You Can Rearrange Your Space – VIRTUALLY!
Article by Lizzie West
We are going on SIX months of social distancing and spending most of our time at home. It might be nice for something fresh, and the easiest way to get that feeling of a different atmosphere without spending a dime is to rearrange your spaces. The downside of this is getting everything moved, and vacuuming behind that bookshelf that hasn’t moved in ages just to feel like it isn’t right and it feels worse than before. In the past, you might grab some graph paper to plot out what rearranging the space might actually look like. That’s wasteful and takes a ton of time though. What if I said, I found an easier way, it’s free, faster, and doesn’t waste resources? There are several websites that allow you to create your spaces by dimension, as well as adding in your furniture. I’ll go through a few of these websites and what they have to offer. In the interest of a struggling economy, I’ll only be going over *free* options.
The first option I found is free, very user friendly, and the most simplistic of the options I found. It’s called http://www.planyourroom.com/ and it limited to a 2D perspective. However, it was so helpful for me when I was rearranging my game room and bedroom. I could set everything up and save it with its current layout, then I could move items around and resave it. At this point, I can compare all the layouts I’ve created and decide what is worth actually breaking a sweat. For anyone that is simply trying to see how things fit best in a space, this is a great option and there is a lot of flexibility. They don’t have many options in terms of adding things like lamps and plants, etc. Also, I haven’t found a way to change the width of a standard door with this website.
An option for those that need to see those little details a little more but still want something user friendly is https://www.livingspaces.com/inspiration/3d-room-designer/builder. This option is more challenging when it comes to making adjustments to certain pieces of furniture, but you can design everything while updating a space from the design colors and materials to the kind of mirror you would like on the wall and even the thickness of that wall. This is a great option for detail-oriented people, that aren’t as concerned about the flexibility of adjusting the current furniture. You CAN, however, determine the dimensions of a piece of furniture and it will populate that area with a sample as well as giving other options that are similar in size.
The last option I’m going to get into is https://floorplancreator.net/. With this option, you have the flexibility to modify and add walls as well as other structural options, like door and windows. you can also manually add furniture and modify the size by dragging arrows or by typing in specific dimensions. Once you have the 2d version of your room completed, in a simplistic format. It doesn’t have the specific materials from the previous site, but you can modify anything and everything as well as view the finished result in a 3D format.
The good news is, you have options. And all of those options include the freedom to arrange your space exactly as you want it without moving one piece of furniture before you’re absolutely certain that is where you want it to go. So, don’t break a sweat just yet. Take a few moments to create your space on the web, then enlist help to make that virtual dream – a reality!