Blog - New Interior Solutions

Virtual remodeling of an attic

Say your house has an unfinished attic like this one.

Unfinished attic before rendering Now, say you want to turn it into a funky media room but your significant other prefers to turn it into an office. Today, with the new digital technology you can visualize both projects before making a final decision. Being able to see your design ideas come (virtually) to life way before demolition day or even before the selection of the materials is a great benefit as well as a huge time and money saver.

Virtual remodeling and interior design

As I mentioned before, virtual remodeling is a very effective tool for home owners. Not only it helps them visualize their home projects, but it helps them make up their mind if they have doubts or concerns about a particular design or style. It is a great way to show them different options for the same space. Taking the example above, this is how the attic would look if turned into a media room:

Rendering of an Attic- Media_Room

While this is how it would look if they decided to make it an office instead.

Virtual remodeling and real estate

Virtual remodeling can be applied to real estate as well. Actually, to tell you the truth, the images above were made for the listing of a cute little house that was about to go on the market. The house, besides being vacant, had this unfinished space. The realtor’s goal was to help potential buyers visualize how they could use this room. Therefore, we virtually remodeled it in two different ways. She then printed out the images and hung them on the wall in the room itself. The buyers appreciated the visual help and two weeks later the house was sold.

Does you home have an unfinished space that you would love to see rendered? Let’s talk!

Using digital technology to “play around” with layered rugs

It looks like the layered rug trend is here to stay. And for a good reason since it’s a creative but also practical way to pull a room together. It’s creative because it’s a way of mixing different patterns and textures that still work well together. It’s practical because it solves some design problems related to the layout of a room.

Floor Plans

Take this office for example. In this case the layout is actually pretty simple, but the way the furniture is arranged makes it hard to decide how to place the rug(s). Should you use only one big rug that covers the whole floor? Or two rugs, one for the desk and the other for the seating area? To start with, the easiest solution is to digitally render the layout creating a floor plan populated with furniture and accessories that can be easily moved around with just a click of the mouse. This allows you to “play” with the design elements until you find the most appealing solution.

Concept Boards

While floor plans are useful to finalize the right placement of the rugs (and other items within a room), concept boards are a useful tool to understand if the patterns and colors chosen coordinate well together. In the example above, not only you can see how the design, texture and colors of the three rugs work together, but also how they relate to the other elements in the room, that is the furniture, paint color, light fixtures, etc.

3D renderings

Adding a 3D rendering to the design process completes the visual aid and really helps get a feeling of the whole room. In this case, the 3D rendering not only shows how the three rugs would work together, but it also offers an immersive experience in the space itself. This way, it is easier to understand if an idea will work or not. Beside, it helps save time and money before the implementation of the design.

What is your next home project you need help with? Let’s chat!

Traditional staging versus virtual staging

Home staging is no longer a new term in the real estate field. Everyone knows what it is. Used for years now, traditional home staging still continues to help selling houses faster and for more money.

Traditional staging is the art of transforming a room (or an entire property) thanks to the use of furniture, color, accessories, etc. in order to increase the potential of a home. It applies to both vacant houses and occupied houses. In the first case the rooms are furnished with furniture and accessories brought in by the staging company, while in the second case the seller’s furniture and accessories are used. For this reason it is also known as redesign.

What is virtual staging?

Virtual staging has the same purpose as traditional staging but it uses new technology to highlight the potential of a property. To this end, it transforms the photographs of a listing by adding virtual furniture and accessories to help the buyer better understand the space and the interiors of a home.

The fundamental difference between the two is therefore in the fact that traditional staging shows a property as it is, while virtual staging shows a property as it could be. Also in terms of cost there is a big difference: traditional staging requires an average investment between $2000 and $5000 (for a medium-sized house), while virtual staging costs around $39 to $100 per image.

The two types of staging have in common the fact that they both offer web appeal and complete the presentation of a listing.

How can you avoid misrepresentation lawsuits related to virtual staging?

When it comes to virtual staging, it is crucial not to give the property a wrong representation. To overcome this problem it is absolutely essential to watermark the photos for transparency.

Here’s an example:

Personally, I always suggest my clients not only to put the disclaimer on the photos, but also to add it in the description of the property. Buyers must know that they will visit either an empty house or a house that is different from the one shown in the photos. What I mean is that sometimes virtual staging is used also to show a possible remodeling. In this case it is better known as virtual remodeling.

Another good idea is to show the original photo of the room and the virtual photo side by side. This video better illustrates the concept:

Absolutely no structural problems or physical damage should be hidden or disguised. This is actually a rule that applies to both traditional staging and real estate photography as well.

I think that in the end traditional staging and virtual staging are two sides of the same coin. Both are intended to show the potential of a property to help the seller understand if it is the right one. They are two different approaches to the same situation. One is more physical and expensive, while the other is more abstract and inexpensive. However, the purpose is the same: to sell a house faster and for more money.