Homestyler Interior Design
Shanae Maerz
Welcome back to my blog! This is an exciting post where I review 2 design tools; Homestyler and Foyr Neo. As an Interior designer, it is important to have the right tools to convey your designs to a client. I have worked with various tools to mock up my designs and translate my vision to my clients. From creating moodboards using photoshop to 3D designs, I have done it all. I have tried a plethora of tools and I have weighed the advantages and disadvantages of each based on what works best for my business at the moment. As a business owner, it is important to weigh the value of a savy new product and the potential cost attached, learning curve etc to determine if it is the best course of action. I decided to write up this blog post to provide some answers I wish I had when I started investigating web based design tool options for my business.
One of the things I love the most about 3D design and rendering is that a client can immediately see exactly how their space will look like at the end of the project. I have been successful in the past with 2D moodboards but people are visual and I love the fact that you easily show the transition from the design to the real life space. Adding the 3D rendering option to the list of my deliverables has been a huge game changer. I recently concluded a project where I documented how the space went through the design process, you can check it out here.
Homestyler provides efficient online 3D interior design tools to designers and providing solutions of digital transformation for furniture and real estate industry. The Homestyler website can help create your entire house from scratch and decorate with products from over 200 real furniture brands and walk around your project in real time thanks to the 3D view. Homestyler has web, mobile, AR and VR capabilities. The best part of it is that it is FREE (for most part)
Foyr NEO helps you convert your ideas from 2D plans, to 3D designs, to photorealistic renders within minutes. A Neo subscription comes with a catalogue of 50,000+ pre-3D modeled products. You can also upload your own 3D models for limitless designing. Neo also comes with a globally curated collection of pre-made designs for home interiors, kitchens, offices, and more.
Homestyler is a lot cheaper than Foyr Neo for similar functionality. And it also helps that there is a Basic plan that is free so you can try the tool and get comfortable with it before you invest in it. Foyr has a 14 day trial period and that might be enough to do a crash course on the tool and get familiar if you are really dedicated.
It took around the same time to draw a simple floor plan. However with homestyler, I can easily add customizations such as doors, windows etc from the same interface but with Foyr, I had to go into a separate page to search for and add these elements.
I wanted a more robust review so I tried the model upload feature for both tools. NOTE: Not everyone will need this feature in order to design or conceptualize your space. As I mentioned earlier, Foyr has a wider variety of newer furniture items that you can access and buy in store. As a designer, showing the actual furniture pieces a client will have in their space when they view their render vs an idea of what the furniture will look like is the difference between a happy client and an extremely happy client.
With homestyler, everyday I log in, I get 5 points on my account which is the cost of 1 ultra HD render. Due to the fact that I can preview my render for free, I can make adjustments as needed before rendering in ultra HD. However, I can render for unlimited times using the standard render or 1 render point for HD. I upgraded to get the 4k render option which gives a slightly more realistic render than the ultra HD. As long as I log in daily and get my points, I can accumulate enough for multiple renders.
I love that I can easily view my renderings on the homestyler mobile view and also download that way. With Foyr, when your render is complete, you get notified via an email and a download link which also gives me the option to download on mobile. Its handy to have an option to view my render directly on my phone without having to transfer from my laptop
Also Foyr has neat customization features like the option to customize the render with my logo, add filters and edit. Homestyler too has customizations where you can add filters and edit but Foyr has them beat with the option to upload your logo to brand your work.
Both have gallery / inspirations for you to see what some great designers have already created using the tool. With foyr, you can import your inspiration to your design and re-design it to suit your needs. Homestyler has the template option with 4 pre-loaded designs that you can load in your design. I found this useful because if I was trying to figure out how to achieve something, I can just edit an existing model and figure it out.
Hi Laura, Thanks for reaching out. Regarding furniture sizes, I would resize a piece of furniture to the same measurements as that furniture or a similar furniture is in real life. I also make sure my room is to scale which should give me a good idea what that furniture piece (with the right measurements) will look like in the actual room. Hope this makes sense. Please let me know if you have any more questions.
