Want to feel confident and clear about your home design when renovating or building?

Learn 3 key ways to make confident, clear decisions in the Design phase and ensure you get it right in your home design.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! This is Episode 374, and it’s the second instalment in our 4-part mini-series on how to make confident, clear decisions in your project, in each of the four phases every project travels through.

In the last episode, I introduced the series and shared how confidence and clarity were the most common feelings homeowners told me they want when designing, building or renovating their homes. And that makes total sense when you consider what’s at stake: time, money, energy, and the future lifestyle you’re creating for yourself and your family.

The great news is this: Confidence and clarity are not things you either have or don’t have. They’re something you can build, with the right guidance, questions, and frameworks to support you as you move through each phase of your project.

When you have that support, the decisions you make become simpler, less stressful, and far more aligned with your goals. And your project becomes more enjoyable and empowering as a result.

In this episode, we’re diving into the Design Phase: the part of your project where your ideas and inspiration begin to take shape, and the drawings of your future home start coming to life.

It’s often one of the most exciting stages of a renovation or new build. But it can also be where overwhelm creeps in, second-guessing shows up, and decision fatigue starts to take hold.

You might worry about making the wrong choice, forgetting to include something important, spending money on something that won’t work, or ending up with a home that doesn’t suit your life. 

And if you’re working with a team, there can be extra pressure in trying to stay across all the moving parts, and trusting they’re doing their job well, especially if you’re not sure what should be happening and when.

So in this episode, I’ll walk you through three practical and powerful ways to build your confidence and clarity in the Design Phase. These are the strategies I’ve seen make the biggest difference for homeowners – especially women – in reclaiming a sense of calm, control and creative freedom in this stage of the process.

Whether you’re just getting into your design, or already knee-deep in drawings and decisions, this episode will help you step back, reconnect with what matters, and move forward with far more clarity.

Last time, I shared some of the incredible feedback we received from our community, including what you’re dreaming of in your project, what you’re nervous about, and how you most want to feel along the way.

A huge theme that came through was your desire to feel confident and clear when designing, building, or renovating. And I love that. Because that’s what Undercover Architect is all about – demystifying this process, giving you tools to feel empowered and informed, and helping you get it right, every step of the way.

Whether it’s via our free platforms like this podcast, website or Undercover Architect’s socials…

Or it’s via one of the DIY courses, or our signature program, HOME Method…

There’s an opportunity for you to gain confidence and clarity to make your project simpler, and to optimise what’s possible for the time, energy, money and effort you’re investing from start to finish.

In the last episode, I talked about the phase of Pre-Design, and the three ways you can gain confidence and clarity through that initial phase of your project.

In this episode, I’m going to dive into the Design Phase. 

This can be a hugely exciting phase of your project, because it’s where you start to see all the things you’ve been dreaming about, getting inspired by, and visualising for your future home and lifestyle, start to be tested and explored. You start to see them all come to life.

However, it can also be overwhelming. These decisions can feel BIG. They’re impactful, they’ll be permanent as they’re shaping the spaces and rooms and form of your future home, and they have big costs attached to them.

So, it’s totally normal to second-guess things. To be nervous about making ‘the right’ decision. Many homeowners tell me at this point they’re simply worried about stuffing it up, and not actually knowing until they’re living with the consequences in their finished home, and they realise they missed something, overlooked something, left something out, or created something super frustrating.

And it’s also totally normal to find decision-making fatiguing. It’s difficult to anticipate how you’ll behave or feel when presented with so many decisions… literally thousands and thousands. 

If you’re working with a team, they’ll be making many on your behalf, but that can be stressful too, because you can worry whether they’re making decisions aligned with what you want, or that you’ll be aware of what alternatives may have been possible if they’d discussed it with you first. 

Many worry about losing control at this point. About being railroaded or steamrolled into big or small decisions that don’t feel right… through a lack of preparation, understanding or their inability to speak up and advocate for themselves.

These are all really NORMAL feelings to have. 

So let’s help you with how to overcome the overwhelm, and instead feel confident and clear in your Design Phase.

Firstly, let me set a bit of context about Design. 

So, to directly quote how I introduce the Design Module inside HOME Method:

“This is the phase where you start nutting out the home design itself.

To do that, you’ll need to get clear on what you and your family actually need and and want, and then be able to communicate it effectively to those you’re working with.

The preparation you’ve done in Pre-Design, and will be also doing here in Design, will get tested and explored as floor plans are drawn up, and ideas suggested and considered.

And as your home design is being generated and improved, it’s your opportunity to really ensure it’s going to deliver on the future lifestyle you’re dreaming of, and that it also meets your budget and overall goals.

This is an exciting (although sometimes nerve-wracking) phase where you really get to dive into imagining your future home and all that’s possible.”

The Design Phase really matters – I don’t need to tell you that. 

However, in my experience of working with homeowners, both 1:1 as their architect, and then at a much larger scale, teaching and supporting them inside Undercover Architect, is that Design is also really misunderstood as a phase in your project.

Of course, design is where your ideas get turned into drawings that can then develop into the documentation your home build or renovation will be constructed from.

But it’s also where thousands of tiny choices start stacking up. 

And so mistakes here can ripple into later phases of Pre-Build and Build, and can be costly to fix, or have long-term consequences.

And it’s also where your voice matters. 

How well the Design Phase goes directly relates to your ability to contribute to the conversation, be clear about your intentions, wishes and wants, and feel you’re working with a team who understand and support your vision, whilst working with you transparently and honestly, so you understand what’s feasible and deliverable for the budget and site you’re working with.

If you don’t feel confident and clear in the Design Phase, you risk:

• Paying additional fees for reworking of drawings and documentation
• Finding mistakes on site that have to be accepted or paid to be changed
• Feeling sidelined by your team instead of collaborating with them
• Ending up with a home that doesn’t suit you or your lifestyle

And ultimately, if you don’t build confidence and clarity here, you can waste money, time and emotional energy on decisions that don’t serve you, or your future home.

So, let’s look at three ways you can make confident, clear decisions in the Design phase.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

RESOURCES

Season 2 ‘How to Design a Home’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/season-2/ 

Episode 252 ‘Considering Resale Value When Designing Your Home’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-considering-resale-value-when-designing-your-home 

Hear the stories of other homeowners sharing how they’ve navigated their renovation and new build projects >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/tag/home-method/ 

Answer these 7 questions to work out whether to demolish and rebuild, or renovate >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/renovate-or-detonate 

Learn more about how to get started on your home design, whoever you’re working with >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/happy-home-design

Access the support and guidance you need to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my signature online program, HOME METHOD >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/the-home-method/

Learn more about how to interview and select the right builder with the Choose Your  Builder mini-course >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/choose-your-builder 

Want to create a sustainable home when building or renovating? Grab the 44 Ways to Create a Sustainable free e-guide here >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/44-ways