It can be a mistake to choose a Designer that will simply draw the lines where you tell him to. You need a true consultant who understands the end from the beginning. One who understands the positive and negative ramifications of every feature, and who isn’t afraid to point them out. Don’t feel like your designer consultant is against what you’re suggesting if he goes into detail about the results.
The results can be financial, as in construction costs. But they can also be in how you will live in your home.
One example of that is traffic flow. If your only access to an outside door from the kitchen is through the family room, then an invisible “hallway” may affect how you arrange furniture and reduce the usable space for furniture. That doesn’t mean that the door location is poor. It just means that you need to consider it when considering the size of the family room. And you might want to consider using more durable flooring than you might otherwise need.
Another common mistake is to disregard resale value. I’ve often heard, “I just want my house to be what I want it to be. I don’t care about resale value because I’m going to live there a long time.” Keep in mind that you will eventually leave every home you purchase. It is inevitable that someone will have to sell your home some day. And the odds are that changes in life circumstances will cause you to want or need to sell sooner than you might think.
A good Home Designer can suggest features to improve resale-ability without necessarily making big changes. For example, suppose you want a very large home, say 6,000 SF. You only need four bedrooms and you want to devote the rest of the space to other uses. The truth is that most houses this size are expected to have five bedrooms or more. It’s not too hard to design a flex space that can be used as a bedroom in the future, or even in the present for overnight guests, and still not lose its main purpose as a study, workout room, or rec room. All you need is a closet and easy access to a full bath that you may have already planned on.