Virtual Room and Home Design

The use of virtual decorating tools removes a lot of the trial and error of finding and coordinating the right elements for your home. The Internet provides an easy avenue to yet another valuable resource for home design – online interior decorating. Online interior-design programs make it possible to enter the room dimensions and specifications, add paint colors to the walls, select flooring and add furniture and accessories. Once the project is complete in the virtual world, you can change any of its elements without incurring additional material expenses.

Limitation Advantages

That sounds like a contradiction in terms, but the challenges of seeing a design in full form before it is executed is eliminated with virtual home decorating programs. Perhaps the plan includes mixing colors and pieces that do not traditionally go together, and painting the walls, purchasing the flooring and furniture and pulling together the accessories ju st to “see” if they work together demands a lot of time, money and effort for something that may just as easily be changed out.

Room Specifications

These measurements include the width and length of the room's floor space and the height of the room's ceiling. But many rooms are more than just a four-sided cube, so the specifications also include the number and position of windows, doors and closets in the room.

For simple square or rectangular rooms, this information is simple to measure and jot down, but for complex-shaped rooms – rooms with nooks, triangular and curved walls, and connecting spaces, such as reading rooms, terraces and balconies, acquiring the measurements requires a few more steps. Just as in geometry lessons in finding the area of complex shapes, start by sketching the room's floor-plan outline, measure each wall and record the measurements on the paper, section by section. Breaking the project up into smaller steps makes it easier to get the total measurement of the room.

Flooring

Select wood floors to warm up the feel of the room in the virtual design, or choose tiles that for a durable, water-resistant floor solution. Both virtual floor options offer numerous choices – from darker tones to light and airy ones – and so does carpeting and alternative flooring, such as cork, rubber, concrete and recycled, eco-friendly flooring products.

Paint Colors

Drop color onto the walls using the program's coloring tool. Play with the tones to coordinate with the planned bedding, window treatments, rugs and decor elements. Imagine the savings when trying out paint colors virtually over painting the walls several times just to see the color.

Window Treatments

Go through an array of virtual window treatment options to get a feel for which ones blend in and coordinate with the room's elements. From curtains, drapes and valances, to shades, blinds and eclectic uses of non-traditional materials as window treatments, the room's decor will shape up to what the designer is looking for in her room, all before shopping around, purchasing, and even exchanging what does and doesn't work in the room.

Furniture, Appliances and Accessories

Drag and drop virtual sofas, chairs, tables, beds, appliances and lighting around the room. This certainly beats hauling everything around when you're not sure how and where you want the furniture and appliance pieces. Virtual decorating allows you to change not only the pieces but their colors and finishes in the virtual room.