is ready to guide you through every step of the design and build experience. We believe this is the best option for those looking to build family legacy homes in Cookeville, Sparta, Crossville, Lebanon, and Murfreesboro.
Reach out today to begin the design process for your dream home build.
