Have you ever wanted to see your dream home or your new bedroom design right in front of you? Then HomeByMe can do exactly that!
HomeByMe is a website that you can use to design, furnish and decorate properties with online. Whilst this may not seem to interest everyone immediately, this program lets you design your dream home or next bedroom makeover.
I really like that the site allows you to view your designs from different perspectives. There is an editable 2D mode that allows you to view your design from a floorplan-like view . There is an (editable) 3D mode which shows the design in full 360o rotation from a user perspective, and finally a walkthrough perspective, enabling you to see the property exactly as you would in real life like during an estate agent visit. You are able to furnish the property, and usually change the dimensions and colours of the furnishings. There is a vaulted ceiling feature, which is a useful function. Using the decorating function avoids having paint patches on the (real) walls in multiple shades but you can select the specific shade you’re looking, deleting those unsuitable. It is fairly easy to get used to the software and figure out how to use HomeByMe, although it can be faffy at times The best thing about the program is the ability to change and edit your design until you are satisfied.
The software does have some flaws for ad-hoc users, however. If you are looking to create large projects with furnishings, then this is very time consuming. Sometimes, it can be hard to see the exact scale of the project in comparison to real life. The online design usually looks larger than how it would in real life. You are also occasionally unable to personalise furnishings which is a limitation when planning colour schemes. Finally, there is also the downside of the limit on how many projects you can make at one time (three), which is only really a problem if you plan to use HomeByMe professionally. It’s worth pointing out that HomeByMe does have, at the time of writing (Jan 2021), three levels of subscription and some of what I want to do is available on the paid-for tiers:
- Free (the tier that I use)
- One-time pack. A one-off fee of £12.50 for more tools and projects.
- Unlimited. £24.99pm or £249.99pa – yikes! Probably not suitable for home enthusiasts and students but probably very helpful for professionals and those starting a career in home design
Overall this is a great piece of technology that enables you to design a new bedroom or room renovation to a brand new house design. There are some great features to the program, and is not just for architects or interior designers, but hobbyists and DIY’ers.
As I have previously mentioned, being an architect or interior designer doesn’t interest everyone. I have a few friends who would prefer a very different career, but they have used HomeByMe to construct their very own home that they hope to live in, in the future.
Have you used HomeByMe? If so, what are your thoughts? Please add your comments to this page, we’d love to hear from you!
An interesting read, and is a useful software package. I have seen some designs on this software,and was very impressive. I can see how this would give the user a greater perspective of what they want to achieve. Great article.
This software recommendation is splendid. As someone interested in self-build/design, this would prove to be a great asset when planning small or large-scale projects, providing excellent dimensional perspective.