Research and planning will pay dividends when it comes to your oak framed house design, helping your designer get right to the heart of how you want your new home to look and feel.

Brainstorm ideas for your house design

It’s good to rely on your instinct at the start – what kind of house design catches your eye?

• Self-build and renovating magazines like Build It and Homebuilding & Renovating feature articles, adverts and real life house projects every month including floorplans. Start collating pictures of properties you’re drawn to as well as smaller details like a roof shape, a mix of cladding materials, a window position etc. The magazines have plenty of online content too.
• Pinterest is the perfect platform to store any pictures you find online. You could set up a ‘board’ for exterior photos, one for cladding materials, kitchens, flooring etc. Search for photos through Pinterest or ‘pin’ any photo you find elsewhere and save it to your board. You can share the board with your house designer too.
• Instagram has plenty of activity from self-builders showcasing their self-build journey with photos and anecdotes. You can save inspirational pictures privately to your own account.
• Take photos while you’re out and about. Perhaps there’s something appealing about the porch of a cottage in a local village? Or the brickwork in an old barn you spot while out walking?

 Hone down your ideas

At the start, save pictures of everything that grabs your attention and then sift through them all and see if a pattern begins to emerge. The aim is to give your designer a clear steer rather than a collection of random ideas that could be confusing and misinterpreted.

What don’t you like?

Often it’s useful for a designer to see a few examples of oak framed house designs you don’t like to be assured you understand each other.

Deep dive into oak frame house design

Whether you’re building an extension or starting a whole house from scratch, browse the gallery on our website for inspiration. Our Homes Design Portfolio is useful too, giving you access to a range of off-the-shelf designs with floorplans and elevations so you can visualise how your future home could look. Often customers use this as a place to pick out specific features that later become incorporated into their own bespoke design. Don’t forget you can access and create your own online mood board here, which can be given to our designers in your brief to them.

How will you live in your oak framed house?

As well as practicalities like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, do you want a walk-in wardrobe? A luxurious bathroom with a double shower and a bath? Do you need one or two offices? Could one of them double up as an occasional guest bedroom? Would you like a hobby room/playroom? A second living room? A kitchen with a separate pantry where you can hide the mess?

A good way to visualise your dream oak home is to think about different activities you’ll be doing throughout the day. Here are some ideas:

• Do you want to eat breakfast in a sunny east-facing room or do you want to enjoy evening sunshine at dinner?
• Would a kitchen island encourage sociable gatherings or stop you from eating in the dining room/ at the dining table?
• Is an open plan kitchen-diner too open plan? Do you need another space to go when you want to be quiet?
• A boot room entrance is great for containing muddy footwear and coats. If you’re an outdoors enthusiast, an adjoining shower room could be handy, as might a pet shower if you’ve got a dog.
• Does the home office need to be shielded from the noise and bustle of day to day life?
• Where might you relax with a morning coffee or an afternoon cuppa?
• Where are the views? Would floor to ceiling glazing frame a beautiful view or put you in a goldfish bowl?
• Do the spaces also work in winter when the sun is low and days are short?
• Look to the future. A ground floor en suite bedroom – perhaps with enough space to create a bijou kitchenette later on – could be invaluable for ageing parents or young adult children still living at home.

Put together the design brief for your house design

By now, you should have a collection of inspirational oak house images, perhaps also a shortlist of existing Welsh Oak Frame house designs that interest you. You’ll also have an idea of bedrooms and bathrooms and how you want your home to flow and function. There are some other things to consider in the oak framed house design brief too:

• Energy efficiency – are you interested in solar panels, a ground or air source heat pump, underfloor heating? You don’t need to know a great deal at this stage but this is a useful discussion point with your designer who can advise you
• Orientation – are there special views you want to enjoy in your main living space and your bedroom? Where does the sun travel throughout the day? Is there a less appealing outlook that needs concealing?
• Storage – do you need space to accommodate a hobby with equipment? Built in wardrobes and cupboards?
• Garage – for how many cars? Do you want self-contained accommodation above?
• Include the details of the outline planning consent and a site plan of the plot. There may be design restrictions if the site is in an area of outstanding natural beauty, for example, or more complex if it’s on a steep slope.
• Finally, what’s your budget? Does this include a contingency? A ballpark will give your designer the steer they need to produce a house design to fit your brief and that you can afford to build.

Listen to your designer

Good communication is essential. If your designer is against some of your suggestions, then find out why as they’ll probably have good reason. Don’t forget you’re paying them to add value with ideas that will elevate your final oak framed house design to an outcome that sweeps you away.