How to Effectively Communicate Your Vision to a Designer

Working with a professional on any home project can be a tremendously rewarding experience, provided you're able to communicate your vision clearly. The following are some ideas to help you organize your ideas to ensure that you and your designer are on the same page:

Use These Tips to Ensure You and Your Designer Share the Same Vision

Make Lists

It is good to make two separate lists – one for the fabrics, textures, colors, and overall looks that you like, and another for the ones you don’t. This gives your designer very defined boundaries and eliminates the chance of them incorporating elements you won’t like.

Gather Photos

Whether it's creating a new board on Pinterest or going old-school and clipping from magazines, visual aids are a great way to communicating your desires. Photos will make your preferences clear and help your designer envision the space the same way you do. It also helps them determine where they can take certain liberties with furniture and décor, based on your taste.

Keep a Broad Scope

If you're designing a kitchen, it probably makes sense to make a list of storage needs you're hoping to accommodate and photos of kitchens that speak to your passions. Don’t be afraid to include a few images of things that you only like certain parts of as well. This gives your designer more to go off of and allows them to take various elements of the ideas you’ve shown them, and use them to design a space that is uniquely yours.

Refine Your Choices

Once you've gathered enough examples, it's time to go through them all to find the ones that truly delight you. It’s ok to discard some that you really like if they aren't quite right for the project at hand. Then, make some notes on the remaining ideas that describe why these are your favorites. Is it the colors? Furniture? Overall feel of the space? The more specific you can be, the better.

Following these tips will help eliminate any confusion or miscommunication, and will give your designer all the instruction and inspiration they need to create a finished product you’ll adore. Find more advice on working with a professional designer in these articles: