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So can home design software make you a better stager?

I had a call from the realtor who sold me my house the other day. I had given her a complimentary consultation to thank her for referring me to her office.

Her clients are in the middle of remodeling a home they purchased with her. She said they needed help getting to the next step and asked if I could help. Well I've done a few renovations along with my home staging and I feel very confident about sharing ideas for design that will translate into a better investment.

So.... picture a home custom designed in the 60s whose main living space is taken right from the plaza in Santa Fe complete with corbels and artificial windows inside the 20' high room. Around the perimeter of the room the ceiling drops to 9' and is supported by spanish style beams. The piece de resistance was a fish pond smack in the middle of it all which they have concreted over. Where do I begin? It was obvious this required a little more architectural vision than I expected.

So I have been scouring the internet looking for home design software that I could use to translate the changes or suggestions I made into a 3D vision they could "see". What else can you do on a rainy Black Friday if you don't like shopping with thousands of your closest friends? ;)

Well here are my findings and I hope it helps anyone else who has ever thought about using software to plan interior space. It's one step away from virtual staging (I don't advocate that) but light years from your basic furniture planner. Although I consider myself computer literate, CAD is in a category of its own. A lot of these program reviews talked about a steep learning curve. No thanks. To add to the challenge I use a MacBook Pro and there's not a lot of options out there.

Live Interior 3D Examples google sketchup Punch Home Design

This is a nice round up of most of the options along with reviews:
Consumer Research Best Home Design Software

HGTV's propriety program - couldn't find this reviewed anywhere but is inexpensive.
HGTV Home Design & Remodeling Suite starts at $49.99 and is only for PC.

The answer to the question what does Barry use from HGTVs message board:
"Does anyone know what software program that Barry Wood uses on the show Hidden Potential? Does anyone know how much it cost to purchase?"

"Autodesk 3ds Max
It's about $2,000 for the software.
If you are looking for a less expensive alternative, consider Punch."

They are referring to Punch Home Design Studio.
Punch Software

Also the Autodesk program does NOT run on a Mac (even though Barry is shown using a MacBook Pro, the only way he could would be to run Windows on the Mac, which is possible)

Another alternative I found is a program called Live Interior 3D Standard for Mac which is available for free trial download. I've been playing around with this and its fairly easy to use but has some limitations for room designing. For example that dropped ceiling? Still waiting to hear if its possible from support.
Live Interior 3D

Another alternative is Google SketchUp which is also free and available for Windows and Mac OSX 10.4+. This looks promising although I haven't had a chance to dig around in it yet.
Google SketchUp

I'm still trying to decide if I want to spend this much time on the computer. After all one of the reasons I chose home staging was the lure of getting to design and create in real time instead of on a flat screen!

I'd love to hear from anyone who has used any of these programs. You can do everything from simply add a new paint color to the walls or create workable blueprints. There are also some web based solutions which are pretty basic but may do the trick.

Posted by Tessa Skeens - Hampton Redesign on 11/28/2008 08:40 PM

Comments (14)

hgtv, home design software, google, sketchup, live interior 3d, punch software, macbook pro, home staging, remodeling, consumer research

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14 Comments on So can home design software make you a better stager?

NOV

Hi Tessa, Yeah, I'm not a fan of shopping with the crowd either. About your software finds, I bought Punch a while back with the same kind of project goals in mind. It didn't get thrown out with the latest clean up, but it was considered for that pile. I had a semester or two of heavy CAD in design school that I loved and was terrific at but can no way afford at home, so I thought Punch would be great. It's not. Sort of like learning WordPerfect for DOS, not intuitive at all to me.

That said, it seems many products, free or cheap, are out there to try on colors. I know Home Depot shows one. Also many furniture stores offer space planners online free on their sites. I'm familiar with Boyles Furniture in NC.

I also would love answers to your query, so I will keep checking as others comment. Thanks for posing the question and posting it.

Tessa, NOT PUNCH! I totally agree with Patricia. I did a lot of research before the purchase and everything said it was great but it's not. At the time (2 years ago) I just wanted to do simple floor plans and furniture placement but the Icovia programs available through Broyhill and others, (for free) is MUCH easier and less cumbersome.

Michelle Molinari is the MASTER of this and she warns that the program that she uses take a lot of time to learn and use effectively.

I'm bookmarking your blog post to see if anyone has anything new to add. This comes up frequently after people see what Michelle can do.

Hi Patricia - Wow glad to hear your opinion of Punch because that is the only option in that category with a Mac version. It really looked like it could do just about anything you wanted, but the reviews on amazon were pretty brutal. And if you had CAD and didn't find it intuitive then I'm sure I would be struggling. I can usually learn most programs but some are just too darn frustrating and time consuming.

