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Feature/How Atlanta Stacks Up

Design Centers

Design Centers Take Off in Atlanta


By Nicole Richardson-Smith

Gone are the days when you purchased a new home with the appliances, flooring, carpeting and wall colors already chosen for you. Now, more and more Atlanta builders are offering homebuyers the option of customizing the products for their new home before they ever move in.

“For such a long time, only custom built homes allowed buyers to make decisions about the interior and exterior of the home, but now with design centers, homebuyers can come in and structure their new home themselves,” explains Rachel Schmidt, design center manager at D.R. Horton Homes.

Considered one-stop shopping, design centers feature endless creative choices in home design products like flooring, cabinetry, paint, carpeting, custom extras, and even home entertainment equipment. Within the design centers, the showrooms highlight the newest trends, and workstations allow for homebuyers to consult with design associates to create their dream house.

“Design centers offer convenience all under one roof,” says Lauren Colley, director of John Wieland Designs. “Before design centers, homebuyers would have to go to vendors all over town to pick out products for their home. Now they can go to one place and make all the decisions while also having the benefit of a design professional to guide them.”


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