Virtual Decorating
Home is where the mouse is, at least when it comes to virtual home remodeling. Your computer can be a great tool when it comes to remodeling or redecorating your house.
Several brands of software -- and even a couple of Web sites -- can help your visualize the future of your kitchen or bathroom before you touch a fabric swatch.
"I think they're great," says Kurt Carlson, senior editor of Home P.C. magazine, of remodeling software. "I think they're a huge time and money saver. I've remodeled a bathroom using them. I went through the, 'Let's go down to the hardware store and bring back four books full of wallpaper samples.' And the 'Let's go down to Home Depot and wander around for two hours looking at sinks.' But with these things, it's just so much clearer."
In the world of virtual home interiors, the only tool you need in addition to your personal computer is a tape measure. Once you know the dimensions of the room you want to remodel, you're ready to go.
Carlson cites Autodesk's Picture This Home!, Broderbund's 3-D Home Interiors, and Sierra's Visual Home as the main contenders. The software is priced in the $50 range.
The programs allow you to input the dimensions of a room to create a floor plan. Add in the doors and windows and you're ready to try out different styles of floors, paint, wallpaper, lighting, cabinets, sinks, appliances, furniture, and so on. Depending on the software, you may even be able to create tile patterns.
The programs then simulate a 3-D model of the room which you can view from various angles.
We're not just talking generic simulations here. These CD-ROMs allow you to audition brand name furnishings in your virtual rooms.
Explains Carlson, "If you're redecorating your kitchen and you have your eye on a specific Kenmore washer, you can put that Kenmore washer in, and it has the exact specs and colors they sell it in. Same with wallpaper samples. It's all brand-name stuff."
That is not to say that you need to know which brands you want going in. The software allows you to search through different types of colors, styles, patterns, and so forth. If you want to keep abreast of the latest products, a couple of these programs carry images of new merchandise from various manufacturers on their own Web site, allowing you to download the latest options.
It all adds up to literally thousands of options.
And, speaking of Web sites, there are some that let you do virtual designing online. Design-A-Room (see Related Links below) lets you create a room layout. Floorspecs.com (see Related Links) lets you search for carpets and flooring through an extended samples database. No need to flip through those heavy rug piles.
Ironically, the technology has caught on much faster with homeowners than with professional decorators. "Most of the high-end dcorators and designers don't really use them," says Interior Design Magazine Editor-In-Chief Mayer Rus, "because it's very hard to get any sort of real likeness from the images when you're talking about things like fabrics, wall finishes, and all of that. Most of them still rely on old-fashioned sample boards and watercolor renderings, which have a certain old-timey cachet about them."
Rus concedes, though, that software may "have some useful applications in the preliminary stages of design."
Carlson agrees, saying "You can get a really good idea" of how your room will turn out.
There may be cost benefits if you start decorating with software before an architect or decorator turns the meter on, Carlson notes. "You've already saved several hours of their time or brainstorming between you by giving them six options before they even come. It's probably going to save you a lot of money."
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Written by Rob Medich.size=-1>
Images courtesty of Autodesk, ©1998 Autodesk, Inc