It’s All in the Design!

We’d like to introduce you to our phenomenal residential designer, Shawn Campbell of Campbell Designs. He’s the gentlemen responsible for creating the magnificent custom home designs for our clients. He’s able to take all your dreams and aspirations for your new home and translate them into a plan from which we build. It’s fair to say, we couldn’t do it without him!

Shawn started his career as a residential designer in Dallas over 20 years ago. When he began, he was even drawing by hand. This was before the inception of the advanced designing software commonly used today. 

We’ve been working with Shawn for over 10 years now. When we sat down with him to ask his advice on how to help make the process more seamless for our clients, he offered these tips: 

• Know what you want. So many people get started but don’t really know what they want, which results in having to continually make changes, costing time and money.
• Have a firm grasp of your budget. Coming in with a clear budget helps inform, not just the design, but every element of the entire project. 
• Make a list of your priorities. What aspects of your new home are most important to you? Say, for example, you know you want a luxurious primary bath, a three car garage and a really amazing view of the lake, then that’s our starting point, and we design the layout of the home around those priorities. 
• Be open to alternatives within your budget. While we always really appreciate the photos people find in magazines and online of home elements that they really like, it’s often those really cool details that get cut because of budget restrictions. However, I do my best to give the client what they want while making the house affordable and buildable. For example, a lot of people want curtain walls these days (with the metal frames and glass in-between) but they’re very expensive, so alternatively, I can implement large windows with wood frames that are close together, giving it a similar effect. 

Trends Shawn is seeing in new home designs:

• What’s still really popular right now is the modern farmhouse design, with one big rectangle as the layout for the main public spaces that includes a kitchen on one side, dining table in the middle and the living room on the other side. I haven’t designed a formal living room or dining room in a long time. 
• As you might imagine, we’re still seeing more home offices.
• Guest rooms and kids’ rooms are getting a little bit smaller, as they’re less of a priority.
• Not everyone ones likes a soaker tub in the primary bath anymore. It’s nice to have, but not everyone really uses it. 

Shawn has worked with several builders over the years and still does. He told us: If anyone asks me which builder I recommend, I always recommend you.

Thank you, Shawn, we feel the same way!