Your Home, Your Style

Mid-Valley homeowners – you are lucky. In this area alone there are an abundance of qualified designers and contractors willing to help you make your renovation dream a reality. Selecting the right one for your project can be challenging. I’d like to share some tried and true tips to help smooth the process and assure you are heard and understood so that at the end of your completed project you will say “this really feels like home, my home.”

When embarking on a renovation, face to face conversations with all family members who have a say in the process are essential. I like to sit in on this meeting – it gives me a unique perspective about how each person communicates their wants for the project and how they work through disagreement and compromise. It is also a way to identify how you make decisions and communicate personal style and tastes.

Prior to meeting, I suggest making two lists, one for your absolute must-haves and one for your like-to-haves. This is useful for a couple of reasons. First, many homeowners have heard unpleasant stories about, and are leery of “project creep,” and second, lists help focus and communicate your vision to your designer and/or contractor. This simple action could result in a cost effective solution that may even make more of your like-to-haves a reality with little or no impact to budget. For example, a past client described her perfect shower to me but she was convinced her like-to-haves were way out of her budget. By looking at things a little differently, keeping the plumbing layout simple and doing a bit of extra legwork fixture shopping, she now has the back massagers she didn’t think were possible. Imagine how delighted she is each and every time she uses her new shower!

I also believe in the value of exploration and discovery in the design process. Do you like narrowing your choices by looking through catalogs? Do you prefer seeing and interacting with actual products in a showroom setting? Or do you want to see products in an actual vignette in order to visualize if they will work for your situation? How you respond helps tailor an experience and remodeling process that is less stressful while delivering your unique solution.
You can also save time and money by narrowing down the universe of product choices by using the internet. At Houzz.com you can search for, and create ideabooks from thousands of photographs featuring room designs, colors, lighting, products – anything that you connect with.

You may not be able to articulate your exact style or why you like what you like, but sharing your ideabooks with your designer ensures that your unique preferences are considered before the process begins.

I believe there is one beautiful solution for each and every client and I want to infuse your personality into the process, product selection and into the rooms you envision living in.

Heather Van Eyk, CKD and member of the National Kitchen and Bath Association, is founder and designer of Northwest Design House, LLC, a design house located in the Eastgate Plaza off Hwy. 34 in Corvallis.
She can be reached at 541-619-7892.