Pro Spotlight: How to Make Your Home Work Better for You

“People often have ideas of how to make their homes better, but they’ve been in the same house for so long, they can’t see all the possible options. That’s where we come in.”

If you’ve lived in your home for years, chances are, it doesn’t fully fit you anymore. Maybe you’ve accumulated many items that are now taking up counters and tabletops because there’s not enough storage. Perhaps you lack areas where you can entertain family and friends. Or maybe you’re starting to think about aging and don’t need all those spare bedrooms. Though form is important, function should lead the way in your remodel, says Lucas Bourgeois of LU Design Build in St. Louis. “Your home should meet the needs of your lifestyle,” he says. “You have to love where you live.”

10 Times to Hire a Design-Build Firm

Wondering if it’s time to hire a design-build firm? Unlike the more traditional path (known as “design, bid, build"), which involves hiring a designer and a builder separately, hiring a design-build firm gives you design and construction services under the same umbrella. Whether led by an architect or a builder, all true design-build firms include both designers and builders at their core. 

If you are thinking of remodeling, adding on or building from scratch and want the ease of working with a single firm from start to finish, a design-build firm may be the right choice for you. (If you want to learn about other home pros, go to the bottom of this story for links to earlier stories in our “10 Times to Hire” series.) Here are 10 times it makes sense to work with a design-build firm to bring your project to life.