Desiging Your Perfect Home: Put Together a Portfolio of Ideas

People are opting in increasing numbers to have their own homes designed. Sometimes this is because the costs can be surprisingly low, even when you factor in land, materials and labour. But overall, of course, the chance to have your dream home designed and constructed from scratch is too good to pass up.

As you'll probably understand, there's a lot of ground to cover between coming up with an initial design and packing up for moving day, but it's ground that should bring a lot of joy and excitement. Before you get started working with an architect, however, it's useful to have some solid ideas about what you want. And the best way to convey this to a professional is by putting together a portfolio of inspiration. Here's how.

Get organised

First of all, it's useful to have a single place to keep all of your ideas and documents so you can organise them all in a tidy fashion. A simple scrapbook can be used for this, as it gives you space to place items of different sizes. Alternatively, you could use one of the photo albums with the full-page self-adhesive plastic covers, which will keep everything safe and neat.

Take photos

A lot of inspiration comes from things you might see when you're out and about. Since most people have cameras on their phones nowadays, you should always have something with you to snap pictures. Capture any buildings or features that appeal to you, and get them printed for your portfolio of ideas.

Look online

You can see buildings around the world from the comfort of your own home, which makes the process much easier and opens up new possibilities. Sites like Pinterest are packed full of amazing ideas, and people collect them in groups. But don't forget the humble search engine, which will throw up endless inspiration for you, especially if you search by image.

Get your sketchbook out

You're unlikely to find a picture of an existing building that's entirely perfect, so sketch some of your own ideas on paper. Don't worry if you're not an amazing artist, as long as you can get across the basic principles so the architect has a starting point.

Take notes

In addition to the visual aids, it can be useful to have a written description of what you want. In particular, a list of features really helps the architect determine what's important to you. Even if it's in note form, you should include some written ideas in the portfolio.

To learn more about building design, contact a company like Bill Jacobs Pty. Ltd.


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