Image via homestyler.com
As everyone knows the minute you move into a new house, you always want to give it that personal touch. Or you might just be fed up of your current house and want to redecorate. Perhaps your book collection has outgrown your library shelves and you simply need to rearrange the space.
What bout if you are buying an office, you’ll want to figure out where to put the desks and chairs or whether you need to create extra rooms. The list goes on…
Here are 5 programs which are both free, user friendly and can help you plan your house in a 3D environment, complete with colours, textures and finishes.
The IKEA Home Planner:
Come on, who has never ever used IKEA or never even looked at their furniture? If you have, you might have spotted something you really liked and wished you could see how it looked in your house before you purchased it.
You can do that with their planner, where you can configure your room and then decorate it with items from their catalogue.
Homestyler:
Made by Autodesk, the same company that created AutoCAD and 3Ds Studio Max, which are the most popular programs for architects and 3D graphics creators.
Don’t be deceived by the big names however, Homestyle is very user friendly. You not only pick from existing shelves or furniture, you can create a whole floor plan, whether it’s for your office or your home.
This program gives you a lot of control over your 3D environment.
Floor Planner :
This is very simplistic, but it allows you to create floor plans quickly and efficiently. All you need to do is drag and drop walls, doors and windows and you are done.
The program is so simple that it doesn’t require any prior knowledge of design. Sometimes less is more.
Design My Room :
Perfect if you want to play around with colours, textures and finishes. You can pick anything from flooring to office shelves, from ceilings to wall cabinets.
The textures look quite realistic, so you can do more than just plan where to place objects, you can also get a pretty good idea of how things will look once it’s all done.
Garden Planner:
We talked about programs that would help you with indoor planning, but what about your garden? This is what you have Garden Planner for.
Similar to previous software packages you can drag and drop furniture, plants, fences and more so when you are done the program attempts to estimate the price of your finished garden.
These are just some of the many programs out there, but what makes them stand out is the fact that they are free and easy to use. If you have had experience with any of these or any other programs, why don’t you share it?
