When you’re preparing to work with a pro on a home project, by gathering inspiration and assessing your likes and dislikes, you will be better armed to have those crucial conversations with your designer.

Make a Love List and a Not-for-Me List

You may have already heard that it’s a good idea to gather images and ideas of things you love when you’re preparing to meet with a designer — and we will examine that in more detail next.

But have you considered making a list of the things you don’t like? Perhaps surprisingly, those dislikes can be just as important.

Get Visual

Designers’ work is highly visual, so it makes sense that the best way to communicate your likes and dislikes is through images. You can point to a photo and say, “I love this,” or “I really don’t like this look,” you and your design pro can quickly get on the same page.

Include Images That Directly Relate to Your Project

A good place to start collecting images for your likes and dislikes lists is with examples of the specific type of project you’re planning.

If you’ll be working with a landscape designer or landscape architect, for instance, search for photos of landscapes.If you’re redesigning your kitchen, search for kitchen photos. And so on.

But Include Some Less On-Topic Photos Too

Don’t be afraid to include a few images that don’t directly relate to the type of project but are nevertheless a good example of a specific style you love — or hate, as the case may be.

Lifestyle, food and garden images can be wonderful examples of colour palettes and can give your design pro a better handle on your overall style than project photos alone.

Practice Being Picky

When you first start filling your ideas books with photos, allow yourself free rein to choose as many photos as you want. Have fun with it! But when you’re ready to go back in for a second look, it’s time to get picky.

Aim to narrow down each list to the top 10 to 20 best examples.

Not only will this give your design pro a more manageable number of images to examine, but it will give you practice making design-related choices. The more you flex that design muscle, the easier it will be to talk about your likes and dislikes.

Get Specific

Being able to point to an image you love or hate is helpful, but confusion and miscommunications can still arise if you don’t specify exactly what it is about the space that you like or don’t like.

You might be thinking about the colour palette, but your designer might focus on the furniture style — and they won’t know if you don’t tell them!

Use the following checklists as a guide, and see how many you can include in your own lists.

‘Love List’ Checklist:

1.    Favourite colour or colours

2.    Colour palette or combination of colours that appeals to you

3.    Furniture you love

4.    A room where you love the mood or general vibe

5.    If you’re looking at architecture, a house or overall space that appeals to you

6.    If you’re looking at landscapes, a complete yard that captures the general feeling you’re after

7.    Specific features you definitely want to include

‘Not-for-Me List’ Checklist:

1.    Specific colours or shades of colours that you have a strong aversion to

2.    Motifs or finishes that are not your cup of tea

3.    Pet peeves

4.    Colour combinations that you do not enjoy together

5.    A room where you do not like the overall mood or vibe

Play Name-That-Style

Take one more look over your love list and see if you notice a theme. Is there one clear style taking the lead?

There’s no right or wrong answer here, but if you do notice a trend emerging, that could be a good starting place for your initial conversations with your design pro.

Still Stumped?

If you’ve gotten this far, you deserve a huge pat on the back. It’s not easy to pin down your style — and remember, you don’t have to completely nail it.

Your design pro is there to walk you through this process. But the more thought you have put in on the front end, the easier it will be for you and your designer to have a fruitful working relationship.

To that end, if you’ve gone through these exercises and are still having trouble figuring out your style, you might want to think laterally: Are there any restaurants, brands or shops that exemplify your loves and hates?

As long as the places you’ve chosen are ones your designer is familiar with (or can easily find images of), this can be a helpful addition to your style information.

Trust Your Designer

Finally, remember that although it is important to be able to communicate your preferences to your designer, it’s equally important once you’ve made your initial thoughts and feelings clear to step back and trust your designer to come up with some creative ideas that you would never have thought of on your own.

Will they all be things you love? Perhaps not, and you can always work to get to a place you love. But then again, you might just surprise yourself by loving something you never thought you would, thanks to your designer’s vision.

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This article via Houzz does not constitute advice; readers should seek independent and personalised counsel from a trusted adviser that specialises in property, a tax accountant and property design specialist.