I wanted to share an update of a virtual decorating project I've been working on. This is for a vacation home in Pennsylvania. I've never met the client in person or seen the home. But, armed with the architects drawings and lots of communications back and forth, I think we've really pulled together a fantastic collection of furnishings, materials, textures and colors.
This is the final floor plan. I get a lot of questions about the floor plan software that I use. It's an online subscription based service called Icovia.com. The plans are saved on their servers and can be printed, emailed and shared via html code as you can see below. It's pretty nifty and easy to use. The downside is that at $29 per month, it adds up over time and there are off the shelf plans available for less. But, I love the ease of use and sharability (is that a word...?) factor, so I stick with it They also provide floor plan functionality to large store websites such as Company C rugs, Baker Furniture, Williams Sonoma and Kohler.
{Okay - I tried to paste in the HTML code for the floor plan, but Blogger won't take it. Jeez. It shows the plan in the preview, but it won't allow me to save. I think it's a Blogger problem. So, click here to view the floor plan in action. I have to run out now, but maybe I can figure it out later.}
One of the really nifty new features is that you can link a furniture or accessory icon to the actual product. If you click on the sofa below, for instance, you will see what I mean. Additionally, you enter the scale of the actual pieces, you can colorize the icon to match the color of the real piece and the pricing. All this flows to printable "shopping" lists, if needed.
All my clients, whether virtual or in person, receive a personal design page on my website. I also receive a lot of questions about how I do this. Let me just say - yay for Apple, Inc. Their iWeb software is an amazingly easy to use tool (as you can tell, I like easy!) that you can use to create your own websites - no html required. They've integrated a very easy to use graphics package into all their software packages and once you learn one, you know them all. Photos can be dragged right off websites into the software, no downloading and re-uploading. Links can be established, so that when I add an image to a client's page, I link to wherever they can get it, where possible, and they can click right over to view pricing and other information. In a way, I feel like it makes the vendor's websites an extension of my own. I can't say enough about how easy it is. And, since I have my website stored on Apple's servers, it's one touch publishing. So much easier than when I had my website stored on a third party that involved complicated log ins and uploads, ftp servers, etc. In this case, I can make a quick change, press a button and two seconds later, it's up and running. I'm a girl who loves her some great techno-functionality!
In this panel below, you can see the evolution of the color palette and the furniture selections. The leather sofa (it will be the sofa version of the sectional shown below) is going to be the butterscotch leather shown in the sample below - it's soft as buttah!
Just above, you will see a little thumbnail floor plan that shows the Company C striped rug laid into the floor plan. A great way to see the actual scale of the stripe. This was actually done using the Icovia.com software that is on the Company C website. I couldn't figure out how to integrate it into my own account, so I did a quick version on theirs and took a snapshot of it. There must be a way to integrate a vendor's software and my own, so I can use their products directly in my account. I have to make an inquiry about that.
Some dining room furniture:
Window treatment design. I used Photoshop to mockup how the sheer drapes and bamboo shades would look on the actual windows.
Some accessory ideas:
More accessories and lighting:
The small image above with color chips was my very first inspiration for this room. I keep it here so we can track how the plan evolved from the first thoughts. As you can see, there is less blue in the final plan, but it's mostly along the same lines.
You can see the online version of this plan here. All images are linked to their stores and vendors.
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