Prepare: Turn Your Vision Into a Project

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You’ve done the dreaming. You’ve started figuring out how you want your home to feel, how you want to live, and what you want your home to support.

Now we have to turn that vision into something tangible.

A vision tells us what we’re working toward. A project defines what we’re actually going to do about it.

This is where we begin taking those ideas, feelings, wants, needs, and dreams and putting some boundaries around them.

We’re not figuring out every single detail yet. You don’t need to know exactly how you’re going to accomplish everything or have every step planned out.

That’s what we’re going to work through throughout Prepare.

For now, we need to answer a much simpler question:

What project are we actually doing?

What Does It Mean to Define a Home Project?

Defining a home project is about getting specific.

Saying things like:

“I’m remodeling my bathroom”

“I’m building a house”

“I’m replacing my countertops”

“I’m reconfiguring the layout of my basement”

Tells us what you generally want to do. But it doesn’t necessarily tell us what the project will actually involve.

Or, say you tell me, “ I want to redo my kitchen.”

But what does that mean? It could mean so many things because it is so much more involved than just that statement.

Like:

Are we painting the cabinetry?

Replacing it?

Reconfiguring the layout?

Removing walls?

Replacing flooring?

Moving plumbing?

Adding lighting?

Replacing countertops?

Furnishing the adjacent dining room area too?

See how suddenly “redoing the kitchen” could turn into a million different things?

That is exactly why we need to define the project scope.

Your project scope is simply the boundary around what the project includes and what it doesn’t.

Defining it doesn’t mean you need to know every contractor you’ll hire, every material you’ll select, exactly how much everything will cost, or the exact order everything will happen in.

I promise we will get there eventually!

Right now, we’re figuring out what problem we’re trying to solve, what we’re actually changing, what matters most, what we’re working within, and what success looks like.

Because that’s where the project actually begins.

Start With the Problem You’re Trying to Solve

Before asking:

What are we changing?

I want you to ask:

WHY are we changing it?

This is where everything you learned about yourself and your home during Dream starts carrying into Prepare.

Maybe your first thought is:

“Our kitchen doesn’t work.”

Okay. Why?

Is there not enough seating?

Is the traffic flow terrible?

Do you not have enough storage?

Is the lighting poor?

Does the island block circulation?

Can you not see your kids while you’re cooking?

Do you love hosting, but every time people come over, everyone ends up crammed into the same corner?

See, now we’re getting somewhere!

Because there’s a big difference between identifying the problem and assuming the solution.

It is so easy to go from: I hate my kitchen to I need a new kitchen.

But do you really? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t.

Maybe instead what you actually hate is that you don’t have enough prep space.

Or maybe you think you need a bigger kitchen, but what you really need is better storage.

Or maybe you think the whole thing needs to be gutted when the layout actually functions pretty well and what you’re responding to is actually the outdated materials, poor lighting, and finishes that don’t feel like you.

Sometimes the solution really is the big renovation, but often times it’s much simpler than that.

So, the lesson to take away from here is that you don’t need to decide on the solution until you understand the problem.

Getting to the root of why you’re doing the project helps you make smarter decisions about what actually needs to change, and it can save you a whole lot of unnecessary time, headaches, and money later.

Define What You’re Actually Changing

Once you understand the problem, you can start defining the physical boundaries of the project.

Ask yourself:

What space or spaces are we working on?

What are we actually changing?

What are we NOT changing?

Is this decorating, furnishing, remodeling, renovating, building, or some combination?

What needs to stay?

Are we changing the function, the appearance, or both?

Are any adjoining spaces affected?

Are there existing elements we need to work around?

The things you aren’t changing are just as important as the things you are.

If the flooring is staying, your new selections need to work with it.

If the cabinetry is staying, you’re designing around it.

If the plumbing isn’t moving, that affects what you can do with the layout.

If Grandma’s antique table isn’t going anywhere, that matters too.

This is also where I want you to start thinking about the ripple effect of your decisions. Very few decisions within a home exist completely on their own.

Changing one thing may affect something else or five other things.

