Comments
|
Truehome Design Build
|
Sponsored Content
Pro Spotlight: A Psychological Approach to Deeply Personal Design
A Colorado designer shares his industry-shifting approach to creating a healing home
Sponsored Content
Who: Christopher Travis of Truehome Design Build
Where: Pine, Colorado
In his own words: “We focus on getting to our clients’ subconscious, automatic behaviors. What makes them really happy or really unhappy?”
Christopher Travis, who co-owns Truehome Design Build with his wife, Cheryl, is changing the way we think about home design. “What’s more important, bricks and sticks or the experience you have after you move in?” he asks. Through an in-depth workshop, the Truehome team seeks to understand how its clients react emotionally to their homes, both past and present. It then designs a home that’s uniquely psychologically tailored to the entire family. Read on to learn more about this groundbreaking methodology.
Where: Pine, Colorado
In his own words: “We focus on getting to our clients’ subconscious, automatic behaviors. What makes them really happy or really unhappy?”
Christopher Travis, who co-owns Truehome Design Build with his wife, Cheryl, is changing the way we think about home design. “What’s more important, bricks and sticks or the experience you have after you move in?” he asks. Through an in-depth workshop, the Truehome team seeks to understand how its clients react emotionally to their homes, both past and present. It then designs a home that’s uniquely psychologically tailored to the entire family. Read on to learn more about this groundbreaking methodology.
A new point of view. Travis was raised around old houses. “My mother was a historian, so I began my career in my early 20s as a restoration builder,” he says. After more than a decade working on projects by high-end residential architects as a general contractor, Travis came to believe the residential architecture business was broken. He decided to shift the market himself and brought on architects of record to formalize his own architecture and design business. “Over 20 years ago now, I re-created my practice to focus on the psychological perspective,” Travis says. Now, with the partnership of mental health professionals, he leads his clients through an extensive workshop before design even begins.
A deeply personal design. Travis’ workshop includes guided visualizations and questions that speak to the client’s childhood homes, personal attachments and conscious and unconscious biases. “There’s a great deal of diversity across human beings and each home is a complex system that we’re seeking to understand,” Travis says. “We relate to the whole family, not just the primary decision makers.” The approach pays dividends. “Anecdotally we hear, ‘This home is so exactly us,’ ” Travis says. But they also have the stats. “Every single client who completed the workshop accepted their first round of design,” Travis says. “When you don’t have to go back to the drawing board, you can save substantially on costs.”
Looking to try a new, intuitive approach to home design? Travis shares his process below.
Looking to try a new, intuitive approach to home design? Travis shares his process below.
1. Trust Your Feelings
Travis gives his clients explicit, if unusual, directions, “Don’t think. Just feel,” he says. “We tell our clients to trust their emotions when looking through inspiration photos and ideabooks. What excites them is a keeper. What they react negatively toward is crucial to know.” By learning their clients’ automatic reactions to and relationships with certain spaces, the team can find an architectural style that truly makes them feel well.
For this Bailey home, the Truehome workshop led to several discoveries that had a powerful influence on the design. “We learned about one of the homeowner’s medical challenges, which led us to recommend a primary suite on the main floor,” Travis says. “We also learned that the couple loved their trips to Mexico. It became clear that bringing in Mexican tile, colorful finishes and other artifacts from their travels would create an environment where they felt safe and happy.”
See more of this project
Travis gives his clients explicit, if unusual, directions, “Don’t think. Just feel,” he says. “We tell our clients to trust their emotions when looking through inspiration photos and ideabooks. What excites them is a keeper. What they react negatively toward is crucial to know.” By learning their clients’ automatic reactions to and relationships with certain spaces, the team can find an architectural style that truly makes them feel well.
For this Bailey home, the Truehome workshop led to several discoveries that had a powerful influence on the design. “We learned about one of the homeowner’s medical challenges, which led us to recommend a primary suite on the main floor,” Travis says. “We also learned that the couple loved their trips to Mexico. It became clear that bringing in Mexican tile, colorful finishes and other artifacts from their travels would create an environment where they felt safe and happy.”
See more of this project
2. Engage With Your Biases
A key part of the workshop’s questionnaire is all about biases. “I’ve been in the industry so long that I’ve learned almost everyone comes to a remodeling project with a past bad experience present in their minds,” Travis says. The Truehome team learns its clients’ pain points and triggers so it can work with them in a way that feels safe and protected.
This project in Pine was a distressed fixer-upper in an incredibly beautiful setting. A year-round creek runs under the bridge seen here, then disappears into a large boulder field just past the house. The Truehome team reversed decades of subpar renovations and created a space that takes advantage of the jaw-dropping surroundings. “We scribed a large deck into the granite boulders at the rear of the house and added numerous windows, decks and balconies,” Travis says. A new roof, kitchen, sunroom and parking bridge complete the transformation that makes the space a joy to look at and be in.
See more of this project
A key part of the workshop’s questionnaire is all about biases. “I’ve been in the industry so long that I’ve learned almost everyone comes to a remodeling project with a past bad experience present in their minds,” Travis says. The Truehome team learns its clients’ pain points and triggers so it can work with them in a way that feels safe and protected.
This project in Pine was a distressed fixer-upper in an incredibly beautiful setting. A year-round creek runs under the bridge seen here, then disappears into a large boulder field just past the house. The Truehome team reversed decades of subpar renovations and created a space that takes advantage of the jaw-dropping surroundings. “We scribed a large deck into the granite boulders at the rear of the house and added numerous windows, decks and balconies,” Travis says. A new roof, kitchen, sunroom and parking bridge complete the transformation that makes the space a joy to look at and be in.
See more of this project
3. Consider Your Relationships
Although not something typically considered in design, our relationships naturally impact and are influenced by our homes. One of the Truehome workshop’s key benefits is that it can help reduce relationship friction, whether between a couple or within a family, both during the renovation process and after.
Truehome had designed this Tuscan-inspired Denver-area home several years before the homeowners realized they needed a spacious guest suite for their grandchildren. Travis melded the Tuscan feel beloved by the grandparents with more imaginative and whimsical features for the grandchildren. “Like all Truehome designs, the house was tailored to enhance the well-being and day-to-day emotional experience of our clients,” Travis says. “This playful project was the result.”
See more of this project
More: For more information on Christopher Travis and examples of his work, visit Truehome Design Build’s Houzz profile. And read more about Truehome’s unique workshop in The New York Times.
This story was written by the Houzz Sponsored Content team.
Although not something typically considered in design, our relationships naturally impact and are influenced by our homes. One of the Truehome workshop’s key benefits is that it can help reduce relationship friction, whether between a couple or within a family, both during the renovation process and after.
Truehome had designed this Tuscan-inspired Denver-area home several years before the homeowners realized they needed a spacious guest suite for their grandchildren. Travis melded the Tuscan feel beloved by the grandparents with more imaginative and whimsical features for the grandchildren. “Like all Truehome designs, the house was tailored to enhance the well-being and day-to-day emotional experience of our clients,” Travis says. “This playful project was the result.”
See more of this project
More: For more information on Christopher Travis and examples of his work, visit Truehome Design Build’s Houzz profile. And read more about Truehome’s unique workshop in The New York Times.
This story was written by the Houzz Sponsored Content team.
Do you want your own vision of a perfect home to guide your design, or would you rather surrender to the tastes... Read More
Review by HU-706465:
Chris's unique interview process was instrumental in helping us to realize our "dream" house. The whole design/build package was truly outstanding.
His years of experience and attention to detail we...More