Collecting images for inspiration is the first thing homeowners do when considering building a new custom home. The images available to you these days are amazing. I regularly drool over the glossy photos on Houzz and pin many amazing homes on Pinterest just because I don't want to forget how lovely some detail is. If you are starting a custom home project, you have likely started collecting images already. There is no wrong way to do this. Bring anything that peaks your interests. Really, anything. These four things are what I tell my clients to avoid. The list is intended to open up opportunities to communicate what is in your head to get it into mine. 1. Including only glossy images of things you love. While this is not a bad way to go about things, it doesn't give me as much information as if you were to include things that you also hate. Showing me that you love this master bedroom because of this, this, and this tells me alot. Showing me another picture of a similar bedroom that you hate because of the ceiling treatment and the busyness of the door placement tells me much more. 2. Accumulating pages of photos without noting what is significant. When you are flipping through photos and something catches your eye it is easy to just clip the photo. Take a few extra moments and note what you like about the photo. It is hard for me to know that the kitchen photo you you included had nothing to do with the cabinets (which you actually hate) but that you love the light fixtures and think that the flooring is interesting. 3. Only including photos from one resource. Most of my clients use houzz.com. The rest use Pinterest. Those are absolutely fine and are an incredible resource to clip, note and share photos with me. Please use these! However, keep your eyes open. Maybe a hotel you are staying in has a cool hotel bar and you want to remember the stools - snap a photo. You are glancing through a fashion magazine and the color of this one sweater would be amazing in the powder bath - gab a quick photo with your phone. Not everything has to be house photo. And all inspiration doesn't have to come from the half an hour you have slotted to search for images on the internet. 4. Designing your house through photos. Put it out of your mind that you are going to piece together a full house from photos. (That's my job.) Don't eliminate a gorgeous stair photo because your stair will not be the center piece of your foyer like it shows in the photo. The way I gather information is not that concrete. It is more information gathering. Many things can inform and inspire in a genre, it does not have to be literal. Remember - your goal here is communication. ANYTHING that will communicate your ideas to me is useful. Have fun with it - this is the beginning of the best part. Scott Architecture Owner Sheri Scott, R.A., NCARB, is a residential architect with 20 years experience. Her passion for serving and guiding her clients from the first sketch to the house warming party has resulted in many successful custom home projects ranging from $200,000 to $5 million. She is the author of "Dream, Inspire, Design: What a Residential Architect Wants to Tell You about the Custom Home Process." Sheri transformed a 1920s spring house into her home office. If you don't find her there she's probably trying to keep up with her husband and three teenage sons.
