Any online tool for designing shelves for an alcove: recommendations

May 22, 2018 1:05 PM

Does a planning tool exist for designing shelves for an alcove that I would then build myself? Ideally something that would tell me lengths of wood needed, and allow me to input the actual measurements to generate an accurate design.

Small humans 1 and 2 have generated stuff, and in order to make use of the alcove in their shared room, in our very small house I would like to build fitted shelves that best make use of the space and specific requirements. Are there any online tools where I could input the measurements and then design some shelves/cubby holes? Best case scenario this tool would then tell me the lengths of wood required. I can find lots of room planners/floor planners - but nothing specifically for making furniture.

(Special snowflake issues: ideally this would be something that works in a browser, as I only have a work computer which does not allow me to download very much. I'm also not a CAD expert or anything of that level - fairly self evidently at this point).

posted by Augenblick to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

A lot of woodworky types use the browser version of SketchUp for this sort of thing.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 1:42 PM on May 22, 2018

Elfa has a Closet Designer tool that would be the easiest place to start, no CAD experience required. It creates a shoppable plan for you, so you can buy wood and all the necessary brackets from them too.
posted by rada at 2:05 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I took a makerspace workshop last year and designed a bookshelf, and we used Onshape, which is cad, but there is a lot of help out there for using it, and there are designs already public that you can use to base your own design on. I would recommend looking into a Makerspace or wood shop that has a CNC router, which cuts plywood and other wood into specific pieces. If you locate a a place like this, there will be people who can help you with your project- you will be amazed at what you can make. The place where I did my workshop used Onshape for the design, and then a software called Vcarve to transfer the design to the cnc machine.

Another option is Ana White- she is a blogger who has made a fortune teaching people how to make furniture- there are plans on her website for all sorts of furniture, and all sorts of tutorials. She also has a new site to find local crafts people if you find that you can't do the project yourself.
posted by momochan at 5:47 AM on May 23, 2018

Most of Ana White's projects are from publicly available SketchUp projects. I would get that software and then search for a similar project on White's site and then track it down on SketchUp and then modify that to your needs. Every project on White's site includes a rough bill of materials to help get you started. If you've never used a CAD, 3d, vector graphics or software that heavily uses layers, like photoshop, then SketchUp will have a learning curve.
posted by zenon at 9:18 AM on May 23, 2018