Your ideas, drawn for you
Bring them as words, photos, or a sketch on the back of an envelope. Talor turns them into a drafted floor plan, with an architect's eye on proportion, flow, and light.
Guided home design sessions
Design your own home, with an architect beside you
You bring the ideas and the life you want to live there. Talor Stewart, Licensed Architect, guides you through the early planning at a pace that suits you, one-on-one or in a small group, and turns what you shape together into a drafted concept floor plan.
Your vision, heard from the first conversation. Your ideas, drawn for you.
Call, email, or send a note, whatever is easiest right now.
#1 bestselling authorin 8 countries
50+ interviewsradio, TV, and podcast
Readers across 6 continentsfor Conscious Home Design
Conscious Home Design is held in more than a dozen university and college libraries.
For your life
For people who want a creative hand in their own home
You have a picture of the life you want to live there. How the morning starts. Where the people you call family gather. The room for the thing you love, ready when you are.
You would like to help shape the plan itself, with an expert guiding the way. This is that: your ideas at the center, an architect's expertise around them, and a real say in the design from the very first step.
A real say in the design
Your priorities set the direction. Every choice in the plan traces back to something you said matters.
Heard from the start
The first conversations are about your life, well before walls or square footage. Architecture that listens begins there.
Your guide through the vision
An architect's guidance, from the first question to the final line
Talor does all the drawing, turning your ideas into a drafted floor plan. The larger part of his work comes before the drawing: helping you shape and clarify the vision, asking the questions that bring the whole picture into view, and catching what you did not think to say.
That guidance is where an architect's experience does the most for you. Give the conversation room to go beyond room counts and finishes, into how you live and where you are headed, and the design has more to work with. The more room you give it, the more your home can do.
What you walk away with
Your concept floor plan, drawn around your life
At the end, you hold a floor plan drafted by an architect from your own ideas, and the thinking behind every line of it.
The concept plan is where the design starts. From there it develops into full design options, then the construction drawings a builder builds from.
How it's delivered: done together. You shape the vision with Talor's guidance, session by session. Talor draws the plan.
Your concept floor plan
The layout of your home, the relative size of each room, and how the rooms sit together, drawn around your own daily flow.
Your HomePrint™
The document every design decision answers to: the life the home is for, your wishlist, and your priorities in order.
A walkthrough with Talor
A private review of the plan: what it answers, where it is strongest, and what makes sense as the next step in your design.
How it works
How designing your own home with an architect works
Four stages, guided the whole way. You talk first, and the design responds.
- 01
Discovery
Easy questions about everyday life: how your days run, what you love to do, who shares the home with you, and where you are headed. Talor asks, listens, and helps you tell the story of the life ahead.
- 02
Documentation
Together you turn that story into what the home has to do: the activities it supports, which rooms belong near each other, where the light matters most. It is all written into your HomePrint™.
- 03
Translation
Talor draws your concept floor plan from everything you have shaped together, with an architect's eye on proportion, flow, and light.
- 04
Review
You walk through the plan together: what it answers, where it is strongest, and where your design goes next.
80%of the results are shaped by the early planning, before the design drawings begin.
Your voice, early
The early planning is where your voice matters most
So much of what makes a home fit is decided before anyone draws a line: where the kitchen meets the morning sun, which rooms sit side by side, how much space each person has to themselves.
That early planning shapes about 80% of the results. It is also the stage where the people who will live in the home know the most. So that is where this puts you: at the table, from the start.
Pace and format
At your own pace, in the format that fits
Go at the pace that suits you. The format follows it.
A focused weekend
The whole process in a few immersive days, with the full picture held in view from start to finish.
Bite-sized sessions
Shorter sessions spread over about a month, with time in between to notice how you live and let ideas settle.
One-on-one
Private sessions with Talor, paced around you and the people you are planning the home with.
Small group
A few people, each designing their own home, working through the same questions side by side. Ideas travel around the table.
In person
Face to face at the drawing table, with plans, sketches, and ideas spread out between you.
Online
By video, from wherever you are. So much of the early design happens in conversation that it travels well.
Pace, format, schedule, and pricing are shaped around what fits you and your project. Talor walks through the options on a free 30-minute consultation.
Your style, whatever it is
Farmhouse, modern, cottage, craftsman, or something all your own. The approach stays constant, the style is yours, and it works at any size.
In clients' words
“You showed us what we really needed when we only thought we knew.”Will and Marsha, forever home
“If we had just said ‘what do you want in a house,’ it would not have been so detailed… we discovered things we didn't even realize to talk about in it.”Shelby
Your guide
Your guide, Talor Stewart
Talor Stewart is a Licensed Architect, the author of the bestselling book Conscious Home Design, and the creator of the Conscious Home Design Method™.
His work in residential design and building spans more than 25 years, and he works with clients all across the country.
His method places what a century of the science of human excellence has established at the center of home design, and ties every piece of it back to layout, light, and how the rooms and the people in them connect. The sessions follow that same approach, so what you shape together is ready to carry forward into full design.
More about TalorQuestions answered
Questions about designing your own home
Do I need design or drawing experience?
Bring your ideas in whatever form they come: words, photos, a sketch on the back of an envelope, a list of what you love about homes you have known. Talor does the drawing. You shape what the drawing answers to.
How much say will I have in the design?
A real one, from the first conversation. The sessions start with your life and your priorities, and every decision in the concept plan traces back to something you shaped. Talor brings an architect's expertise and guidance; the vision stays yours.
What is Talor's role in the sessions?
Two things. Talor does all the drawing, turning your ideas into a drafted floor plan. Before and alongside that, he guides the vision itself: asking the questions that bring the whole picture into view, catching what you did not think to say, and bringing an architect's experience to every choice. The more room you give that guidance, the more the design can do for you.
Do I need land before I start?
You can begin before you have a site. Rooms are planned around the people and activities they serve, so much of the early work can move ahead now, and it often clarifies what to look for in a property. When a site is chosen, the plan is fitted to its light, views, and slope.
Should I have everything figured out first?
Most people arrive with a head full of ideas and a few open questions. That is the right place to begin. The sessions are where those ideas come together into something you can build on.
What exactly is a concept floor plan?
A drawing of your home's layout: the rooms, their relative sizes, and how they connect and flow. It is the first design, drawn around your daily life, and the starting point for the full design that follows. Construction drawings for permits and pricing come later, in a separate stage.
Can the sessions be done online?
Yes. Sessions can happen by video from wherever you are, or in person, and at the pace that suits you: a focused weekend or shorter sessions spread over about a month.
What does it cost, and how long does it take?
It depends on the pace and format you choose, a focused weekend or shorter sessions over about a month, in person or online, and on your project. Talor walks through prices, timelines, and scheduling on a free 30-minute consultation, and lays out the path from where you are.
What happens after I have my concept plan?
The concept develops into full design options, then the construction drawings a builder builds from, then the build itself. Talor can guide you through each of those stages whenever you are ready.
Let's create the best home of your life.
Get your questions answered
Bring your questions. Where to start. What comes first. What it costs and how long it takes. Talor answers them, then lays out the path from where you are, with the steps in order, prices, and timelines.
Free. Thirty minutes. With a Licensed Architect.Discuss Your ProjectCall, email, or send a note, whatever is easiest right now.
What to expect: we'll explore what you're looking to do. Talor answers your questions and asks clarifying ones as needed. By the end, you know what the next steps are.