Since we opted to buy a new build over an existing house, we got to pick out all of the finishes going into the home!
The builder broke ground on our house site only a few days after we signed our contract so we had to act fast and head to the design studio.
We had already picked out our exterior and structural finishes before heading to the design studio, so this visit was for picking things like flooring, kitchen and bathroom cabinets, countertops, and other small finishing touches.
Since we are first time house buyers, we had no clue what to expect at the design studio. I tried to google the types of things we would be looking at and came up short, so we went in with open minds and had a great time!
Our design studio appointment was 4 hours long. When we arrived, the studio was completely empty except for our interior designer, who met us at the door. We had the whole place to ourselves!
Just to clarify, when building a house, it comes with finishes such as cabinets, flooring etc, included in the sales price of the home. These are consider “builder grade” finishes. The purpose of going to the design studio is to see upgrade options. The cost of these upgrades is added to the price of the home that you sign for at closing.
Kitchen Finishes
Our interior designer had us start with the kitchen. One of my favorite parts of a house!
First we looked at the cabinets. Here are the base cabinets that were included with the house.
At first, Kevin and I selected the “Sarsaprilla” color but after seeing countertop and flooring options. We decided to upgrade to white cabinets.
All of the cabinets (kitchen and bathrooms) came with a simple chrome knob. I much prefer pulls, so we upgraded to a brushed nickel pull.
Next we got to look at kitchen countertops. The house came with builder grade granite with a choice of two colors. Granite is nice, but I love quartz countertops. Below were some of the quartz options. We were shown other options too, but we ended up picking the “Snow White” color. I am so excited for our bright white kitchen!
As for the kitchen backsplash, unfortunately the builder had very limited options. We ended up not selecting anything. We will be heading to a local tile store and having it installed in the few weeks after we close. Since we picked white cabinets and countertops, I definitely want a backsplash with a little color and/or texture. Stay tuned!
The last few things we got to pick in the kitchen is the type of sink and the appliances. The appliances came standard as stainless steel so we left those alone. As for the sink, we pick the single bowl!
Bathrooms
Our new house will have 3 and a half bathrooms. The half bath comes standard with a pedestal sink (yuck) and no upgrade options so we will have to swap that out after closing.
As for the other three bathrooms, we got to pick cabinets, countertops, and tile. For all three bathrooms, we decided to go with the builder grade “Sarsaprilla” color cabinets.
White bathroom cabinets would have been nice, but I knew there were other upgrades I wanted more, so we had to pick and choose!
The builder grade granite came standard in the master bathroom, but the other two full baths came standard with that faux plastic marble countertop you see everywhere. We decided to upgrade those to the standard granite. So all three bathroom will have the dark cabinets and “White Pearl” granite.
Another bathroom upgrade is that we decided to do the seamless shower door!
Seamless! 
Seamed
Now for the tile!! Tile is one of my favorite parts of a house! On the floors of every bathroom we upgraded to a 12×24 grey tile. We also put this same tile in the entryway of the house and on the master shower walls (same color but a slightly smaller tile size).
The showers in the other two full baths will being getting your standard 4×4 white tile. We didn’t feel the need to upgrade these showers because the tile will be hidden by a shower curtain.
Here is a look at everything from the bathrooms all put together!
Flooring
Something that was a nice surprise, was that the house came standard with engineered hardwood floor throughout the entire main floor (well and entryway, but we upgraded that to tile). We opted to to just stick with the builder grade floors. We went with the Coffee Bean color (bottom right)!
We did upgraded for both staircases to be hardwood from carpet. The only places there will be carpet is in the basement game room, basement bedroom, master bedroom, and second bedroom.
Here is a look at everything we selected together! From left to right this picture shows the laundry room tile, bathroom selections, carpet, hardwood and kitchen selections!
The last item we got to select at the design studio was metal finishes. The house came standard with chrome finishes and we decided to stick with that. I love brushed metal, but it was crazy expensive (so unnecessary) and we know this isn’t our forever home. So chrome will do for now! And honestly, if we really hate them, we can probably switch them out for cheaper than what the builders offer.
So that was our experience at the design studio! It didn’t take us the full four hours to go through the process. We were probably done in about 2 hours and 45 mins.
Kevin and I are really happy with our selections! We didn’t upgrade everything, we picked and choose our favorites. We also asked the interior designer at the end if there was anything crazy we missed and should considered changing, and she said we did great!
Ps. We just got our closing date! We close on May 27th!! Only a few more weeks!
XOXO, Kaitlyn
