How Do I Prepare for Color Selections Meeting?
As we complete the updates to our Design Center, we’re so excited to show you our new selections! We love talking with clients about selections! It’s so much fun! But, we also know that all those choices can feel overwhelming. They’re all beautiful! How can you choose?
Today we asked our expert Design Consultant, Shelly Cauthen, to come on the blog and write a post for us answering a common question: How can I prepare for my color selections meeting?
Take it away, Shelly!
As you know by now, the process of building a house happens in baby steps, and not all of them are as exciting as others. Getting to the color selections stage is not just another progression towards the finished product, it’s truly the most fun step! (Next to the finished product, that is!)
People ask me all the time: “What do I need to do for the meeting?”
The answer is both simple and profoundly difficult at the same time.
Here it is: “Think about yourself and your family.”
Are you scratching your head? No need. Assuming you are not an investor (in which case this rule is a little different), you will be moving into this house. Not your neighbor, your friend, your sister, the blogger you follow religiously or the owners of every Pin you have saved.
So many people think they need to get the opinion of everyone they ever met, when all that really does is complicate your actual likes/dislikes.
True story. I once had a client bring a friend to make selections, and things were not going well. The client liked white, the friend liked beige. The client liked classic, the friend liked contemporary. Every selection that was made that day was made for a person not living in the house.
A few days after the selection meeting, I called the client and we talked about what they thought about the meeting, and the satisfaction and excitement that typically happens at this point in the process wasn’t there! She ended up doing none of the things her friend suggested, and she was SO much happier. Her house turned out beautifully!
I’m not suggesting you ignore EVERY suggestion you get from the people in your life. But if all your furniture and belongings are grey and blue, and your _________ (insert friend, co-worker, cousin, etc) says you can’t live without a gold carpet…. Ask yourself if that’s really true!
I always tell my customers that they should look around them in the days and weeks leading up to the selections appointment. Driving down the streets near where your home will be is important! Do you love the orange door that someone has and hate the one that’s green? Do you like the look of two colors of siding, or do you feel more comfortable when it’s all the same? Neither one is wrong… but you want to make sure that the driveway you pull into at the end of the day is the one you WANT to be pulling into.
Customers often snap a picture of a house we’ve built before and will pull it up at the meeting, and say they want this siding and roof color. That is HARD to do. It’s hard to tell from a picture if the siding is beige, tan or champagne. Roofs that are rustic black look nearly identical to black walnut and VA slate. If you know before you come in that you want something that you’ve seen somewhere, send it ahead of time, and let us have a chance to look it up for you. That way, I can be on the same page as you before you get there.
Speaking of pages…..
Pinterest and Houzz are excellent at helping you see what you like and what you don’t like. It’s almost impossible to completely, 100% copy something, but we can almost always create a look that’s similar! So if you have a board that has all the kitchens you like, bring it with you, and I can look through your pins and have an instant feel for what you love! (This also works for Master baths, kids’ baths, etc) Sometimes, customers are more comfortable replicating an exact look seen at an open house. Other times, customers want something different, that no one has done before. Either way is okay, and either one can look fantastic!
The question is, what is going to make you happy in the long run?
So, how do you prepare for a color selection appointment? Look around, think about the things you like and don’t like. Browse Pinterest and Houzz. Don’t collect opinions from every stranger on the street, and be ready to have some fun!