Maybe replacing your countertops means removing the existing backsplash.

Maybe changing the furniture layout affects where you need lighting.

Maybe opening a wall changes the flooring, electrical, trim, furniture placement, and how two adjoining rooms relate to each other.

You don’t need to figure out all of those details right now. You just need to start training yourself to ask:

If I change this, what else could it affect?

Because that’s going to become very important as we continue to move through the design process.

Define Your Project Goals

Now that you’ve started identifying the problem and what the project may involve, we need to turn those thoughts into actual goals.

This is one of the biggest transitions from Dream into Prepare.

During Dream, you might have discovered:

Our kitchen doesn’t function the way our family gathers.

And that’s important. It tells us something about your life and what you need from your home. But now we’re going to translate that into something more tangible like:

We need additional seating, better traffic flow, more accessible everyday storage, improved task lighting, and durable materials.

See the difference? Or maybe during Dream you realized:

I want our bedroom to feel calmer and more restful.

Now in Prepare, that might become:

We need better light control, less visible clutter, adequate bedside lighting, and furniture that fits the scale of the room.

I want our home to be a place where we host more often.

Becomes:

We need more flexible seating, better flow between the kitchen and living spaces, somewhere to serve food and drinks, and easier access to the outdoor area.

We’re turning our feelings and desires into design requirements. And that is what your project goals do. They give those bigger ideas you had from your vision and turn them into something tangible that you can work toward. And they will become something you can come back to throughout the project when you’re facing all of these decisions.

Remember your defining question: Does this choice help us accomplish what we said this project needed to accomplish? If the answer is no, then why are we doing it?

Separate Your Needs From Your Wants

Once you start listing everything you’d like this project to accomplish, theres a good chance that this is going to get pretty long…welcome to home projects!

That’s why its so important to start distinguishing between what you need, what you want, and what could simply be nice to have before your budget starts making those decisions for you.

Break it down into these three categories:

Need — Necessary for the project to successfully solve the problem.
Want — Important to you, but the project could still succeed without it.
Nice to have — Something you’d enjoy if budget, space, and circumstances allow.

For example:

Need: enough seating for a family of five
Want: large island
Nice to have: beverage refrigerator

Those are not equally important. And this is when your vision and project goals become very useful again at this point in the design process.

Your needs should connect back to why you’re doing this project in the first place.

If one of your biggest problems is that your family doesn’t have enough room to comfortably sit together, enough seating isn’t some silly wish-list item. It’s directly connected to the problem you’re trying to solve.

And that doesn’t necessarily mean every need will be possible. We still have budgets, space, and other realities to work through. But this at least helps you understand what deserves priority and what doesn’t.

Since you’ve already established your vision, you have something with more meaning than a random wish list to help you make all of your decisions.

Since you created your vision first, you now have a way to determine which things actually support the life you’re trying to create.

Understand Your Project Constraints

Real projects have constraints as much as we wish they didn’t. During Dream, I wanted you to let yourself explore and picture the impossible and everything that was in your wildest dreams. In Dream, I didn’t want to let anything hold you back so you could fully explore your imagination and options.

You didn’t need to immediately shut down every idea because of money, space, time, practicality, or all the reasons something might not work.

We needed that freedom because it’s hard to understand what you truly want if you’re editing yourself before you’ve even allowed yourself to dream.

But now we are in Prepare, which is where reality kicks in and we need to start thinking more realistically about what we can actually make happen.

Real projects have constraints, even though we might wish that they didn’t.

Some constraints might include:

The amount of space you have

Existing architecture

Elements that need to remain

Time

Money

Building rules and permits

Rental limitations

Household needs

Product or material availability

You might be thinking, “Well, now I can’t have what I want.”

But when you start thinking like a designer, you say, “Okay. These are the parameters. What can we do within them?”

Interior designers are always working within parameters. It is very rare that we are able to have full control over every single thing that happens in a project with a completely blank slate, unlimited money, unlimited space, unlimited time, and absolutely no restrictions. If we did, how fun would that be?!

