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Paint colors, carpet, countertops…for many people, choosing the finishes and selections for their new home is the most fun part of the building process! This is the opportunity to make the home truly yours. The best part of choosing finishes for your home is that you can be as creative or conservative as you wish—it all depends on your personal style, and how you want to live in your home.
Whether you’re building a new home or remodeling your current one, finishes are like the icing on the cake. If you’re feeling intimidated by the thought of choosing the perfect home selections and finishes, never fear! These five tips will inspire your creative juices.
Tip #1: Remember…it’s your home!
Flipping through lifestyle magazines, creating Pinterest boards, saving Houzz albums…we all do it when we’re building or remodeling a home. It’s important to gather ideas and organize your vision. These resources are also invaluable for collaborating with your architect, builder, and designer.
While you’re getting inspired by these resources, don’t get too caught up in emulating the latest trends or crafting Pinterest-worthy rooms. This is your home, so you should choose finishes that will make you happy. Remember, you’ll be living in this house for years to come.
At the end of the day, the finishes you select should reflect your personal style as well as compliment how you actually want to live in your home. That bathroom with the Jacuzzi tub may look great in pictures, but does it represent how you really see yourself using that room?
Use the resources at your disposal, including recommendations from your builder, to decide which finishes to include in your new home or remodeling project. But remember—it’s your home!
Tip #2: Focus only on what matters most to you
There are hundreds—maybe even thousands—of individual finishes in a home. From the biggest items such as floors and countertops to the smallest items like hinges and door handles, there are seemingly countless decisions to be made when choosing your finishes and selections.
But in reality, you shouldn’t need to worry about the finishes that don’t matter to you. Sure, you may want a say in the color of your bedroom walls or the type of sink in your bathroom. But if you’ve never cared about a light fixture or faucet handle in your life, why start now?
While some people want to have control over each and every item in their new home, for others, certain finishes are simply more important than others. At Sterling Homes, we guide our customers through the selections process, including providing options and recommendations for each item. That way, our customers can focus on the elements that really matter to them without the added stress of worrying about the things they do not care about.
Tip #3: Limit your selections to make the choice easier
Psychology has proven that more choices are not always better. In fact, having too many choices often makes it harder for us to make decisions.
Limiting your choices can help make your selection process easier and less stressful. When we’re guiding our clients through the options and selections process, we purposely show them only a limited range of choices we know they’ll love—all within their price range. Of course, customers are free to choose anything under the sun. But by showing them only a few choices, the selections process is smoother, more efficient, and less stressful.
Tip #4: Track and maintain your budget
Sticking to your set budget is one of the major reasons why it’s important to involve your builder in the selections process from the very beginning. Let’s say you find some tile you like that costs $1 per piece, and another one you love that costs $1.37. You may be willing to spend a little bit of extra money to have the exact tile you want, but not so fast!
That price tag doesn’t tell you how much this particular tile will actually cost in your home. There are other factors, such as installation costs, that affect the final total. At Sterling Homes, we keep our customers updated on the status of their budget throughout the entire process. If they want to make a change to a particular finish that will affect the overall total, we stay in constant communication so that there are no unexpected surprises. As a homeowner, you shouldn’t need to become an expert in selecting home finishes in order to make the right choice.
You should also keep track of your budget so that you can end up with more of the items you really want. You may be able to save money in one area in order to fund another item that you want more, creating a balance of trade-offs to achieve the features that are really important to you.
Tip #5: Make your selections within a compact timeframe
As tough as decision-making can be, we’ve found that our customers are typically much happier with the outcomes if they make their choices within a few weeks rather than a few months. By limiting the amount of time you give yourself to ponder the choices, you can create a more cohesive vision and theme throughout your house. Your choices will be more consistent when you make all of them in the same frame of mind, instead of letting weeks go by without finalizing your plans.
Choosing the right finishes and selections for your new home or remodeling project is a fun and exciting time. To keep it from getting too overwhelming, keep these tips and mind and remember to involve your builder every step of the way. Take advantage of expert guidance and recommendations to create your ideal home!
