The early stages of working with a professional designer and creating a brief are key for a successful home extension.

“The brief is all about empowering the client,” said architect Scot Masker, director of Pro Vision. “The client is in control and to get the best out of their hired design professional they need to be clear about their aims, aspirations and practical requirements, including budgetary.”

All this can be communicated in a really good design brief. Remember you only need to express your wishes and set the parameters; not to find the solutions. That’s the job of highly trained design professionals.

The following should be near the top of your brief:

1. Your budget: how much do you want to spend on the project? You and your architect could spend many meetings sketching and dreaming beautiful extensions, but ultimately the biggest factor determining the scale and quality of build is your budget. Figure out how much you can realistically afford to spend at the very start  In addition to the build cost, factor in the professional fees (architect, surveyor, structural engineer), planning and other costs, including VAT. Its’s a good idea to have a contingency fund of about 5-10% of your construction budget to cover any unexpected costs.
2. Existing property: Before an architect can sketch up even the roughest of concepts, they need information on your existing property. Initially, some of this can be gleaned from estate agent details, for example floorplans, internal and external photos as well as surveyor reports. The measurements aren’t accurate enough for building purposes, so a measured survey drawn to scale will be needed at a later stage. A site visit will also be necessary for your architect to understand the context – the surrounding buildings, slope of the land and trees.
3. ​The planning situation: Do you already have planning permission and if so, for what? Is the site in a specially protected area, such as a conservation area, and are there any other specific restrictions?  For example, is it a listed building?

How do you want to live?

Now for the fun part – your wish list. What are your aims? Think about how you want to live in your newly extended house. One way to do this is to list the key experiences that you’re aiming for. This will vary for everyone, but might include, for example, entertaining, working from home, being in the kitchen cooking while you chat to friends or supervise your kids’ homework or having a leisurely Saturday morning coffee, enjoying views of the garden.

Are there any areas you would like to be more private than others, for example a study? Do you have hobbies that require lots of storage space or pets that need to be accommodated? An architect needs to understand your lifestyle to design the kind of spaces that will enhance it.

What are your reasons for embarking on this project?

What is missing in your current home and what would you like to change? What do you hope to achieve by this project – extra living space, more daylight, variety of uses, greater functionality? Do you like the existing layout or want to change it, for example, have a south facing kitchen? How many people will be living in the house? Do you foresee any new additions, such as children or grandparents?

Ask yourself the following:

• The kitchen – Is the kitchen the heart of your home? Do you want a large, family-style kitchen-diner or a separate dining room or (if you have space) both? What about a utility or boot room?
• Reception rooms –Where will you sit down and relax, watch TV, entertain friends?
• Other spaces – Your extension might include a home office, TV snug, cinema room, wine room, library or a playroom.
• Number of bedrooms and en suites – Do you need extra bedrooms because you have a young, growing family.  Or would you like a large master suite because your kids have grown up and left home. 
• Entrances – Do you want to be able to enter the house from the rear garden? Is a spacious front hallway important?
• Outside space – how much time do you spend outdoors? Do you have any specific plans for the outside areas, for example a new terrace or planting scheme the architect needs to know about?
• Link with outside space – Don’t forget to think about how your new extension will link with views of the outside, not just your garden but also the surroundings.

Design style

You probably have strong ideas about how you want the extension to look internally and externally. This might include, for example, if the new extension should blend seamlessly with your existing property or contrast as a bold, modern addition. What is your taste in interior décor – traditional or contemporary? Are you keen on an eco-friendly or sustainable design?

All this needs to be included in the design brief. Are there any specific materials that you would like to see included in the project? It can be helpful to put together a few pictures of projects you like with notes to clarify. Try not to be too prescriptive.

What are your must-haves and nice-to haves?

Your wish list written, it’s a good idea to divide it into the must-haves and the nice-to-have.  Are there any design features that are especially important to you and your family? If you have set your heart on a large, walkaround island in the centre of your kitchen or a wood burner in the TV snug, put it in the brief. Meanwhile, the nice-to-haves are the icing on the cake, if there’s money left over in the budget. For example, marble worktops.

It is a good idea to ask your architect to help you write your brief and then let them do their stuff.  With the help of a comprehensive brief that describes your requirements and tastes, a talented designer should add huge amounts of extra value to your project within the constraints of planning policy and the site.

This is the creativity and skill that should exceed your expectations and make you go “wow” - rather than simply redrawing what you already had in your head.

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