Snug NestThe questions people ask on the first call.
Srishti answered 30 of them on camera. Open a question and the answer starts playing, right there in the list. The written version stays on the page underneath it, so you can read instead if that suits you better.
Each answer runs about half a minute.
All 30 questions.
A question that is urgent at slab stage is academic before you own the land.
Move the marker to where your build is up to. The questions that are live for you rise to the top of each group. Nothing gets hidden.
Watch your choices close
Every bar below is one decision about your home. It stands tall while the choice is still yours, and drops as the build closes it off. Tap where your build is up to.
At contract signed, 4 of these are still free to change and 1 is already locked in.
These are our general readings, not a promise about your build. Your builder and your contract decide the real answer, and Srishti will give it to you on the call.
Timing
When a decision is still a decision, and when it stops being one.
Before. Once the layout, the electrical plan and the joinery plan are locked in, changing them becomes expensive and disruptive. The most expensive mistake in a new build can happen before construction even starts.
The earlier the right design decisions get made, the more options you usually have. Early planning lets the design team and the builder coordinate before the work is locked in.
“We'll decide that later” can become one of the most expensive sentences in a custom build, because the decisions are connected to each other.
The cost of a change isn't always as simple as changing one thing. A change can affect more than one part of a project — plans, materials, timelines or other trades.
Construction shouldn't be the stage where you are still working out what your home is supposed to become. The more we resolve early — vision, layouts, electrical, joinery, materials and the key selections — the fewer reactive decisions you are forced to make on site.
No. Design does not stop being important the day construction starts. Questions arise, site conditions evolve, and details still need interpreting.
My builder
Where the builder's job ends and ours starts.
Your builder can execute the home perfectly and you can still end up with a result that doesn't feel like the home you imagined. A builder's job is to build. Our job is to make the interior vision clear enough for everyone to execute it consistently.
A floor plan can make perfect sense to the builder and still not work for the way you live. We look beyond the lines — furniture placement, circulation, storage, natural light, family routines, and how the spaces connect.
We forget how it looks on paper and ask whether it works for the way your family lives — everyday routines, where the kids drop their bags, where everyone gathers, storage, movement, furniture, charging, cooking and privacy.
Your electrical plan quietly decides how functional the home feels every single day. Power points, lighting, appliances, joinery and furniture all affect one another.
You can choose beautiful finishes and still make the home feel wrong with poor lighting. Lighting affects function, mood, artwork, joinery and how the materials appear.
If you choose your kitchen today, the bathrooms next month and the flooring six months later, you can end up designing three different homes.
Money
How budgets actually move on a new build.
Most budget blowouts aren't one giant mistake. They are dozens of decisions made without a clear plan.
A builder's quote is not always the same thing as knowing what your finished home will cost. The complete outcome can include upgrades, decorative lighting, window furnishings, furniture, styling, procurement and other selections.
These are the general answers. Yours depends on what has already been signed.
Bring the floor plan, the quote or the selections sheet you are staring at. Srishti will tell you which of these decisions are still open, which one closes next, and which ones to leave alone.
Free, and there is no obligation.
My time and my control
How involved you stay, and how much you carry.
Working with a designer shouldn't mean losing control of your own home. We run a structured process with clear presentations and approvals at the key milestones.
If your dream home requires you to personally manage hundreds of disconnected decisions, the process starts to feel like a second full-time job.
We carry the design vision from the pre-build phase, get the home completely build-ready, and then stay with you all the way through to post-construction.
Yes. When one person wants warm and classic and the other wants clean and contemporary, we look beneath the labels to understand what each person actually responds to.
Seeing it first
Knowing the design works before anyone builds it.
We use 2D and 3D design, walkthroughs and photorealistic renders to help you understand the spaces before the major decisions are executed.
A render is not there to make the presentation look impressive. It is a decision-making tool.
Saving hundreds of beautiful homes doesn't mean you have a clear design direction. We look at why you saved them — the feeling, the light, the palette, the materials, the details.
A display home can look perfect and still be completely wrong for your family. Display homes are designed to appeal broadly; a custom home should respond specifically to your own routine and lifestyle.
After handover
The layer that turns finished rooms into a finished home.
A completed build and a completed home are not always the same thing. Furniture, window treatments, artwork, accessories and the final styling are what turn completed rooms into a home that feels resolved.
Before you approve a major design decision, imagine living with it five years from now. We separate the permanent decisions from the easy-to-change layers.
Your family will change, and a well-planned home should be able to change with you. We talk about children growing up, working from home, guests, storage, and how the spaces may need to flex over time.
The studio
How we think, and what we look at first.
Look at the laundry. Premium design is not limited to the rooms guests see — it is making the repetitive daily tasks easier through layout, storage, bench space, circulation and practical selections.
A home can look beautiful and still be completely wrong for the family living in it. If the kitchen doesn't suit how you cook, the storage doesn't suit your family, or the lighting doesn't suit how you use a room, the design hasn't really succeeded.
If every room is designed as a separate project, the finished home can feel like ten different ideas under one roof. We establish the whole-home concept first — palette, materials, proportion and design language.
30 answers is a lot to hold in your head.
Read a few, mean to come back to the rest, and then the colour appointment arrives. Take them with you instead.
Some of these land better from someone who has already been through it.
Clients in their own homes, describing what worried them before they started. Each one is talking about their own project, not making a promise about yours.
Client interviewIs a designer really going to save us anything?
“I don't want to burden ourselves with making expensive mistakes.”
New-build client, Officer.
I thought interior design was out of my price range.
“I'd heard about interior designers and decorators, and I just thought it was really out of my budget.”
Renovation and styling client, Bulleen.
I work full time. How much of my time will this take?
“I'm quite time poor.”
Turnkey client, Hampton East.
How will I know the design works before it's built?
“Oh my goodness, my lounge room could actually look like that.”
Renovation client, Hawthorn.
Every answer here came out of a real build.
The laundry that got its bench space. The electrical plan redrawn before rough-in. The floor plan checked against one family's actual morning.
Ask her the one we haven't filmed.
It goes to Srishti, not to a queue. If other families are asking the same thing, she films the answer and sends you the link.
What you opened
Nothing yet. Answers you open collect here, which makes it quick to find the one you wanted to send to your partner or your builder.
Counted in this browser, for this visit. Nothing leaves the page until you send something yourself.
Bring us the decision you are stuck on.
Half an hour with Srishti. Tell her where the build is up to and she will tell you what is still worth changing, and what you should leave alone.
Free, and there is no obligation. It works best before you sign with your builder.
Contract signed. 4 of the ten big decisions are still free to change.
Studio footage, playing without sound.