Sunday, April 18, 2010

room arranging hack

i have always always loved to arrange rooms. even when i'm not good at it! ever since i was big enough to move the furniture by myself, i have rearranged my bedroom constantly, always looking for a more pleasing arrangement. and sometimes, just wanting the freshness that only change can bring.

however, my current bedroom is driving me nuts, and this time it's not enough just to look at the room and start moving stuff. plus, now that i'm an adult, my stuff is bigger and heavier!

but now, thanks to my friend ethan allen (my rich, expensive, completely out of my price range friend), i have a wonderful tool to help me arrange and rearrange my room. and to plan and replan for needed pieces that i don't have.

it's called: the room planner (click on "design online with my projects" in the lower right hand corner). catchy name, right? ;) all you need to start are an account with ethanallen.com (don't worry, they won't ask for financial information) and the dimensions of your room and existing (or desired) pieces.

now, here's my hack for it: they let you use their furniture only, but if you know the dimensions of your existing furniture (in inches!!) you can choose pieces that match (or closely resemble) the dimensions of your piece. since it's a 2d, view from above image, it doesn't even matter if you choose a bookcase to represent a bookcase, as long as the dimensions are what you want.

they also let you print the plans, and even save them as jpegs. you can create multiple plans too!

here's the current layout of my current room (i'm also fooling around with a remodeling possibility). click image for a larger version:

existing bedroom


so happy virtual arranging, y'all! your back will thank me! ;)

next post will contain a similar hack, but for photo/wall hanging arrangement.

5 comments:

  1. Always good to know about another furniture cad. They can be very useful and it's great that you're planning -- most don't. Jane F

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  2. thanks so much! i've already changed some things! it's amazing how your mind changes about some stuff after you live with it for a while.

    thanks for the comment! good to know i'm not in blog siberia. :)

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  3. What a great resource! Thanks for filling us in on it.

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  4. i was so happy to find it. it's so nice to be able to visualize things before you put the muscle and sweat in!

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  5. Great resource! Can't wait to use it..

    One warning I'd suggest is that while this site registration doesn't ask for financial information, they do email your password to you in plain-text. A fairly un-safe practice if you use a common-password.

    Thanks for the hack-help! :)

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