I hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend! Ours was spent hanging out at the lakes and parks, with friends and neighbors, watching and lighting fireworks, and a quick stop to the house to see the latest build progress… sheetrock! Also, our build page on IG hit 1000 followers over the weekend! Thanks for following along this crazy fun build journey.
Today, I’m sharing all of our selections we’ve chosen for our home since we are nearing the stage where all the fun interior design elements begin to come to life.
Selections… builder speak for choices a client makes to the way the home will look when it’s finished. This includes important decisions such as what kind of appliances, plumbing fixtures and flooring the home will have, the color of the paint, cabinets, countertops, light fixtures, doors, etc. The selections process has been fun as we’ve worked with different vendor partners who have helped through the process. Most of the design decisions are made during this process.
Here’s a timeline and a roundup of our selections process from start to finish:
Flooring and Tile Selections
Started: September 12, 2020
Finalized/Ordered: May 4, 2021
When it came to choosing the flooring for our new home, we were so excited to get the chance to use some of our favorite materials. We worked with Oakline Floors in Fort Worth for our flooring and tile selections.
Left: White Oak Hardwood Floors throughout | Right: Bluestone Slate for the Master Bathroom Floor with Alabaster grout
Handscraped white oak hardwoods with water-based poly stain
Flooring and tile was a long process for me to finalize. Even after visiting the showroom, I took my time doing most of my own research, sourcing, viewing samples, and creating mood boards until I found the right materials as the showroom didn’t have certain flooring materials I was looking for. Ultimately, we carried our wood throughout the entire main floor and upper floor. The mudroom, laundry room, and master bathroom will have natural stone, and we’ll have tile in the kids, guest, and pool bathroom.
Left: Slate floors for the mudroom and laundry room with black shadow grout for less contrast | Right: White oak to the kitchen and main floor
For the mudroom and laundry room, we chose a herringbone pattern and I can’t wait to see it laid out! I love the look of herringbone because it adds so much character and creates some varied texture.
In our kids’ bedrooms, we chose low-pile carpet from Anderson Tuftex in the style Dynasty and in the color “Marble Dust”. We love that it’s low-pile but still so soft!
Tile
I’ve always loved the look of penny rounds so I made sure to incorporate these in the kids bathroom and pool bath for a fun design element.
Penny rounds in the kids’ and pool bath
Mini hex tiles with capestone grout and white subway tile with bright white grout in the Guest Bathroom
Lastly for tile, I’m most excited about our zellige tile for the kitchen backsplash behind the gas range. I’ve always loved the natural, hand forged glazed, imperfect edges of zellige tile as no two tiles are the same. Our flooring rep was able to source the exact tile samples for me and I’m so happy they could order it for our build! We went with the snow color for a brighter look. The natural color is beautiful too, but I definitely wanted to go with the brighter backsplash in the kitchen.
Zellige tile inspirations
Appliance Selections
Started: October 20, 2020
Finalized/Ordered: October 28, 2020
It took me only one week to choose our appliances. I think with appliances, it’s a little easier to make those selections as there aren’t as many options and little details involved. For example, there are only a few refrigerators within a price range that are panel-ready and a few commercial grade gas ranges and stoves within a certain price range, whereas with plumbing fixtures, paint, and hardware there are dozens of styles and finishes to choose from. I knew before we even started our home building process that we would have panel ready appliances, specifically for the refrigerator and dishwasher. Our cabinet designer will be installing the custom panels when the cabinets go in and the hardware will be brass to match the rest of our kitchen hardware.
Our one splurge appliance for the kitchen that I am most excited about is the Ilve range. The range is a dream. I cannot wait to see it installed and to cook on it! We love to cook at home, so a commercial grade gas stove has always been a priority in our homes. I chose the Nostalgie series in the stainless steel finish with brass knobs which will match our brass hardware in the kitchen.
Plumbing Selections
Started: October 23, 2020
Finalized/Ordered: December 31, 2020
The plumbing fixtures were among the earlier selections I needed to make since the rough-in plumbing and drain is installed at the very beginning of the build process, before the foundation is poured.
It took me two months and one week to decide on all the plumbing fixtures, and on New Years Eve, December 31, 2020 I emailed our pluming rep that we were ready to approve the quotes. I think plumbing selections may have been the most challenging for me as our plumbing allowance from our builder was limited, and I knew right away that many items I loved would exceed the plumbing allowance. We were prepared to pay cash for some out of pocket items that we knew we wanted to have in our home, so going back and forth with other options, pricing, and crunching numbers took some time.
Plumbing fixtures include important items such as sinks, faucets, bathtubs, toilets, basically anything that uses water is part of your plumbing.
Building Tip: research your own model numbers, finishes, sizes, and pricing, then submit that list to your plumbing rep for their builder pricing. This can save a lot of time and eliminate a lot of back and forth with the rep when making selections.
On our kitchen plumbing must have list were 1. a Shaws farmhouse sink for the kitchen and 2. a cast iron claw foot tub for the master bathroom. Those two items were non-negotiables, so I had to find other areas and items to save money on.
I debated long and hard on whether to add my dream faucet for the kitchen sink, and when I learned that prices would be increasing for all Waterstone fixtures as of January 1, 2021, I bit the bullet and had our plumbing rep order the faucet.
Here are our final kitchen plumbing selections and actual kitchen plumbing fixtures and finishes I chose, all unlacquered brass, with the exception of the pot filler in a polished nickel. I loved mixing this one up, and since polished nickel has warm tones, it works well with brass. Actual items are linked below!
The secondary bathrooms’ main finish is matte black (Kids’ bath, guest bath, power room, laundry room).
For the Master Bathroom Plumbing Selections, I went with all polished nickel for the faucets and clawfoot tub feet.
Hardware Selections
Started: December 16, 2020
Finalized: July 7, 2021
I wanted a mix of hardware throughout the kitchen, and I was excited to learn that our builder’s hardware partner is Rick’s Hardware in Granbury. I’ve worked with Rick’s hardware on our previous home and they have always provided great customer service and carry the best hard-to-find hardware styles in a variety of finishes. They carry Emtek which is a brand I love most for door hardware. They also carry Alno which has this beautiful unlacquered brass knob that is such a heavyweight, I just love it. So for our kitchen we did knobs, cup-holds, latches, and long appliance pulls on our integrated refrigerator and dishwasher.
Secondary Bathrooms (guest, kids, powder), Laundry and Mudroom
For the laundry room, the kids bathroom, the guest bath, and the pool bath, we went with matte black hardware in a mix of cup-holds, knobs and pulls.
For the master bathroom, we went with polished nickel hardware in cabinet knobs, towel hooks and a shower handle to match the faucets.
I truly love cabinet and door hardware and consider it as jewelry and accessories for the home!
In the next blog post, I’ll be sharing our lighting selections.
What have been your favorite selections for your home? What selections did you struggle with? Tell me in the comments below!