Why We Require an Interior Designer on Every Leverick Homes Project

Building a custom home is an intensely personal process. Our clients often come to us with a very clear vision of what they want their home to feel like. Many have excellent taste, years of saved inspiration, and a better eye for design than they give themselves credit for.

But having good taste and designing a home are two very different things.

At Leverick Homes, we require our custom home projects to include a professional interior designer. It isn't because we believe homeowners aren't capable of making beautiful selections. It's because we've learned that good interior design is about far more than choosing beautiful things.

It is about making hundreds of individual decisions work together, aesthetically, technically, financially, and on time.

A Designer Does More Than Make Selections

When most people think about an interior designer, they think about paint colors, furniture, wallpaper, tile and fabrics. Those things are certainly part of the process, but on a custom home, the designer's role begins much earlier.

Cabinet layouts affect electrical locations. Plumbing selections affect rough-ins. Lighting affects framing and electrical planning. Tile selections affect shower dimensions, niches, drains and transitions. Millwork affects switches, outlets, cabinetry and furniture placement. Appliance selections affect cabinetry, electrical, plumbing and ventilation.

And all of those decisions have to happen at the right time.

A properly trained designer understands those relationships and works through the home as a complete composition rather than a collection of individual selections.

Beautiful Choices Don't Automatically Create a Beautiful Home

One of the more interesting things we've learned after years of building and evaluating homes is that expensive materials alone rarely make a house exceptional.

A beautiful marble slab, an expensive light fixture, a great wallpaper and a custom cabinet can each be wonderful individually. But that doesn't necessarily mean they belong together.

Scale matters. Proportion matters. Undertones matter. Sightlines matter. Repetition matters. The relationship between rooms matters.

Professional designers are trained to think about those relationships.

The goal isn't simply to find a beautiful tile. It's to understand how that tile relates to the cabinetry, countertops, plumbing fixtures, lighting, flooring, paint, trim and architecture around it.

The best homes feel cohesive because someone has been responsible for seeing the entire picture.

Design Decisions Are Construction Decisions

This is perhaps the most important reason we require a designer.

Selections cannot simply be made whenever we reach that part of the house.

By the time a homeowner sees framing going up, our team may already need answers about plumbing fixtures, appliances, cabinetry, lighting, fireplaces, shower details and electrical requirements.

Some decisions need to be made months before the product is actually installed.

A custom home contains hundreds — sometimes thousands — of individual decisions. Managing those decisions requires an enormous amount of time: researching products, comparing options, obtaining samples, visiting showrooms, reviewing drawings, confirming dimensions, checking lead times and coordinating selections with the construction documents.

For most homeowners, this is happening while they are also managing careers, businesses, children and everyday life.

A professional designer has the time, training and systems to keep that process moving.

Decisions Made Late Become Expensive Decisions

Construction has a sequence.

When selections aren't completed in time, one of two things usually happens: construction waits, or work has to be changed later.

Neither is a good outcome.

Moving an electrical box after drywall is installed is different from locating it correctly before rough-in. Changing a plumbing fixture after rough plumbing can mean reworking valves or piping. Altering cabinetry after electrical and plumbing have been installed can affect several trades.

The earlier the home is resolved on paper, the more efficiently we can build it in the field.

We believe one of the best ways to control unnecessary costs in a custom home is not simply to find cheaper materials. It is to make good decisions early enough that we're not paying to make the same decision twice.

The Builder and Designer Have Different Jobs

We know construction.

Our responsibility is to understand how the home goes together, anticipate construction issues, coordinate trades, manage costs and schedules, and ultimately turn a set of drawings and design decisions into a well-built house.

The designer has a different responsibility.

Their job is to develop and protect the interior vision of the home while making sure the hundreds of decisions required to create it are properly considered and documented.

Those roles overlap constantly, which is exactly why the relationship is so important.

The best projects we've been involved with aren't projects where the builder replaces the designer or the designer attempts to replace the builder. They are projects where the architect, designer and builder each bring their expertise to the table and communicate throughout the process.

This Is Why We Require a Designer

Leverick Homes specializes in highly detailed custom homes and significant renovations. At that level, we don't believe professional interior design should be treated as an optional layer added toward the end of construction.

It is part of the project team.

Our requirement isn't intended to take control away from the homeowner. Quite the opposite.

The homeowner should remain the person ultimately shaping the home. A good designer listens, interprets and helps refine that vision. They provide options, identify conflicts, document decisions and help make sure the finished home actually reflects what the owner had in mind from the beginning.

You can absolutely have excellent taste without being an interior designer.

But building a great custom home requires more than taste.

It requires hundreds of coordinated decisions, made thoughtfully and made on time.

And we believe our clients, and their homes, are better served when a professional is responsible for helping guide that process.