At Kanvi, we design modern homes with a distinctive, personalized sense of place, so the design selection process is crucial to capturing your family’s preferences and personality. As we discussed in the post on our approach to home building, the process begins with your wish list. Our in-house design team suggests exploring interiors on Houzz, Pinterest, or our gallery to create a collection of inspirational images. Create boards or files for your kitchen, living space, bathrooms, and bedrooms and don’t forget feature rooms. Whether you’re dreaming of a golf simulation room, a modern library, or a home theatre, your wish list should include all of the features you need and want – don’t limit yourself to what you think is workable or not, we’ll figure that part out. Be sure to include images that show the décor styles you like because we want to create a colour palette tailored to you and your family – think flooring, wallpaper or paint, window treatments, and fixtures (even photos that depict the ambiance you want to achieve are effective to share). Send your inspiration images to our design team before the initial meeting so we can gain a clear and accurate understanding of the look you’re going for – we like to be prepared and do thorough research before our first meeting so we can make the best recommendations to bring your concept to life.
Our design team meets with clients to plan the exterior and interior separately, so that each gets the attention it deserves – we don’t want to rush the process! Because we’re dedicated to achieving perfection for our clients, we are meticulous and collaborative in our approach to design; we encourage questions and don’t shy away from lofty expectations. In fact, we welcome our clients’ feedback, questions, concerns, and desires continually throughout the process – you don’t need to worry about troubling us, we’re designing and building your dream home!
The exterior design meeting takes about two hours and in that time, our team provides your design options based on the Architectural Guidelines for the community you’ve chosen and the neighbouring lot restrictions. If there are any limitations on your home’s exterior design, they will stem from the community’s guidelines on colours and combinations. So if you’re dreaming of a certain coloured house, you’ll want to ask about colour restrictions for the communities you consider building in before you make a selection. Exterior design selections include colours, window styles, exterior doors, roof colour, garage door styles, and stone or siding finishes. Kanvi’s design team will guide you through this process, offering their advice and expertise in choosing complementary features; and your exterior colours don’t need to match your interior colours (we are asked that often!).
We spend almost an entire day on the interior design selections. Tackling one room at a time and helping you to keep things consistent and complementary, we don’t just choose flooring, cupboards, countertops, fixtures and finishes, we also review and revise electrical plans, shelving details, and functional details. At this meeting, you’ll see your full set of construction drawings for the first time. Since this is a 30+ page document detailing every aspect of your home it can be overwhelming, so we walk you through each page, explaining the main points of each and answering all of your questions. Don’t hesitate to ask if you don’t understand something or want to change it, this is when we nail down the details and point out areas for common revisions and upgrades. To help you remember and review your selections, we recommend taking picture of everything so you can refer to it throughout the building process – you don’t want to forget the selections you made before you move in!
From start to finish, our design process is created to serve our clients – it’s how we build more than just the home you need, it’s how we build the home you want.
