{"id":4637,"date":"2010-10-30T12:35:43","date_gmt":"2010-10-30T10:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tokao.com\/2010\/10\/30\/diy-digital-design-10-tools-to-model-dream-homes-rooms-2\/"},"modified":"2010-10-30T12:35:43","modified_gmt":"2010-10-30T10:35:43","slug":"diy-digital-design-10-tools-to-model-dream-homes-rooms-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/30\/diy-digital-design-10-tools-to-model-dream-homes-rooms-2\/","title":{"rendered":"DIY Digital Design: 10 Tools to Model Dream Homes & Rooms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Paint your walls, try out some hardwood flooring, rearrange the room, furnish your home or build a house from scratch \u0096 all without getting off the couch. These 10 digital home design tools (9 of them entirely free) let you play architect or interior designer in 2D and 3D, getting a realistic and accurate look at your design ideas without spending a dime on unflattering paint colors and furniture that doesn\u0092t fit.<\/p>\n

Floor Planner<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"\"It doesn\u0092t get much easier than FloorPlanner.com<\/a>, an online modeling tool offering both 2D and 3D views. It\u0092s free if you want to just save one project at a time, or you can go pro with a premium account. While objects like furniture, doors and other design elements are somewhat limited, you can specify dimensions for each object and get a good feel for how your furniture will fit into a space.<\/p>\n

IKEA Planner<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"\"You can stare at those IKEA cabinets for hours, but unless you\u0092ve got a good imagination, you won\u0092t get a real sense of how they\u0092d look in your kitchen. Enter the IKEA home planner<\/a>, a free online tool that gives you virtual versions of IKEA furniture so you can make your home look like your very own IKEA showroom (whether that\u0092s a good thing is for you to decide). Of course, you don\u0092t have to go overboard with it \u0096 and it would probably help you determine whether that huge Expedit shelf system would totally overpower your living room.<\/p>\n

Arrange-a-Room by Better Homes and Gardens<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"\"Not a design professional? Don\u0092t worry about trying to figure out complicated programs just so you can determine a good furniture layout in your home. Better Homes and Gardens<\/a> has an online tool that doesn\u0092t take long to load and is a snap to use. BHG online user registration is required but the tool is free. Choose a room shape or customize your own, then add and arrange furniture.<\/p>\n

Colorjive<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"\"Don\u0092t you hate it when you fall in love with a color at the paint store, then get it on your wall and realize it\u0092s all wrong? Worst of all is when you don\u0092t realize that it doesn\u0092t work until the whole room is painted. Save time, money and frustration by trying out paint colors on photos of your room at ColorJive.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shaw\u0092s Try On a Floor<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"\"Having trouble visualizing how various flooring options would look in your home? Upload your own photo and \u0093try on\u0094 virtually any flooring thatShaw Floors<\/a> offers including carpet, ceramic, hardwood and linoleum. It\u0092s entirely web-based \u0096 no programs to download \u0096 and free.<\/p>\n

Autodesk Homestyler<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"\"From the designers of AutoCAD comes Autodesk Homestyler, another free online tool that offers both 2D and 3D modeling so you can custom-create an interior and then decorate it with brand-name products from FLOR, Sherwin-Williams, Kohler, Dupont and more. Users have called this program \u0091intuitive\u0092, saying tutorials aren\u0092t necessary to pick it up.<\/p>\n

SeeMyDesign<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"\"If you\u0092re just looking for a basic online tool that lets you create everything from scratch, you\u0092ll like SeeMyDesign<\/a>. This older program lacks much of the functionality of other online home design tools, but it\u0092s perfect for homeowners just looking to play around with ideas. Build your room, arrange furniture and add details like paint without any unnecessary extras. This tool, with its built-in cost calculator, is also useful for determining how much paint you need for a particular room and what you should expect to pay for it.<\/p>\n

Sweet Home 3D<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"\"
\nWannabe interior designers looking for a downloadable program that\u0092s truly free \u0096 without ads or limitations \u0096 should take a look at Sweet Home 3D<\/a>. Like other digital design tools on this list, it offers both 2D and 3D views of the space you\u0092re designing and a host of objects that can be dragged and dropped into the room. Users report that it\u0092s easy to learn and use.<\/p>\n

Google Sketchup<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"\"Design your own concept architecture, shed, interiors or even vehicles with Google Sketchup<\/a>, the free and easy-to-use 3D modeling program with loads of design objects, textures and landscapes to choose from. But Google Sketchup has just a few extra bells and whistles that professional designers in particular will appreciate, including a \u0091Match Photo\u0092 feature that lets you trace a photo to build a model and a Google Maps tie-in that allows you to assign a geo-location to your model. This program has been lauded for its wide range of uses, and it\u0092s quick and easy to learn. Sketchup Pro ($495) adds the ability to export your designs to CAD and create visual presentations.<\/p>\n

Live Interior 3D<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"\"Design enthusiasts will love the realistic look of Live Interior 3D<\/a>, home design software designed exclusively for use on a Mac. The program comes in both standard ($49.95) and pro ($129.95) versions, with the latter introducing the ability to edit 3D objects directly within the program using Google Sketchup. Homeowners can get an incredibly accurate sense of how their improvement projects will look with an extensive database of objects and surface materials and the ability to customize the smallest details including lighting within a room. Perhaps the coolest feature is the ability to \u0093walk through\u0094 your design in 3D (a view familiar to first-person gamers), and you can even create virtual tours.<\/p>\n

(from weburbanist<\/a>)<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paint your walls, try out some hardwood flooring, rearrange the room, furnish your home or build a house from scratch \u0096 all without getting off the couch. These 10 digital home design tools (9 of them entirely free) let you play architect or interior designer in 2D and 3D, getting a realistic and accurate look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[136,28],"class_list":["post-4637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photo","tag-photo","tag-weburbanist"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}