A big part of good design is understanding the parameters a project has and finding the best possible solution within them.

But I don’t want you thinking that constraints are a bad thing. They are actually the opposite of that. Sometimes constraints can be super helpful.

Instead of letting your brain wander through every possibility that could ever exist, the parameters actually help us narrow down our options. And that is so relieving when we know there are TOO many options.

You aren’t trying to figure out what you could do with any house, any budget, any amount of time, or any lifestyle.

You’re figuring out what makes sense for this home, this project, this life, and this set of circumstances. And that is a much more focused and productive problem to solve.

Decide What Finished Means

This might sound obvious, but I think it’s incredibly important. How will you know when this project is finished?

Being completely finished with something can look completely different to everyone. And it’s up to you to determine what finished means to you and your project.

Because scope creep is REAL.

Maybe you decide you’re going to give your living room a refresh. Nothing crazy, just maybe a new rug, new curtains, and rearranging some furniture.

But then you start looking around the room and think, “Well, maybe we should paint while we’re at it.”

Or “Actually, wallpaper would be so beautiful in here.”

“And you know what, now that I’m looking at it, I really do not like the flooring.”

Now suddenly your simple living room refresh has become an entirely different project…whoopsie!

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes expanding a project can make absolute sense because maybe you uncover something you didn’t know about before. Maybe one change you make really does require another. Or maybe your priorities change.

But sometimes we’re simply questioning things because home projects have a way of making us question everything.

And when you’re already making what feels like a million decisions, continuously moving down the finish line can make the entire project feel never-ending.

Defining what “finished” means for you gives the project a boundary.

It doesn’t mean you can never change your living room again.

It doesn’t mean your home is now permanently complete.

It simply means:

This is what we’re accomplishing in this particular project.

At the beginning, you asked:

What problem am I trying to solve?

Then:

What am I trying to accomplish?

Now you’re asking:

How will I know when I’ve accomplished it?

And that’s what “finished” means.

Create a Simple Project Scope

Now let’s put all of this together! You don’t need a complicated professional document at this point in time. You just want to be able to simply and clearly define:

The project

The problem you’re trying to solve

The overall goal

What’s included

What’s not included

Your priorities

What “finished” means

So let’s go back to our kitchen example.

Project: Kitchen Refresh

Problem: Our kitchen doesn’t support the way our family cooks and gathers.

Goal: Create a more functional, durable kitchen with better storage, lighting, and seating while maintaining the existing layout.

Included: Cabinet refinishing, countertops, backsplash, lighting, hardware, sink/faucet, and island seating.

Not included: Flooring, appliances, plumbing relocation, or structural changes.

Priorities: Better everyday storage, durable materials, and seating for four.

Finished means: All listed selections are installed, and the kitchen is fully functional and ready to use.

Look at how different that is from: “I want to redo my kitchen.” You haven’t selected a single countertop, called a contractor, figured out your exact budget, or ordered anything.

And yet, you already have so much more clarity about the project you’re actually trying to complete.

You can use this same method for every project throughout your home.

And if you’re working on multiple rooms or spaces, I recommend defining a separate scope for each one. That way, you know what each project needs to accomplish without allowing everything to blur into one enormous, overwhelming home to-do list.

Having this written down also gives you a much clearer starting point when you begin talking with contractors, designers, or other professionals.

Instead of trying to explain a dozen scattered ideas, you can clearly communicate what you’re hoping to accomplish, what matters most, and what you currently understand the project needs to include.

Trust me, doing this will make everyone’s lives easier!

Your Vision Is Starting to Become a Project

You’ve officially taken the first step from vision into action.

You know what problem you’re solving, what you’re changing, what matters most, what you’re working within, and where this particular project begins and ends.

But we still aren’t quite ready to start making all of those design decisions yet.

Before we do, there’s something I think every homeowner should understand:

How the interior design process actually works.

Because once you understand the process, you’ll have a much better idea of what needs to happen, when it needs to happen, and why the order of those decisions matters.

Next in Prepare → Understand the Interior Design Process