Drag and drop, and you have a plan!

Technology

If you are the type who likes to plan meticulously to ensure your furniture fits into a particular layout before you rent a home or buy it, there is a whole range of smart apps to let you mix and match layouts. Mala Ashok lists out some of them.

Are you one of those people who like to plan meticulously to ensure your furniture fits into a particular layout, before you rent a home or buy it?

Or you could be the type who has a floor plan in your handbag when you go furniture shopping. Either way you now have apps that make planning your furniture arrangement a cinch.

There is now a web app called the ‘Make Room Planner’ which simplifies room layout design. This can be used when you are moving to a new place, buying new furniture or simply rearranging furniture. Rather than move furniture, rugs and artifacts around your rooms to see what fits where, you can use the web planner to try different arrangements and also see what the end product looks like.

There are several such apps, most of them backed by furniture retail stores. You can customise the size and colour of both the rooms and each of the furniture items. You can “save” your room layouts or print them. All in all it’s a pretty easy-to-use and feature-filled way to virtually set up any room in your home or office.

There is a web app called floorplanner.com which even has a video called ‘How to create a floor plan within three minutes!’

Coupling this with the make room planner allows you to customise just about every aspect of your rooms. You can customise the size and colour of both the rooms and each of the furniture items.

Since all of these apps can be viewed on your smartphone, you can take your phone/tablet with you when you go house hunting and see how your furniture fares in the new rooms.

IKEA, the Swedish furniture giant is ready to make its foray into the Indian market with an almost $2 billion investment. IKEA is one of the leading players in the web app field.

Once it is established in India, this interesting decor tool will be available to all Indian shoppers who set out to decorate their rooms in this style.

Mix and match

You can drag and drop your choice of furniture into the rooms and fit them to the exact measurements of your home. Rearrange and try different styles until you’re satisfied with the result.  

Some apps allow you to view it in 3-D and print with all the measurements, just like an architect.

See how much it will cost and get the list of all products.
It is quite exciting to be able to decorate your home or locate your dream home where your existing furniture will fit, ‘virtually’, with this exciting new tool.