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What Happens at a Design Center Appointment?

How selections work, how to prepare, and how to get through it without decision fatigue.

The design center is where you personalize your home's interior and exterior finishes. It's stage six of our process, and it's the most enjoyable part of building for some people and the most overwhelming for others. Preparation is what determines which.

What you'll choose

  • Exterior: siding, colors, roofing, stone or brick accents, front door, garage doors
  • Kitchen: cabinetry style and color, countertops, backsplash, sink, faucet, hardware, appliances
  • Baths: vanities, tops, tile, tub and shower, plumbing fixtures, mirrors
  • Flooring throughout
  • Interior trim, doors and hardware
  • Paint
  • Lighting

How to prepare

  1. Build a visual reference in advance. A saved folder of rooms you like, and, more useful, a note about why you like each one.
  2. Know your allowances and what they buy. This is the single biggest source of surprise. See allowances.
  3. Decide your priorities beforehand. Where will you spend up, and where will you take the standard? Decide this at home, calmly, not in the showroom.
  4. Agree with your partner in advance. On budget and on general direction. Debating both in a showroom is not fun for anyone.
  5. Bring anything that has to match, like a piece of furniture or a rug you're keeping.

The order that works

Start with the biggest, most permanent, hardest-to-change surfaces and work down:

  1. Flooring, since it runs through everything
  2. Cabinetry
  3. Countertops
  4. Tile and backsplash
  5. Plumbing and lighting fixtures
  6. Paint, last, because paint matches everything and nothing matches paint

Avoiding decision fatigue

  • Break it into more than one session if you can
  • Eat first. This sounds trivial and isn't
  • Take photos of everything you select as you go
  • When you're stuck between two options, choose the simpler one. Simple ages better
  • Remember what's easy to change later: paint, light fixtures, hardware, mirrors. Spend your energy on cabinets, tile and flooring

Watch the running total

Overages accumulate quietly. Ask for a running number as you go rather than at the end. See staying on budget and selection deadlines.