Good home designers have the basic technical ability to design your home renovation. But the most ideal designer for your home renovation project should be someone who excels in three essential qualities.
1. Excellent communication skills
The most important communication skill for a home designer is the ability to listen and understand. Without understanding what a client wants, a designer cannot create a design that meets every one of their needs.
Thus, your ideal designer should be someone whose first step is to understand your family, lifestyle and dreams.
In addition, that designer should proficiently explain technical or unfamiliar information to you. A client like yourself must sufficiently understand such details in a home renovation plan. It’s the only way you can make informed decisions and play an integral role in the project.
Your home designer should guide and facilitate initial meetings with you. This is so they can deliver a brief that truly reflects who you are while meeting your needs. After all, the project’s ultimate goal is for you to enjoy the lifestyle afforded by your renovated home.
2. Creativity in personalised designs
To the ideal home designer, design is their craft. They have the creative talent and years of training, and they have a plethora of creative solutions.
Thus, they should be able to craft more design solutions than you could possibly create yourself (even though you’ve spent years contemplating changes for years).
Your home designer should have the ability to develop a creative interpretation of your brief. Their interpretation should yield (as the bare minimum) multiple design options that offer what you hope to achieve.
Note, however, that design development is a process. This may take more than one iteration. But with designs based on input from you, you should feel excited by the possibilities the process gives you.
The only limitations your home designer must face are those imposed by the budget you have available for the renovation project. So be sure to have frank discussions about your available funds, as they have a direct impact on the resulting design of your renovation.
3. Technical proficiency
Good experience and technical proficiency matter!
Your renovation project will require approval for development. Therefore, your ideal home designer should have the experience and proficiency to deliver your project to the design and documentation standards required.
Your chosen designer should have complete knowledge of all the State and Council constraints for your property. They must already have a deep familiarity with the Australian Building and Construction Standards.
With such knowledge, a designer should be able to tell you what is feasible and compliant. They will also know which changes are worth negotiating for with the Council and which changes do not stand up to being contested.
A good and honest designer will sometimes even advise you against doing a home renovation because it is not economically feasible or will not get through Council approval — and so is simply not in your best interest.
There are many Council constraints that require you to get a designer who is specifically proficient in dealing with biodiversity, heritage, and/or bushfire compliance. You must select a home designer with the technical expertise that you require.
Information about property constraints may be offered by your designer before you even engage them. You may also obtain it by requesting information about regulations from Council or Certifier.
The ideal designer should also excel in creating technical drawings and reports. Together, these are known as documentation, and have a dual purpose. The documents need to be suitable to obtain approvals and secondly are the essential technical instructions for your builder.
Your designer will have explored and decided upon efficient and effective construction techniques that can save you time and money during construction. Often these techniques only come to light during the design process by technically proficient designers. This way, most (if not all) issues are resolved prior to commencing construction. As always, good experience matters!
Go beyond essential home designer qualities
In the end, these are only the most essential characteristics you should be looking for in a home designer, before you engage them for your house renovation project.
You should instead find a designer who has all these three qualities and more – someone who truly understands your needs and is committed to helping you achieve your dream home.
If you are thinking of renovating or transforming your home in Sydney’s northern suburbs, feel free to give me a call.
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