Whether you’re designing a space ship or a match stick, the design process is always the same:

CONCEPT DESIGN

When you begin working with a professional designer, you should be prepared to describe your design challenges and your personal preferences. If you can’t, you’ll have to pay their hourly fee while the two of you fiddle around with concepts you haven’t given any real thought to.

If you come prepared, your designer should be able to provide you with three things quickly and for a small fee:

• A dimensioned floor plan of your existing space,
• Three or four conceptual "doodles" of proposed changes, and
• An approximate cost estimate to go with each of these doodles.

These are the schematic or concept designs. They are quick and loose and will rarely show much detail. Their purpose is to test some ideas about how you use your space — to establish where certain activities will take place, which activities will be located near each other, and how your family might move most comfortably from one activity area to another.

Review these plans carefully and ask lots of questions.

• Where will your guests perch while you’re cooking their dinner?
• Do you want the fireplace in the center of the wall or in the corner?
• Do you want a door between the kitchen and the dining room or a wide-open archway?
• Do you want all the bedrooms to be clustered together or do you want the master bedroom to be as far as possible from the kids’ rooms?

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Once you’ve determined which of the doodles you like, work with the designer to begin adding some details and dimensions. Now you’ll be deciding exactly how large and where the refrigerator will be and whether the laundry room will have louvered doors and shelves over the appliances, whether your entry foyer will have enough room for boots and bags or whether you want to put those into a nearby closet. As you add details, ask your designer to provide you with updated cost estimates. Keep an eye on that budget!

FINISHED CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS

Now your designer is ready to do the hard work of engineering the final set of fully-detailed construction drawings. This is a big job and will require the input of several different specialists. If you intend to make changes, make them before you authorize the completion of this final set of drawings.

MORE INFORMATION

You’ll find lots more information about the home remodeling process in Managing a Renovation: Staying in Charge and Out of Trouble, our friendly and comprehensive homeowner’s guide to remodeling project management. Download the table of contents and a sample chapter, or go to the order form to purchase it.

We offer ready-to-use construction forms, including a complete remodeling contract, in our Bookstore, as well. Have a look.

And, you may want to look at our list of More Resources for some great design ideas.

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