Ever wish you could see
what your soon-to-be remodeled home will look like before
you start the work? Can you imagine the look on your
contractor's face if you showed him a photograph of the
remodel before he started ripping walls apart, tearing up
concrete and pulling out the front walkway?
If this idea seems like only a dream, it's time to
wake up. What was once a fantasy is now reality, thanks
to computer visualization.
You've seen it done in the movies when dinosaurs roam
through 20th century cities and ships break apart and
sink. Now a trimmed-down,user-friendly version of the
same technology is available to anyone with a computer.
The principle is called virtual reality, and you can use
VR software to put what's in your imagination on
paper.
Software that creates virtual reality images is being
applied to landscaping, home remodeling and decorating.
It's fairly simple to use and available to everyone.
Mimi Howard of Sleepy Hollow in Marin County wanted a
more inviting entry to her house from the street, a more
gracious walkway to the entry and a lush, beautiful
garden at the back of her house. Howard's virtual reality
makeover wasn't complicated or even time consuming. It
started by taking pictures of the front, side and rear of
the hous
Homeowners can use photographs from either a
traditional camera with images printed on paper or taken
with a digital camera and imported directly into the
computer. If printed photographs are used, they must
first be scanned into the computer and converted into a
digital image. Once you have this digital image in the
computer, you can begin the makeover process.
On Howard's wish list were new front steps that guests
could use instead of coming up the steep driveway; a
prettier approach to her front door, which is on the side
of the house; and a beautifully landscaped area in the
back that would be fully bricked instead of
partially.
Using Adobe's Photoshop software, these and other
design ideas were incorporated into the virtual
transformation one by one, layer by layer. In the
makeover pictures, the driveway is cobblestoned, there
are brick steps where before there were only overgrown
hedges, the house trim is painted a contrasting color,
and the entry is now charming and inviting. The back
garden area is fully bricked, the fence is redesigned and
stained a light color, and the landscaping is lush and
colorful. Just what she wanted.
Once the makeover pictures were completed and printed
in color, Howard saw her home in virtual reality. "I was
able to see how my home will look after the remodel, show
my friends actual pictures of the changes and get
feedback before the contractor starts bidding on it," she
says. "Now the construction bids will reflect what we
want done with no surprises later."
Only after Howard reviewed the makeover pictures and
made a few minor changes was the contractor called in to
bid the job. He has a clear picture and understanding of
what he's dealing with at the beginning of the job and
what the house should look like when his work is done --
quite a difference from when homeowners say, "Put steps
somewhere in front, you know what I mean, and we'll
figure out the details once we start the work."
Another useful application of this technology is to
play "what if" with your designs.
The front door of a Corte Madera house was on the
left, and the pathway from the street wound awkwardly to
get to the entrance. The back door was in the middle of
the exterior wall and not very attractive. How would it
look if the front walkway were reoriented straight
through the garden, and the back door were on the left
side of the house instead of in the middle? Would the
changes make the house more functional? It's not easy to
imagine these changes, but with just a few mouse clicks,
you see how the alternatives will look.
It became evident in this virtual reality that the
front pathway should go through the garden to create a
more impressive visual impact on visitors. The VR
makeover for the back of the house made it obvious that
the best plan was to move the door from the middle to the
side. This enhanced the functionality inside the house
and made the garden much more attractive.
By using the virtual reality makeover as a guideline,
the remodeling results turned out exactly as
pictured.
Many people know from experience how horrible it feels
to wait months for a big piece of furniture to be
delivered only to see that it looks terrible in the room.
This is the most prevalent cause of ``purchase
paralysis,'' or hesitating about buying a new piece of
furniture, because you aren't sure it will look good with
the other furniture.
San Francisco-based graphics designer Susan Arnot of
San Francisco used Photoshop software to decide how a
sofa she was thinking about buying would look in her
living room. Using a photograph of the living room as the
background, she scanned in a picture of the sofa. After
looking at the virtual reality image of the room with the
new sofa, she determined that it would work; the color
and size would fit the space. She made the purchase
without hesitation.
"It's easy for me to imagine how a piece of furniture
will look, but knowing how it will fit in the room is
what causes hesitation in my decision-making process"
Arnot says.
Seeing alternative color schemes for walls, carpets
and furniture is another very practical application of
this technology. Never suffer from purchase paralysis
again or experience the what-if syndrome after the
remodel because now, in virtual reality at least, your
remodeling, redecorating or landscaping project is
limited only by your imagination. If you can imagine it,
you can design and redesign it before you start the
work.
VIRTUAL REALITY SOFTWARE
Now that you know
virtual reality makeovers will make everyone's life
easier before you start construction and can take the
tension out of decisions about furniture and color, where
do you find this software? If you're a personal computer
user, you're in luck. Dozens of software packages are
available, some easier to use than others, that let you
remodel your home in virtual realit. If you're a
Macintosh user, only Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator,
software that lets you draw, fulfills this task.
The Internet is the best place to research software
with design capabilities.
Northernlight.com's search engine returned 1,688,004
sites under the request for "home design software" and
its custom search folder "interior design" returned 911
specific sites. Many of these design-oriented sites show
the range of possibilities using the software.
The "software" sections of Amazon.com's and
BarnesandNoble.com's Web sites offer many home and
landscape products with design capabilities. Both online
shopping sites include detailed capability descriptions
of the different software products and have editorials,
user reviews and a rating for each product.
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF ONE CLIENT'S VIRTUAL REALITY
MAKEOVER:
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BEFORE:
This Corte Madera homeowner wanted
to replace the home's brown paint, asphalt
pavement and bark mulch
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VIRTUAL:
With the computer we added taupe
shingles, paving stones and a lush
garden.
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AFTER: With a
computer-generated picture, builders translated
landscaping plans for this Corte Madera home into
reality.
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BEFORE:
The backyard remained little-used with
the small back door placed in the middle of the
wall and leading to the living room.
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VIRTUAL:
The computer moved the door on the Corte
Madera house to the kitchen and replaces the
porch overhang with an arbor.
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