The best part about building a new custom Florida home is the opportunity to make it truly yours.
If you build with us at ICI Homes, you’ll have the opportunity to tweak the floor plan that you select to fit your household’s lifestyle (customization is one of our hallmarks; click here for more on that).
But, one of the most fun things — we said fun, because it is — about building a new home is making it look like your home.
We don’t select your paint colors, flooring and cabinet styles. You do! And those are only three of the items you’ll choose when you visit our ICI Homes Design Center.
If you’ve had a home built for you, you kinda know where we’re going (and we still want you to follow along). But, in the words of design center consultant Janna Pettegrew, “If you haven’t built a home before, there are a lot of things to think about.”
Allow us to give you a taste.
What the design center is
The ICI Homes Design Center is where you choose, with the aid of experienced professionals such as Pettegrew, all the interior flourishes that will distinguish your new home from those of your neighbors. Or, your home from anyone else’s on the planet.
It’s a pleasant, well-lit studio environment stocked with all the flooring, hardware, cabinetry and paint samples that you can imagine. More than you probably can imagine, actually. Among the items you’ll see are kitchen and bathroom cabinetry mock-ups that illustrate what various materials and finishes look like in real life — giant farm sinks, anyone? Jet-black kitchen cabinets? Cool!
What the design center isn’t
For those of you who hear the word “design” and get the shakes — don’t! We promise you won’t be a total fish out of water, even if such topics aren’t your thing.
Visiting the ICI Homes Design Center isn’t like attending an obligatory class. It’s not an interior-design seminar where you’ll have to listen to someone like Pettegrew lecture, before you select your carpet.
Our consultants are there to help, not teach. They want customers to enjoy stress-free, relaxed and yes, even enjoyable design sessions.
You can help them and yourself by not dreading it. Don’t approach it as a hurried, I-want-that-that-and-that experience. Design sessions simply aren’t something to be marginalized or avoided if you build a home with us. We need your full participation because we want you to be happy with, and proud of, your new home.
Think of it as laboratory where you can experiment to your heart’s content. Just arrive with an open mind, perhaps a favorite snack, and the attitude that you’re seeking the final pieces to your new home’s puzzle.
“Have fun with it,” Pettegrew says. “Come in with a clear mind and just remember we’re here to help you and to guide you. We’re here to help you chose things that look good.”