I do like the idea of being able to use a photo as the building block of the redesign, so Picture It (the program Michele uses) is worth a try. I had posted a question to her on another blog http://activerain.com/blogsview/739306/Need-help and then started doing my own research.

Ginger - Ok well that makes two thumbs down! I agree the online program at Icovia and others are fine for furniture placement. I actually like the old fashioned way of just playing with graph paper and furniture cutouts too.

I guess the big question is - is it worth the time and investment to learn it? It would be great to have for redesign work as it comes up. I am no architect though and I hesitate to get too involved in planning something where plans or blueprints are involved. At that point I'd want to turn over the concept and let someone with CAD experience take over.

I've always used Icovia for its simplicity and have tried a couple of other programs but found them too time consuming.

Nice to know of other options. I might try this again now. Thank you!

DEC

google sketchup looks interesting. i will try that

thanks for the info

I'm using Floorplanner myself (http://beta.floorplanner.com) love it's ease of use and the 3D views..

Thanks Ashley, Icovia is pretty easy to use if you just need to do floor planning.

Jane, let me know what you think about sketchup. I haven't had a chance to dig into yet. After all the time I spent researching, I called my prospective client up and they said "oh we are going to stick wtih what we are doing". Hmmm. Ok. Well I'm still glad I know a little more about the products out there. There's always next time and this time I will be a little more prepared!

I'll check out Floorplanner Anne. Hadn't heard of that one!

DEC

Tessa: Sketch-Up is heavily used in the film industry for designing sets for TV, films & commercials. I took several classes and I can tell you it is not easy or fast, although it is fast if you need to make any changes and you have kept your layers separate (like Photoshop). It is a very powerful tool, but one you must devote a lot of time to learning.

DEC

You should try 3Dream.Net for Creating virtual 3D rooms featuring life-like furnishings, fabrics, window treatments, paints, flooring, lighting. They have a 30 day free trial period. I'd like to what you think of this software.

JAN

Thanks for this post Tessa,

This is so helpful. I will look for the free space planners. I have had a difficult time with the one I bought. I bought the Sierra Home Architect and it has a 3D component for floor plans. It's very time consuming and the features are hard to manage, so I'd stay away from that one. I only paid 10.00 for it, but you get what you pay for I guess.

Has anyone tried the HGTV Home Design software?

You know I think Michelle Molinari has some that she's been using, it seems from a previous post she was talking about it, might check her blog stream and see if you can find it. It was something that brought her more business so...might be worth getting her opinion. Good luck, sounds like fun, and time consuming. BUT would love to try it myself.

JAN

Michelle - thanks for the headsup on Sketchup. Ugh sounds like a real learning curve! You know one of the reasons I was excited about getting into home staging was the opportunity to design rooms in real life, not on a computer screen! ;)I don't mind learning something new if I really think it's going to help my business, but I wish there was an industry standard - like Photoshop is for my graphic design - and then I would feel the curve is worth it.

Deb - Have you used 3Dream? Let us know what you think.

Teresa - It seems the cheaper it is the worse the interface is - although there are some freebie gems out there.

Terrylynn - I have been searching for that blog Michelle Molinari wrote and can't find it. And I commented on it! I think the program she uses is Paint It.

Do you think we could pay someone to do this for us?! Hmmm maybe a design intern .... :)

Hi Tessa!

Here's my biggest blog in the topic.

I have been trying to figure out how to get/teach someone else to do this for a while! The thing I can't figure out is how to get them to do it, with my supervision. executing my decisions, of course, and NOT have to provide them with a separate office/ computer at our headquarters. The data is not shareable on the programs, so if they did a mock up, and wanted to send it to me, I couldn't tweak it. It has to be tweaked from THEIR computer/location. I am so hands-on, I would just want to tweak it myself real fast not spend three phone calls and 6 e-mails to get the right brick or paint color.

Our headquarters building is in a remote location, not located anywhere near where the interns are. It's a great work environment, IF you don't mind the sawdust flying and the power tools, and the smell of turpentine, and crawling over stacks of lumber, crown moulding, and artwork-in-progress. But there is a beautiful lake, chock full of bass, to look at right outside the french doors, a fishing pier, and a fully stocked bar under the oak tree, lol. We'd have to offer those amenities, cuz there wouldn't be a whole lot of pay involved!

~Michelle

Michelle - I'll be right over! lol ...sounds divine.

And I understand completely. I finally cracked Photoshop so I can do just about whatever I need to on it and I can't imagine being able to tell someone else how to do it FOR me because part of the process, as you probably know, is creating while you are doing. You don't really know where you are going until you get there! When it looks right you know it and that's not easy to translate.

But I can dream. Wouldn't it be a great time saver if you could have someone else import the pictures and set the room up so you could just go in and do the "tweaking", which after all is the most important part!

Thanks for putting your blog link in so we can keep this going.

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