Hi I am about to have a laptop and I would love to start using your website to design my own rooms, homes, furniture etc I also have my best friend who is a past real estate agent who is willing to help me out with this. I am very very interested. Please email me back as soon as possible. Thank you. I just have a few questions.
Thank you so much for this blog; it is extremely helpful for me as I am venturing into this space and need to decide which software to get that will serve my needs. I really appreciate you comparing them side by side, and it was very helpful.
Thank you so much for doing this. I worked at a firm where they only used Revit and Enscape and it is soo pushed to use it for interior design. I have knowledge of so many programs its hard to narrow down one that will suit my needs for a start up business. What program do you use for designing for you business?
Because it's a Vector Art program, when you have, say your furniture in Plan View, you can Scale them up, or down, while retaining sharpness. You can also design (or possibly buy), common furniture art, to be reused in many AI documents.
Or maybe look at one of those 3D packages. It's a competitive world, and impressing the client with a virtual walk-through of the revamped environment might be the difference between you, and someone else getting the work.
I am studying interior design and I find the best products to use are photoshop/illustrator (for custom furniture design), indesign (For client mood boards etc) and archicad 19 for rendering perspective digital drawings!
I think before getting into Photoshop you need first an interior design software to render your draft designs. You can use 3D Studio Max, Blender or Sketchup. Or use a web-based interior design software like: InnoPlanner, Homestyler or Planner5d.
The only problem i have is that it doesn't allow me to upload my floor plans and items are limited.
Is there a way to download it to pc and make it more customized? (upload items and floors)
If that isn't possible, is there a way to transform autocad to homestyler? I'm amateur, i don't even know how to create a wall on autocad...
I did take a look at the program and it appears to have a mobile version in addition to the web version. From the File menu, you can save your design to a DWG which is (I am assuming) an AutoCAD drawing format.
This would at least get the base geometry into AutoCAD for you. If you have a design in Homestyler that you can share, I am happy to see what it looks like when brought into AutoCAD. From there I could certainly point you to some videos and tutorials to get you started in AutoCAD if that is where you want to work.
John i really appreciate your time but as i said i am a noob, i don't understand a word on autocad, its all Greek to me (and i am Greek lol), i use adobe photoshop and adobe illustrator but autocad is an alien, the only thing i understand are some icons on modify and the layers.
This is really a tough call. While it is certainly possible to do the 3D construction of your model and also do the renders in AutoCAD, it might require quite a bit of work. Have you set a project deadline?
So i contacted my brother (who studied autocad in school) and he said that i can try REVIT and transform a 2d drawing to a 3d house very easily, it also has many many options for customization (he sounded excited about this program). So...i will try it
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr. 11, 2013-- Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) unveiled the new Autodesk Homestyler, a free* iPad app for creative, real-time home design that allows users to blend high-quality 3D models of products from popular brands with photos of their interior spaces. The app also provides users with access to inspiring ideas from a community of designers and design enthusiasts.
Homestyler, a free* online home design software, has brought interior design plans to life since 2010. Now optimized for the iPad, the new Homestyler app offers a wide selection of 3D models of real furniture, home decor and appliances so users can digitally try out everything from rugs and mirrors to paint colors and light fixtures.
For professional designers and brands looking to reach and engage with consumers, the Homestyler app allows them to better communicate their design ideas and reach decisions faster in expressing their vision for their home or office whether playing with new paint colors or viewing 3D models of furniture within the space.
The Homestyler app lets users tap into more than 1,500 Sherwin-Williams colors for inspiration as they create their perfect space," says Jackie Jordan, director of color marketing, Sherwin-Williams. "Color is a critical element of design, and the new iPad app is a great way to explore the impact of different hues and the relationship between wall colors and furnishings."
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