I am interested in answers to this question as well. I do know that Susan Susanka's books have a lot of great ideas along that line. I am sure you will get advice that you should just get an architect (not bad advice if you can afford it) but I think if you are willing to spend some time reading, learning and training yourself to see those opportunities it won't hurt.

I feel like even if I get an architect I'm not getting some of the details I see in pictures. The architect designs the layout more so than the "stuff" that makes up the house. I've had to bid jobs (roofing) off plans drawn by architects and I haven't seen details like what I see in pictures. And like when 2 people build off the same set of plans, yet get different looks. Like trim designs, or fancy columns, and stuff like that. That isn't stuff that's usually put on the plans that I've seen.

Hire an interior designer. A lot of times if you use a builder, the builder will have an interior designer on staff. Ours does, although I am sending her my ideas as I can visualize what I want.

So interior designers do work during the building process also? I guess I don't know much about them and pictured them coming in after the fact.

When we first sat down with our builder two months ago, the interior designer was part of the process. She had a check list for each room. Do we want, x, y or z? Style of home we like.

Your best bet first would be to try and define those things you do and do not like in a house. Go through houzz and save to an idea book everything that catches your eye. You'll start to see a style of what you do and don't like emerge. For example, I love craftsman houses and details.

Amanda, when we were going through our contract phase, the actual house plan did not have the features you are describing on the actual layout. However, our builder had a room by room sheet that had a blank space for interior details like: Flooring, ceiling, window, closet etc. For example my keeping room states Floor: Site finished hardwood. Fireplace: Wood burning with stone veneer to celing. Ceiling: Vaulted with stain grade tongue and groove and stain grade beams. Window: Transom double hung....etc. That should take care of the major design elements. For small things, we set up a meeting with framer and trim guy to go over our "look book".

Thanks for asking this question! This is a concern of mine as well

Details and finishes are what architects do! But if all you want is a minimal set of floor plans to get a building permit and get a general contractor to give a bid, with a gazillion allowances, then, of course, you don't get thoughtful detail and finishes. You get what you pay for! Very few consumers know and understand the finishes for a well-designed custom home--it's not their training or experience. A builder's work sheet isn't much help if a consumer doesn't have the experience or has mixed feelings about what they want. Even when a consumer has a "style" in mind, how much do they really know about the details and finishes that are authentic? So you can work it all out before bidding or take your chances once construction is under way.

I did what cpartist suggested. I made Ideabooks for different rooms along with the front exterior, backyard, pool and misc ideas. After I had pretty full Ideabooks I started noticing trends in the styles and color palette I was drawn to. I removed the photos that didn't fit the trend and kept the photos that best represented the look I had ended up with. I then annotated the photos to note what I liked and didn't like for my future home in each one. When I showed them to my builder and architect they found them to be very useful in giving a direction to go in. I've ended up with a style that's custom and won't look cookie cutter.

Some architects don't typically do interiors; others do and might even do color selection and design furniture and fixtures! Ask when interviewing. Good luck.

Building your own house like with a hammer? Or a contractor? I remodeled my current home from the studs in so the details were mine to do.

I wanted unique. I wanted to buy as much material as I could off salvage places, Craig'List, Ebay. I knew I wanted some older stuff, 1910 Arts and Crafts inspiration. And I thought buying used would be cheaper. It isn't really cheaper, but I was amazed at the quality of materials I could find. Hardwood flooring, 100 year old quarter sawn doors with out of this world hardware, lots of great hardwood. This is all stuff I never in a million years would have considered. But when you're standing there looking at 4 100 year old doors in almost perfect condition and the guy is asking $200 for all of it...oh and 100 year old oak base trim, it seems like a good idea.

Now, here's where design ideas come from...when I buy this stuff it's 80 sq ft of this 1000 of that. You just have all this stuff and an unfinished house. How can I make these 2 kinds of floor work to do a single room. It forced me to become a better designer. To consider things I never would have. When you see that success you push further. Pretty soon there's detail everywhere. Here's my house.

One thing I like about Arts & Crafts is it doesn't take a lot of wood working skills. I don't think there's a single miter joint in the house. All butt joints pretty much. Screwing trim to the wall instead of nailing pretty darn easy. More time that's for sure but that's the trade off.

So you could consider adding details after you move in when inspiration hits you.

One downside to hiring out details is it can get extremely expensive. Like I have a hidden door bookcase that cost me $100 to design and build myself and would have been in the $5000 ballpark if hired out. Also took me a long time. Part of the expense is these things are created, not purchased at the Depot. It's more art. Expect to redo.

That's just my experience for what it's worth. Go for it.

Thanks, Virgil Carter Fine Art, for putting down everyone who doesn't use an architect. That's a great way to convince people to use one, tell them they're stupid if they don't.

waterbug_guy, not sure why I didn't see your comment earlier? Love your home. Looks like you really put a lot of thought and effort into it. Yeah, we plan on building on our own, like getting in there and doing the work. We'll hire out masonry and probably drywall, maybe a few other things. My dad built the house I've lived in my entire life (minus 4 yrs of college, my parents moved out while I was gone and left me the house) in 1980. He cut the trees down, found a guy with a sawmill, made them into boards, and completely built the house himself. So I'll have him to help me. He's helped a few friends build houses over the years. Just most of the houses are pretty plain detail wise. Which is the way most of the houses are around here, it's a very rural area and people are more about function than pretty.

I do believe I may look more into architects and/or an interior designer. I have a fairly decent plan drawn up in CAD. We took our tape measure and went to family and friends houses and measured their rooms and got an idea of the room sizes we want. And I've been looking at plans online for about 2.5 years already. Read books on layouts and designing your own house. I'm just not good at the creative part. I suppose I could go through my ideabooks again and try to recreate a detail exactly as in the photo.

Our builder included a certain number of hours with an ID in our construction contract. Between the builder, architect, and ID...we were able to incorporate unique, custom touches to our home. Actually, the builder was the one who came up with the more "out-of-the-box" stuff. (Ex...taking the dead space in my dd's closet, finishing it off, and creating built-in American Girl doll storage. I would NEVER have come up with that!)

In our experience, the best projects are collaborations of client, designer/architect, builder and trade professionals. No one discipline has cornered the market on creativity. The more team members you involve the more ideas you'll get and the better the outcome.

Best wishes for a successful project.

I agree good design is a collaboration of architect, interior designer, contractor and homeowner. Before you build you will have arch. plans and maybe several looks by contractors when bidding the job, then have designers look when bidding their job. You should have a good feeling of what you want and a feel for good changes and details before you actually start the build.