Banks are going bust and with property sales falling through the floor, everyone’s looking to make their bucks as quickly as they can. Getting someone to design your home isn’t any easier or cheaper because you need to sit with them and get them to understand exactly what it is that you’re looking for. Without any prior experience and design knowledge, you might find it hard to imagine that you could design your own home, but here’s ten reasons that will tell you why you should:

a)     It’s Your Taste: You know your tastes and there’s no need to explain yourself to anyone. Sometimes, we cannot explain why we like or dislike certain things and when someone asks you to rationalise and explain your tastes you might not be able to. So, do the next best thing and design it yourself!

b)    It’s Your Budget: At times, we hire a designer but then, because of their persuasiveness or because of not being able to say “no”, we end up spending way over our budget or feeling ashamed about a small budget. Well, its time to chuck all that out of the window because when you design your own home, you know exactly what you can spend on and why.

c)     Software Makes it Easy: These are a saving grace when it comes to designing or re-designing your own home. You can put in your home’s specs onto these software and simply start punching in the details. Add a window here, a skylight there and voila! You’ve got your home ready to go. Don’t like something? They’ve got “undo” for that! If you are planning to design your own home, then don’t even think of starting before you get one of these.

d)    Plans are Pre-Made: There are plenty of websites that sell plans to colonial, Victorian, etc. buildings and homes. All you need to do is adapt them to your own home and you’ve got the style you want in your house. You’ll get a plan made by a professional without actually employing a professional!

e)     Plan get Approved: Most software, which allow you to design your home, automatically correct you when you are violating building codes. As a result, the plan that you finally create will be within the regulations. If not, you can always get a professional to have a look at them for a fraction of the fee.

f)      Inspiration is Overrated: There are so many fantastic magazines and websites out there that are a treasure trove of ideas. Flip through them, cut out the things that you love, do whatever you need to do to mix and match stuff and get the idea. How do you think these great designers get their inspiration? They observe and pick out stuff that they like!

g)    You can be Organized: Finding out what you need and what can help you get that isn’t such a difficult thing to do. So you need a place to put all your children’s toys, somewhere where they can get to them as well? Get a trunk! Want it to match your wooden closets? Get a wooden trunk in the same colour – there! That’s how simple that is. Now just take that principle and apply it to every single thing you want to pick and you’ve got yourself a designer.

h)    You can Visualise: Try and imagine how you’d want your home to look. Close your eyes and walk around it in your mind. See every room, see the colours, the positioning of the objects and every small detail and you’ve got your three-dimensional model in your mind! If that doesn’t work, find an open space and chalk out your home’s dimensions on it. Now walk through it and visualise every single aspect and how you’d like it.

i)      You can Take your Time: There is no per-hour cost and there is no limit to the number of iterations you can make. You don’t like something, just pull it off! Add in something you like and you’re ready to go. There’s no whining about extra work because, at the last moment, you decided to change the floor from marble to mosaic.

j)      You Own the Off Switch: Changed your mind? Don’t have the time to devote to it right now? Shut the system down! There’s no contract binding you or no designer running after you with an invoice for cancellation charges. You are the boss and in your own home, that is how it should be.

Designing a house that you are supposed to live in is something that you must be comfortable with. If you do not like a designer but have already paid for her/him, you are stuck! Instead, choose the better way out and get something that you want instead of something that someone else, who barely knows you, is trying to get into their portfolio!

Matt Pollock is an architectural writer studying demountable homes in QLD Australia, where designing and building your own home is extremely popular.  He is an expert in self-build and home design, having studied styles and techniques around the world.

We may not be aware that the shape of things can have a great influence in our lives. Actually, whether we believe in feng shui or not, we have different feelings when we see different shapes.

Below are some explanations behind the psychological effects of Home shapes on us:
• Straight Lines. Feng shui considers straight lines to be suspect at best and harmful at worst. Few things in nature either look or are, in fact, straight. Even towering upright pines give only the appearance of being perfectly upright, for we can usually perceive some tilting as they rise toward the heavens. Only humans try to build with straight lines.

• Circle. The circle seems to be nature’s shape of choice for some of its most dynamic forms. Life, as we know it, is contained in a circle, and the DNA helix’ but a circular spiral. The circle is merely a curved line whose every point is equidistant from the center.

• Gentle Transition. Roadways and paths help us to set our internal speedometer. Life in the proverbial fast lane leads to burn-out. A super highway filled with speeding cars is country road. As we go from one situation to another, we need “time to change hats.” For example, when an executive comes home after barking orders in his office the whole day, he needs a transition period into the role of a gentle parent or partner. Thus, a curved pathway is needed to reduce the pace by increasing the time required to adapt to a new situation. Trees, flowers or other decorations that surround a path can also help slow our pace.

• Incomplete Shapes. A. house with a room that protrudes from the main shape is unlucky, because the room that is outside the linear unity of a shape is the proverbial fifth wheel. This room’s position outside the heart of the house would keep us from achieving any heartfelt desires.

• Shapes of Furniture. Feng shui does not endorse any particular style of furniture. Personal selections are the result of one’s upbringing. However, it is important that a line’s intrinsic message supports our intentions. While office furniture consists mostly of unrelieved straight lines to imply seriousness of purpose, home furniture should be a harmonious blend of yin and yang. Straight lines are yang or masculine, curved lines are yin or feminine.

• Furniture Arrangement. Symmetry suggests balance and a lack of tension. Asymmetry creates energy and is far more forceful than symmetry. Since a home should emanate peace, we are more likely to feel better if furniture arrangements in our homes appear balanced. Asymmetrical furniture arrangements can be inconvenient. Communicating with a person sitting on the opposite end of an L-shape sofa is awkward.