Home design is not something everyone can do—or at least not something everyone can do properly. Of course any thinking person has the ability to produce designs but these designs are not necessarily useful, practical, and beautiful. Nevertheless, it is possible to learn some guidelines on how to design your home the easy way. Just go over the discussions below.
What You Need to Prepare
Before you can proceed to designing your home, you need to prepare a few things. First, you have to have an idea of what you want. You can get design inspiration by going over ideas and photos online. There are many sites devoted to home designing that can provide useful details and visuals. The next thing to do is to get your home’s measurements. You can’t proceed to creating a realistic design or plan if you don’t have the actual details of your home’s dimensions. Lastly, you have to come up with a budget plan.
How much will you be willing to spend for the project? Obviously, you will need to shell out some considerable amount of money. You can’t just create a design without considering the corresponding expenses. The choice of materials and extent of creativity you are allowed have to be based on a budget plan. You may need to do some research for this. It is possible to do the design first before coming up with a budget to cover the necessary expenses but the consequent need to do adjustments may just become tedious and frustrating. It’s usually better to work on a budget than to adjust designs after realizing that you don’t have enough funds to realize the design you have created.
Using a Design Software
To make the designing process significantly easier, you can use design software tools. In this age of computers, smartphones, and tablets, it only makes sense relying on software in creating home designs easily. There are many software tools readily available for creating home designs. It is also fairly easy to learn how to use them. If you can use the Microsoft Office suite or Adobe’s Photoshop, you should be able to easily learn how to use these software. The following are some great design software great for beginners:
Home Designer Suite – This design software features advanced functions for designing and remodeling entire houses or specific sections like bathrooms, kitchens, decks, or landscapes. There are more than 1,500 sample plans pre-installed with it. It comes with a user-friendly interface and is capable of generating 3D views of projects.
IMSI TurboFLOORPLAN Home and Landscape Pro – This software is great for beginners but it also offers CAD tools and other more powerful functions to serve the needs of more advanced users. It is designed to be easy to learn and use.
Punch – A home design suite, Punch! provides great functions that make it easy to work not only with simple home designs but also complex design needs such as those of electricity and plumbing.
SketchUp – A freeware created by Google, SketchUp is a light 3D design and modeling software tool. It may take some time learning how to use it and to adequately familiarize with the interface and functions, but it is certainly worth it.
DesignWorkshop Lite – This is another free home design software. It enables the creation of 3D models of buildings and landscapes. It also comes with tutorials and sample building models to guide those who may have a hard time figuring out its functions.
Aside from these desktop software, there are also smartphone and tablet apps for home design. These mobile applications can provide the advantage of being usable anywhere. Some even include the option to take photos that can be integrated with the design. Some of these apps are Home Design: Dream House, My Dream Home Interior Design, Houzz Interior Design Ideas, and Homestyle Interior Design. There are many other apps you can find in the Google Play store and Apple app store (iTunes) so be sure to check them out to get the right design app for your needs.
Reminders
Designing your own home is not something you can just do whimsically. You also have to follow some safety standards, especially as you design the placement of electric wirings. Inquire about building safety regulations in your city. Bear in mind that you are designing the place where you will live. You certainly don’t want to make that place somewhere unsafe for you and your family. Also, if you are not confident with the design you come up with, ask for insights and advice from experts. Moreover, be sure to carefully choose the software you will be using. The home design software is your key to quickly and easily creating a design plan so pick something that is comfortable to use, intuitive, and preferably free.