Interior Design Software

Why Purchase Interior Design Software?

Interior design software allows you to take a virtual tour of a house. Few programs will actually allow you to design your house completely (though you can come pretty close with some of them). You can practice adding practice floor coverings and wall colors, all with the click of the button. You can also play with colors.

Not sure how to arrange your furniture? Some software products will create your furniture based on inputed dimensions. Then arrange, resize, rotate and shift the pieces all you like. You can even cover your virtual furniture with given fabric options if you’re looking at reupholstering.

Some software products will even show you how the inside of your virtual house will look during a sunny day, a cloudy day or at night. Other software programs will allow you to design your gardens, decks, lawns and even sprinkler systems at the same time you design your home.

Pros

Interior design software programs are great for getting ideas or learning how interior decorating works. They can show you what colors work well together and how to set up furniture in tricky rooms. Some programs will allow you to add digital pictures of items in your home, such as art or rugs. Other software programs have custom decorating pallets and offer thousands of options for fabric, floors and wall colors and window treatments. Still others offer hundreds of furniture options.

Some programs are very user friendly and offer tutorial videos, demo books and websites to help you learn everything you can about the software.

Cons

Some software programs are limited by what the library has to offer. For example, if you have a canopy or are planning to buy a canopy bed for a bedroom, some programs may not offer this as a furniture option. The same is true of floor designs and wall colors. Most programs will not allow you to recreate your exact home for interior decorating, though more expensive and complex ones will come pretty close.

In addition, the more complex the program is and the more options it gives you, the greater the learning curve. It might take you hours just to figure out how to use the program and then hours to input all the information you need. Even simple programs will likely take some time to figure out. But reviewers claim most programs are worth the learning curve.

Pricing Interior Design Software

Interior design software programs range in cost from $20.00 to $1,400.00. Remember that like with most things, you pay for what you get. However, if you just want a basic program to learn about interior design, a middle of the road software product may be for you.

Popular Programs

If you are interested in software programs, the following are some of the most popular. It's important that you read up on reviews to make sure a software product will do what you want it to do. These programs vary in price, depending on what you want it to do and where you buy it from (try Amazon first).

• 3D Home Architect
• Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Deluxe
• Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Pro 7.0
• Chief Architect 9.5 Full Bundle
• Google's SketchUp! is free and easy to use but isn't very full-featured for design.
• Punch! Interior Design Suite
• Punch! Home Design Architectural Series 4000 v10