With a new construction home, there are so many decisions to make when it comes to choosing floor plans, interior design selections, landscaping, and so on that it can begin to feel overwhelming really quickly!
It’s even more stressful if you can see this house being your forever home! You want to choose elements that you’ll love for years—that will also last for years—and will evolve as your family does. That’s an extremely difficult task to choose a home that works for you now, a few kids later, and when you get older!
I’m by no means an interior design expert, but these 7 tips helped my husband and I choose interior and exterior selections that blend seamlessly and really turn our house into a home, and they’ll help you to do the same!
So let’s dive into these helpful tips and tricks for making new construction home design selections that you’ll love!
Find Your (Combined) Decor Style
The first step to picking the perfect interior design selections for your family is finding a decor style that both you and your partner like. That’s the catch, the style needs to work for both of you since it will be home to both of you!
To do this, you can look through examples of different decor styles and see which ones each of you gravitate towards, keeping in mind that you and your sweetheart will likely have a different favorite.
I gravitate towards the bright farmhouse decor while my husband prefers warmth and rustic elements, so in our house, we’re going for a rustic farmhouse style with bright colors, warm wood accents, and outdoor-inspired pieces.
Once you know what overall look you’re going for, choosing the hardware, fixtures, and tones of your home will be much easier! Plus, in the end, they will all match each other and make the home look put together!
Look for Design Selection Inspiration
Even with an overall decor style narrowed down, if you’re anything like me, you need to visualize the various combinations of design elements within that style in order to find your favorite ones!
It’s one thing to look at a 4×4” swatch of carpet, a single plank of flooring, and a paint swatch, but to picture how they’d look full-scale? Totally different.
Look for inspiration on Pinterest, your favorite home renovation TV show, or interior design photos to find common elements that speak to you.
Keep Colors & Styles Consistent
Nobody wants to end up with a home that looks mismatched and thrown together without a care.
To avoid this, simply choose a few key colors or styles and continue them throughout the home to tie the look together. Here are a few examples of easy ways to do so:
- Carefully select your home’s primary paint color and make sure it matches your desired color scheme and decor style (whites, grays, and beiges are the most common and versatile, depending on the level of warmth or coolness you want).
- Stick with one hardware color and use that for all of the drawer pulls, cabinet knobs, towel bars, doorknobs, and any other hardware.
- Use the same countertop stone for the kitchen counters, island, and bathroom vanities.
If you choose elements that work well together and spread them throughout the house, you can’t go wrong!
Choose Design Selections You Love
When you’re selecting finishes, colors, hardware, and any other design elements, pick the ones that you love!
If you’re not completely happy with the items you pick, odds are you won’t be completely happy with them down the road either! Whereas if you pick what you love, you’ll enjoy it for longer and without regrets.
Now, keep in mind that there will be some items one of you will care about more than the other and others where you’ll really have to talk it out and collaborate to make a decision, but for any selection, both of you should be happy with it.
If your partner has a strong preference for the landscaping and you’re fine with any of the choices, let them take the lead. If you really want a specific cabinet color and he’s happy with the one you select, go for it!
It’s important that you both feel like you have a say and that your input and choices are being heard when designing your home.
Avoid Being Overly Trendy
While it’s true that trends influence our perception of interior and exterior design in homes, you should never pick something just because it’s trendy!
That being said, try to be in tune with your preferences and, if you really love something that’s trendy right now, you shouldn’t avoid it simply because it’s on trend.
Throughout the design selection process, keep in mind that no matter how ‘timeless’ your selections are, over the years your home will lose its modern look as new trends emerge. That’s just how it goes!
The stucco that used to be everywhere? Now it looks dated. The colored cabinets you see all over Pinterest? While they look beautiful, they won’t always be in style.
Regardless of what you choose, make sure you’re choosing it because you want it and not because it makes your home look modern or trendy.
Opt for Durability & Longevity
If this is your first home you likely won’t have much wiggle room in your budget for the highest quality materials.
Our countertops, for example, are Formica. While I’ve always loved the beautiful bright white marble counters, in Formica they look overly fake and get stained way too easily.
So instead of the white marbled countertops I always pictured in our future home, we opted for a dark gray/black with some light veining and did white cabinets to add that light and bright look.
Choosing elements that will look better for longer will save you money over time, particularly during the first few years of living in your new home when money will likely be tight.
Visualize Your Home
Once you’ve picked all of your interior and exterior design selections, it’s time to get a few final visuals to ensure you like the elements you picked and that they work well together.
The best way to tell if you’re happy with your choices is to see them in person! While you won’t see every single selection you picked in one house, keep your eye out for open houses (specifically those held by the same company you’re building with), ask for a few renderings or mockups, and pay close attention to others’ homes and how their design choices work together.
While you won’t get a perfect snapshot of your future home, you should be able to get a pretty good idea of what it will look like! Make any tweaks that you need to on your selections and, when you’re happy with the final choices, send them in and take a second to appreciate that you’re one step farther in the building process!
Leave a Reply