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Designing, building and furnishing a luxury custom home from the ground up should be an enjoyable experience. But through our work revising design and construction mistakes — from replacing light fixtures to revamping entire floor plans — we know this isn’t always the case. Luxury home buyers often focus on the obvious, such as fixtures, finishes and appliances, instead of the features that will have major impacts on their lifestyles. And they often don’t know enough about building a luxury home to ask the obvious: Is the floor plan effective for my family? What will the cabinets, countertops, tiles and floors be made of? How about the lighting? What type of paint will be on the walls? And how many colors can we use?
It’s easy to be wowed by glamorous renderings or models at sales centers. But it’s critical to think carefully about how a home will “live.” For instance, does the floor plan really suit your needs? What about the durability of the materials and finishes? Are countertops and tiles engineered or natural stone, and how does each perform? Is there storage in the right places for your needs?
Certain issues come up so often in our luxury interior design practice that I’m calling them out here. Luxury home buyers should pay attention to these seven issues at the beginning of the building process to avoid costly mistakes when building custom homes:
1. Floor plan: The open floor plan that’s ubiquitous and beloved today isn’t for everyone, especially if you want to hide the mess that comes with cooking and eating. When you walk through models or look at renderings, strip away the gorgeous finishes and furnishings, and imagine using all spaces. Will the floor plan offer family members enough privacy? Will the room accommodate the right pieces of furniture — from large, cushy sofas to exercise equipment to king-size beds? Are the spaces safe for all family members (balconies and landings can be dangerous for small children)? And does it allow you to be comfortable and productive? Make floor plan changes before breaking ground.
2. Insulation: Out of sight, out of mind. Insulation not only maintains a home’s environment, but also diffuses sound between rooms and floors. While insulation isn’t usually part of the interior design process, we’ve had so many homeowners complain of noise issues between rooms and floors that we advise clients to make sure their home builder is using the best option — in my opinion, spray foam insulation. We’ve had to open walls and floors to beef up insulation for soundproofing purposes. This extends to doors as well: Instead of hollow, they should be solid wood to buffer noise.
3. Materials used for the flooring (or tile or countertops): Let’s say the floors are rift sawn wood. That’s a nice start (we prefer solid woods over engineered products), but hardwoods like oak are more durable than softer woods like pine, birch and walnut (think heel marks!), and long, wide floorboards are more visually pleasing than short and narrow ones, which can look choppy. They’re also more expensive — in some cases substantially so. The same logic applies to other materials used for flooring and countertops. Review every tile or countertop choice. Is it the best option for your needs? Natural stones are always more luxurious than engineered surfaces, but do they have the properties you need? Also, smaller tiles are almost always cheaper than larger tiles (Italian glass mosaic tiles are an exception to this rule).
4. Paint job: Most builders — even the most luxury-focused — will paint everything some variation of white. But they may not necessarily be using top-quality paint such as C2, Fine Paints of Europe or Farrow & Ball, or offer you a range of finishes. Will they use eggshell or satin on the walls, and semi-gloss or high-gloss on trims? Can you use several colors in a room to call attention to architectural features? True decorative finishes, such as lacquered walls or Venetian plaster, are time- and labor-intensive and require specialists. But if the home comes with painted walls, why not make sure you’re getting the best paint job possible?
5. Lighting: Builders rely on their architects or interior designers, rather than lighting specialists, (as luxury interior designers do), to do the lighting plans in their homes. Often, they also buy lighting fixtures in bulk, especially larger recessed can fixtures that tend to be more economical. That means the lighting plan in a home, and the quality, style, versatility and strength of the fixtures (from recessed cans to decorative chandeliers), may not be right for a home buyer’s needs. Lighting should be purposeful. It should highlight conversation and activity areas, art, and anything else that’s important to your lifestyle. This kind of specificity calls for a specialist.
6. Cabinets: When you evaluate cabinets, you have to look way beyond style, finish and hardware to make sure they’re well constructed and versatile, and that all components (from interior boxes to hardware) are high-quality and durable. Are the shelves flexible to accommodate different items? Is the hardware solid and secure? Details like this make the difference between cabinets that last 10 to 20 years or twice that long. High-quality cabinets can be refinished or revamped with new hardware and doors time and again.
7. Technology: Does your tech go crazy two hours before you’re having company for the Academy Awards or the Super Bowl? Fully integrated tech isn’t always the best option, especially given the exponential speed at which updates are issued and components go out of production. Think hard about whatever tech your builder is offering. Ask how it will be supported if it’s confusing to use or if it breaks.
So how do you turn that custom home into your dream home? Have your own experts vet the home, and then negotiate. Most buyers’ tendency is to ask the builder for a discount on the home’s base price. We’ve found the best way to negotiate with builders is to work on upgrades. That means you may pay a little more, but as we’ve learned through experience, you get what you pay for.