In the last 5 years alone, the way in which home builders actually design and create custom homes has fundamentally changed. The internet is at the heart of this change. Specifically, there are two online tools which have opened up a world of possibilities for our clients during the design phase.
The first is Pinterest.com. Pinterest is the modern version of an old fashioned bulletin board.
Previously, homeowners might have collected ideas and images from various resources and pinned them to a bulletin board. Pinterest allows users to do the same digitally, collecting and pinning images to a virtual bulletin board, while keeping a live link back to the original source of the image or idea.
Pinterest has a huge community of active users and is a great way to collect and curate ideas and images. It’s an endless source of design ideas; however, we believe there’s an even better tool available.
Houzz.com has become an invaluable tool for both our clients, and for us.
Houzz is similar to Pinterest in that it has a vast collection of high quality images; however, Houzz focuses solely on the materials and finished products for the interior and exterior of your home. You won’t find kittens or recipes on Houzz—only things related to the design and construction of your dream home.
Houzz is a tremendous tool and resource for design ideas. When building high-end luxury homes, the possibilities are endless. Houzz helps to narrow down selections and create fantastic designs.
At Houzz you have access to nearly any design idea you could ever think of. This resource makes the selection process easier and more fun.
From architectural details, to color selections, cabinets makers, tile brands, tree houses for kids and even throw pillows on a couch, Houzz has every idea you might imagine to incorporate into your new home.
As a design build custom home builder, we help our clients to take all of their ideas for their new home and turn them into reality.
To turn ideas into reality, there are many steps that must be taken. The number of decisions that must be made in the construction of a new custom home can be mind boggling.
Prior to the launch of Houzz.com, the standard method of starting the design process was for our clients to gather up images and ideas from printed magazines and books. They would then bring their ideas to our meetings and we would start working from those ideas.
Houzz has made this process much more organized and efficient. Clients can determine very specifically what they like and what they don’t like in the design of their project. Every last detail can be determined by example through the vast photo library available on Houzz. Most importantly, Houzz allows you to organize your photo collections into Ideabooks.
You can organize your Ideabooks any way you like. A good idea is to organize your Ideabooks into rooms and then put your ideas and images into the corresponding room. Essentially, Houzz is a digital scrapbook. (No more stacks of pages torn from magazines!)
Better yet, these Ideabooks can be easily shared between the client, the builder and the architect to help in the creation of the home.
Houzz has become such a valuable tool for us that it is much like a cell phone—we simply would not know what to do without it! It is a critical part of the design process at Charter Bay.
Below is an example Houzz Ideabook for one of our current projects. This home is being designed in the traditional farmhouse style. This particular Ideabook narrows the design focus specifically to kitchens with stone detail.
Below is another Houzz Ideabook for a high-end waterfront remodel we are doing in Tampa. This project is the polar opposite to the farmhouse shown in the Ideabook above.
From stone waterfalls running under steel staircases, to cantilever bar tops, there is no mistaking the modern, contemporary style our homeowner wishes to create. The colors are bold, incorporating stones and designs with steel and lighting. This Ideabook contains a much broader viewpoint of the homeowners style choices.
If you are in the process of building a custom new home, or even if you are simply dreaming about building one someday, do yourself a favor and check out Houzz.
Please visit our About Us page to learn more about Charter Bay and see why we think we are a different kind of custom home builder.
