Once upon a time whenever I would move or rearrange I would get out my graph paper and draw each room to scale with doors and windows and outlets and the whole nine yards. Then, I would measure all my furniture and I would draw that to scale on another sheet and cut out all the pieces. I could then move them around the drawing of my room until everything fit nicely and I could see that yes, there was actually walking space in the room! (Ok, maybe that says more about my shortcomings in interior design than anything else.) Anyway, I didn’t do it this time when I moved into the house and I regret it. I always wanted a faster way to do it but there wasn’t one. Drawing it in a full fledged CAD package would take too long and it was difficult to get measurements right using drawing programs like Visio.
Awhile back I found Google Sketchup online. Its a free 3D design package that is kind of a hybrid of the above mentioned application types. Once you get used to the controls its pretty easy to build 3D objects. It uses a very intuitive interface that allows you to draw things on the screen and then extrude them. Its almost magic! I have only recreated my office thus far, using crude blocks to represent most things that take up space. This is sufficient for my purposes, though SketchUp is certainly capable of more. Next: draw doors and build furniture!
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This is a major improvement over my graph paper cutouts! Though, there is some additional design time required for planning out the additional dimension. This technique should be particularly useful in my office since it is so small. I will be building up as well as out in order to be sure I have enough space. I have included the actual SketchUp drawing below for anyone that would like to have a peek. My sister used to put things in my cutouts that didn’t belong there. I anxiously await the edited copy with a toilet where my desk is supposed to go. Sketchup Drawing Office.zip |
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