Live Home 3D makes homes design easy.
Not too long ago, we started remodeling rooms in our house. The two rooms we focused on were our office and living room. They were the easiest to start with because we could manage to ‘live’ around the remodel-zone that was caused by those two rooms being in chaos. Our main focus with the office was to rearrange the furniture while the living room needed a complete overhaul – new furniture, fresh coat of paint, etc. Both of these rooms presented issues for us because we needed to be able to visualize how the furniture would be positioned before we actually did the move. The desk in our office is a huge modular piece that we were concerned about damaging and the new living room furniture had had to be pre-planned for by measuring the dimensions of the room because we were replacing a sofa with a sectional. So, I found myself spending many late nights trying to find an online solution for digitally rearranging our furniture before we moved it in real life. You know what I found? There aren’t any ‘good’ solutions out there. There are ‘band-aids’ and drafting websites that will help you limp through the layout process, but it’s not an exact science and in the end, you still end up guessing and taking a leap of faith. That being said, there is a wonderful Mac App drafting solution in Live Home 3D by BeLight Software.
Live Home 3D is an intuitive home design software that helps you build your dream home right on the safety of your Mac. It’s perfect for home owners and interior designers alike. You have a 2D and 3D environment to work with as you design your rooms/home. There is a standard version and a pro version of the app and both are available in the Mac App Store. Using point-and-click design tools, you can build your ideal space within minutes.
Live Home 3D comes preinstalled with hundreds of 3D objects (furniture, walls, etc.) and materials to create your customized floor plans. When I first opened the app, I was a little intimidated. I’ve never used a CAD program and this had some similar features to a drafting app. That being said, when I got started, I found there were really nothing to it. I set up the dimensions of our living room by creating the walls. Then, I added in the door openings of the room. Finally, I started placing pieces of furniture.
Now, what is really cool about Live Home 3D is that even if the furniture they have pre-loaded isn’t exactly right, you can change the dimensions to make it work for your room. For example, the sectional I dropped into place was just under 96 inches long on each side. Well, the one we were looking at for our living room was 108 inches on each side. So, I simply highlighted the piece of furniture in the layout and then adjusted the measurements in the inspector window. Once you have your furniture the correct dimensions (and any other customization you want), you can actually save it to your library for later use.
For my purposes, I was primarily using Live Home 3D to test out various floor plans for furniture moving. The app will do a lot more like edit various materials, colors, etc. It’s really a very advanced design tool, but it’s easy enough for anyone to use it.
I truly wish that we had Live Home 3D at the beginning of our remodel journey because it would have been a lot easier and less time consuming than fiddling around with the online ‘options’. The app isn’t free, but it you are planning on extensive renovations, it’s worth the investment.
DOWNLOAD – Mac – Live Home 3D: Standard ($19.99)
DOWNLOAD – Mac – Live Home 3D: Pro ($49.99)
For more information, visit livehome3d.com.
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