Furnishing a new build in North Dallas

What should you decide before you close?

If the house is still being built, this is where the leverage is. Everything on this list is inexpensive during construction and either expensive or impossible afterwards.

• Electrical. Outlet and switch positions against a furniture plan rather than against convention. Floor outlets where a seating group will float. A switched outlet for lamps.
• Blocking in walls for televisions, floating shelves, mirrors, towel bars, drapery hardware and future grab bars — see aging-in-place design.
• Structured wiring and data to the places you will actually work and watch.
• Plumbing rough-in for a future bar or prep sink, even if the joinery comes later. On a slab, this is the difference between a future project and a non-starter.
• Lighting positions against the furniture plan, plus sconce boxes and pendant locations centered on where the table will actually sit.
• Drapery pockets or blocking above windows, so hardware can hang high and wide later.
• Ceiling detail — beams, coffers or a tray — which is drywall work now and demolition later.
• Gas line to the patio, and power and water for outdoor space you may not build for three years.

Which upgrades are worth it?

The principle: pay the builder for what is behind the walls and for what would require demolition to change. Buy the visible, swappable things yourself.

Two-story rooms and the scale problem

Double-height entries and family rooms are common in newer North Dallas houses, and they are the hardest rooms to furnish well.

• Size fixtures to the volume, not the floor plan. A chandelier chosen from a plan looks lost once hung. Larger than feels right on paper is usually correct.
• Use the upper wall. Tall art, a large mirror, a stair gallery. A blank two-story wall makes the room read as a stairwell — see entry and foyer design.
• Drapery to the full height where the windows are two-story, or the glass dominates the room.
• Anchor the floor with a large rug, and keep the seating group tight so the room has a center at human scale.
• Add light at 30 inches. Lamps are what stop a double-height room feeling like a lobby.
• Acoustics. Big volume plus hard surfaces equals echo. Rugs, lined drapery and upholstery do the work.
• Plan maintenance. How will that fixture be cleaned and relamped, and how will the high windows be covered and cleaned?

What makes a new house feel finished

The gap between a new house and a finished one is consistent and fixable:

1. Window treatments. The single biggest change available. Bare windows are the defining look of a new house. Hang high and wide — see the window treatments guide.
2. Lighting that is not only recessed. Table lamps, sconces, a real fixture over the table. Everything dimmed, everything 2700K — see the lighting design guide.
3. Millwork. One wall of built-in joinery, a paneled entry or a proper trim upgrade gives a builder-grade house architecture it did not have — see paneling, ceilings and trim.
4. Rugs, correctly sized. New houses often have continuous hard flooring and nothing to define zones within it.
5. Paint that is not the builder’s neutral. Not necessarily strong color — a considered neutral with the trim resolved reads completely differently.
6. Art, at the right scale and height. Centered at 57 to 60 inches, sized to the wall.
7. Hardware. Cabinet pulls and door hardware are inexpensive to swap and change how a house feels to touch.

The order to furnish in

1. The furniture plan, before anything is bought.
2. Rugs, which set the size of each seating group.
3. Seating, ordered early because custom upholstery has the longest lead time — see furniture lead times.
4. Case goods and tables, sized to the seating.
5. Window treatments, which take as long as the furniture and are always underestimated.
6. Lighting, fixtures and lamps together.
7. Paint, matched to everything above.
8. Art and accessories, last, and over time.

Resist the urge to fill the house in the first month. A room furnished in a single weekend looks it, and the pieces bought in a hurry are the ones replaced within three years.

What to do later, deliberately

• Live in it through one full year before making structural changes. Light, heat and how you actually use the rooms all shift with the seasons.
• Keep a list. Every irritation you notice in the first year is a brief for the second.
• Millwork is the best second-year project. Built-ins, a paneled wall, a mudroom fit-out — all high-impact and none disruptive to the whole house.
• Outdoor space is usually the largest remaining gain, particularly if you had gas, power and water run during construction — see outdoor living spaces in Dallas.
• Do not repaint immediately. Live with the light in each room first, then choose — see choosing paint colors.

Jan Revels

ASID Allied Professional Interior Designer · Chateau Concepts, Dallas

Jan has practiced interior design in Dallas since 1997 and founded Chateau Concepts in 2001. She holds a BFA in Interior Design from the University of North Texas. She designs and general-contracts residential and commercial projects across the Park Cities, Preston Hollow and North Dallas. Read her full profile →

Written and reviewed by Jan Revels before publication