“I have worked with two design professionals and I don’t like either design. No one understands my vision for my home!”
If that sounds like you, rest assured that you’re not alone.
In fact, communicating with the design team is one of the BIGGEST issues my students face.
But why does this happen, and what can we do about it?
Well, grab your trenchcoat and fedora. It’s time to crack the case of the lost communication!
Let’s set the scene: It’s a beautiful winter morning. The sun is shining and the temperature is mild.
Christmas has come and gone, and your thoughts have already turned to relaxing summer days by the pool. Music plays on the speakers. The kids grab you a lemonade from your outdoor kitchen while your husband mans the grill.
Cue the suspenseful music.
WAIT! Reality strikes as you remember that you don’t have a pool… or even a wonderful backyard retreat.
Scene 1 | Act 1
You awake from your daydream and find yourself sitting in the breakfast nook, hot coffee in hand. The interior of your home is perfect… but your eyes are drawn to the dreadful backyard outside the window. It’s not exactly inspiring– a simple concrete island in a field of green.
Scene 1 | Act 2
You step out of your beautiful kitchen into the frost-covered backyard. Good thing you have on your new Christmas robe and fluffy slippers! You look around and consider the problem.
Your house was finished and ready for you to move in, with every detail on the inside carefully thought out and perfectly executed. The backyard, though, was an afterthought– a blah concrete slab with a couple of patio chairs and a table left over from your old house.
It was just plain B-O-R-I-N-G and there wasn’t much you could do at the time without dropping some serious cash on landscaping materials. And right after buying your dream house, serious cash was in short supply.
Now you realize that this space has so much potential! Problem is, you don’t know how to make your dream a reality. It’s time to get some help.
Scene 2 | Act 1
Setting: Your designer’s office. You’re breathless with excitement as you meet to look over the plans for the first time.
Cue sad music.
The plans are NOTHING like what you had in mind. You’re so disappointed, you don’t even know what to say. You don’t want to hurt your designer’s feelings or question their ideas– after all, they’re the professional.
That night as you lay awake in bed, you come up with an idea. Why not get a second opinion?
Scene 2 | Act 2
It’s a new day, and you’re meeting another designer to get a fresh take on your outdoor retreat.
Cue sad music.
Disappointment strikes again. These plans are not what you envisioned either! They just won’t work for your family.
What’s going wrong? It doesn’t make sense. You don’t want to sign up for yet another round of frustration and failure.
You begin to wonder, is it me or them? Am I being too picky or asking for a pet unicorn?
Scene 3
Feeling hopeless, you’re cruising on the infinite Google Highway and discover a design community where you can ask your real-life design questions.
With a big ol’ sigh of relief, you join the group and share your dilemma. Now it’s time to wait and see if anyone has a solution to share.
Does this sound like a page out of the script of your life?
This is a real-life scenario happening right now in a design forum that I moderate. Names have been changed to protect the innocent! I’ve used my creative license to embellish to educate and give some perspective and guidance on this all-too-common situation.
Why Communicating Your Vision Is So Hard
You probably have a very specific idea of how you want your space to look, function and feel… so why doesn’t your design team GET IT?
Communication can break down for several reasons:
- The designer/builder is not really “listening” to your needs, wants and vision. Instead, they are hearing what they want to hear.
- You’re talking past each other. They are using words you don’t understand (designer speak), and you are not using the right words (terminology).
- They are not asking the right questions or you are not asking the right questions.
And bear in mind that feeling, vision and aesthetics are all subjective. What YOU mean by “cozy” is probably very different from what your friend means by “cozy”!
Everybody has a different level of understanding and their own opinion. So don’t start with vague descriptors like “welcoming”, “modern” or “luxury” that could be interpreted 1000 different ways.
Instead, you want to start with the basics: function and must-have features. Then use images to represent the “look and feel” of the space to your design team.
In our next blog adventure, you’ll learn a process to communicate successfully so you can get exactly the space you want. Stay tuned!
Ta Ta For Now,
Christi
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