Building a new home brings with it a long list of decisions, including floorplan, elevation style, kitchen finishes, and bathroom tiles. It’s easy to get swept up in the exciting stuff. But one of the most practical things you can do before you finalise your design is also one of the least talked about: getting out the tape measure and sizing up what you already own.
It sounds simple, and it is. But the number of homeowners who move into a beautiful new build only to discover the TV point is behind the entertainment unit, or there’s no power point on the right side of the bed, is higher than you’d think. The good news is that with a little preparation before your design is locked in, every single one of those frustrations is completely avoidable.
The pre-construction design phase is a genuinely special window. It’s the one moment in the entire building journey where changes are straightforward and, depending on where you are in the process, often cost nothing at all. Once framing begins and walls go up, moving a power point or adding a data outlet means cutting into finished work, and that comes with a price tag.
This is why we always encourage our clients to think carefully about the building process and what decisions need to be made at each stage. Your builder’s design team can position power points, USB charging outlets, TV connections, and data points precisely where you need them, but only if you can tell them where things will actually live. That information starts with knowing the dimensions of what you’re bringing.
Grab a tape measure and start with the furniture you know you’re keeping. The couch and entertainment unit are a great place to begin. The position and height of your TV wall point should be determined by where your screen will sit, not the other way around. A point placed too low ends up behind a cabinet; too high and every wall-mount job becomes a cord-management headache.
Move through to the bedrooms. Measure your bed frame and factor in your bedside tables. Ideally, you want a double power point within easy reach on each side of the bed, positioned so it’s accessible without crawling behind the headboard. If you’re setting up a home office, note the depth of your desk and where your monitor, laptop, and router will sit, then think about whether a dedicated data point and a cluster of power outlets in the right spot would save you from a tangle of cables across the floor.
We love it when clients come to us with this kind of detail. It makes for a genuinely better home, and it’s the sort of thinking that separates a design that looks great on paper from one that works beautifully every single day.
For your washing machine and dryer; if you have a preference for side-by-side versus stacked, that affects where connections need to go. A plumbed-in fridge, a coffee machine with a dedicated bench position, and a dishwasher each have practical implications that are worth raising before your plans are finalised.
It’s worth knowing that electrical planning in Australian new builds is governed by the AS/NZS 3000 Wiring Rules, which set the minimum requirements for safe residential electrical installations. The HIA has a useful overview of what these standards cover in practice. Your builder will make sure everything meets code, but beyond the minimum requirements is where your personalisation lives, and that’s entirely in your hands.
Once you’ve worked through the furniture and appliances, take a step back and think about your daily routines. Do you charge your phone and tablet at the kitchen bench every evening? A USB outlet built into the splashback area costs very little to include at the design stage and saves a power board permanently taking up bench space. Do you work from the dining table a few mornings a week? A data point nearby could make a real difference. Is there a gaming setup going into one of the kids’ rooms, or a wall-mounted TV planned for the alfresco?
These are the questions worth asking yourself before your design is locked in. If you’d like to see how thoughtful power point and data outlet placement feels in a real space, visiting one of our display homes is a great way to get a sense of it, and if you’re thinking about your entertaining spaces specifically, our guide to design choices for entertaining covers alfresco and open-plan living in more detail.
By the time you sit down with your Prestart consultant, or step into our Style Studio to work through your selections, aim to have a written list of every significant piece of furniture and appliance you’re keeping, along with their measurements. Work through it room by room. Note where each piece will sit, what it needs to plug in, and whether it needs a data connection. It doesn’t need to be complicated; even a simple room-by-room list on your phone will do.
A good builder will welcome this level of preparation. It’s one of the most effective things you can do to make sure the home you move into is the one you imagined, not a version that requires workarounds. If you’re still exploring floorplans, our home designs are a great place to start thinking about how your furniture and lifestyle will fit within each layout.
The best new homes aren’t just the ones that photograph beautifully; they’re the ones that work for the way a family actually lives. Taking an hour to measure your furniture and think through your daily routines before you finalise your plans is a small investment that pays off every single day you spend in your new home. If you have any questions about what to consider during your design phase, we’d love to hear from you.
