Now this is how you should design your home
Sunday Independent, Property Section, Sunday, 2nd April, 2006, Author: Sinead Kelly
This week Sinead Kelly, no stranger to the cat walk herself, advises you to design that home on Modelrooms
Many people starting off with home renovations or indeed new house builds find it impossible to visualise the space in question.
The amount of times interior designers are called upon to rectify bad room designs is no joke.
The client always explains the result of a poor room being down to the fact that they just couldn't see or imagine the room when they looked at the plans.
So believe me, getting it right from the very beginning is in everyone's best interests. Interior designers cannot make a window dissappear or a room expand with just a wave of a magic wand!
The first skill an interior designer must master is that of drawing to scale. In layman's terms, a room is drawn on paper exactly as it is but exactly 25 times smaller. then everything you plan to put into it is also drawn 25 times smaller.
So if a sofa is going to be too large for a room it will be alarmingly obvious from the drawing. If the kitchen is too full with units, this too will be seen from the scaled drawing.
Most of the public would love to be able to do this but haven't the time to learn the technique; however thanks to a new Irish product, help is at hand.
When I came across a new planning to scale kit called Modelrooms, I was sold straight away. Any product that helps people visualise space is a must-have for all business and indeed for all attempting to design or redesign a room/house.
Modelrooms is the brainchild of Katie Galvin, a graduate of the Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design in 1993 and the College of Marketing and Design in 1989.
Modelrooms is an innovative first-of-its-kind product on the Irish and UK market. Aimed at householders who want to change rooms or remodel their living space, Modelrooms is an easy-to-use planning kit, which can help get the project off to the right start.
Having spent 15 years presenting architect's design plans for corporate and private clients, Katie was constantly approached by householders to produce custom models of their house designs, only to realise that these were quite costly.
Katie decided to look for a solution that would give homeowners the benifit of a design plan but without the high cost, and immediately got to work on prototypes.
Engaging friends, family and architect customers, Katie discovered she could use magnetised pieces and metal base and, eureka, Modelrooms was born!
Modelrooms consists of an easy to use box kit with magnetic boards, magnetised scale pieces (includind set-to-scale furniture, appliances, doors windows, stairs, wallsetc) that can be used to create your room plan.
You can move pieces around to get the desired room format, and even use the 'inspiration cards' included which can help with ideas for room and space planning.
The beauty of modelrooms is the ease with which it allows you to share your ideas for your rooms with other people. It also allows yo to easily create many different design options, make copies and draw comparisons.
Once you have your room plan in place, you can take this to a kitchen or bathroom sales company, an interior designer or an architect, and show them exactly what way you want your room to work out.
"Plans are generally difficult to interpret unless you are a qualified designer, architect, or builder. The modelrooms kit gives people the opportunity to create a clear room plan without any skill or training.
"It gives people the chance to put all their ideas in one place, and see for themselves what their rooms may looks like without having to trawl salesrooms amd hope that someone can interpret their dream design." says Katie.
So if you are planning some wall knocking, furniture placement or house redisign over the Easter, wait until you have your room all planned to scale with Modelrooms - a bargin of a design kit at €79, available from www.modelrooms.com