As our client, your first meeting with the Bailey Design + Build team will be held at our HQ, not at your home. Sometimes this confuses people, but we’ve long thought that this is the best environment for our first conversation, both for you and for us.
It’s an environment free from doorbells, phone calls, package deliveries. And it’s a space where we can get to know each other as people. You get to see the team in their professional milieu, get to know more about our processes, how we work and can work together.
This first meeting is when we want to learn about what works and what doesn’t work in your home. We want to learn all about you and your family. We want to learn about your needs and challenges. But most importantly, we want to dig in and discover if Bailey is the right fit to move forward.
We want you to come to this meeting inspired to make change– even big changes! This can be a very exciting meeting as we share and bounce ideas off of each other. But in order to make this dialogue as successful as possible, you and your family have to do a little bit of homework first.
Please come to this meeting with as many pieces of inspiration as you and your family can gather for this project. This can be a time-consuming activity, but it is well worth the effort. Bailey does not deliver cookie-cutter renovations; we take our artistry cues from you and your needs. To help you better brainstorm your project, we have some ideas about tools you can use to help you come prepared to this meeting.
Objects
Did you pick up an exquisite piece of pottery on a recent trip to Peru? Is this object something you’d want to be a centerpiece and inspiration for your renovation? Bring it, or detailed photos of it, to your meeting. Did your great-grandmother crochet you an afghan when you were a child that you absolutely want to keep at the foot of your bed? Let us help you brainstorm how to include it in the planned decor of your new bedroom. Do you have a rug that is the only thing that truly “works” in your current living room? A family portrait whose hues you want to capture with your current decor? An existing stained-glass window that’s not going anywhere when you renovate? Bring with you objects that are critical to your redesign so we can develop an understanding of your needs and your taste. Or bring multiple detailed photos of the object(s) so we can get a good sense of your wishes.
Mood Boards
Mood boards had their “moment” probably a decade ago, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not still helpful now. Especially for projects like a renovation. This can be a super fun activity to do with your family. A mood board can bring together the colors, textures, patterns, objects and more that you want to build your home revival around. Visit a fabric store and collect samples that float your boat. Visit paint and wallpaper stores to gather chips and samples. Get together with your family, a pile of home decor magazines, some scissors, and a glue stick or two and compile images, fabrics, patterns, furniture and paints that inspire you on a posterboard. A mood board will help the Bailey team have a clear understanding of the things that you like and want to incorporate into your project.
Houzz/Pinterest boards
Of course, it’s 2024. Why shuffle off to multiple stores and purchase multiple expensive magazines, when really all the resources that you need are available to you online? (I don’t know, sometimes it’s more fun to make a mood board– but I’m old school like that). The best sites for compiling an online gallery of your renovation inspiration are Houzz and Pinterest.
Houzz was created because the founders’ own home renovation didn’t turn out like they wanted it to. According to Houzz, “When founders Adi and Alon remodeled their home, they started the way these projects often do: with a tall stack of magazines and referrals for home professionals from people they knew. But after those piles of torn out pages failed to make their dream a reality, they felt stuck. There had to be a better way.”
Houzz features thousands and thousands of photos of interiors, videos, and product photos and descriptions that you can compile together in your own inspiration gallery. Just create an account, click on “Get Ideas,” and start adding images and videos to your own online mood board. Share it with us during our first meeting, and we’ll be able to get a good sense of where you want us to innovate your home. You can also check out our Houzz page for inspiration.
Pinterest, which revolutionized the online mood board all the way back in 2008, is still an excellent source of inspiration. Because it was founded so many years ago, Pinterest has a much bigger database of images than Houzz and can be challenging to navigate. But if you have an idea of a theme for your remodel, you’ll have endless possibilities to choose from. Our Pinterest page is updated often.
Just log in and create an account, then search for your design inspiration, like “Caribbean nautical design” and browse other people’s boards for images that you love. Add them to your own board and then share that board with Bailey during our first meeting.
We’re happy to work with you
There are so many other design inspirations that you can bring to the table. Photos of a hotel room you stayed in (or want to stay in) that you want your bedroom to feel like. A movie still that shows a kitchen you swoon over. A postcard of an outdoor garden that inspires you to bring the outdoors inside.
One more way to share what you like… check out our Instagram feed for examples of some great ideas we’ve brought to life for clients. If you’re a baker you’re going to want to see this one.
We can’t wait to meet with you and to help you and your family bring your project to life. Bring us your “inspo” (as the kids say) and we will help make your renovation dreams come true.