Recommendations for simple floor plan and furniture layout software
October 2, 2021 3:14 PM Subscribe
Any recommendations for a simple floor plan and furniture layout website/app for creating a plan for a new house that's an improvement over graph paper and scissors?
We're moving soon and want to create a floor plan and furniture layout for our new place. The last time we moved we made the floor plan on graph paper and cut out pieces of furniture that we moved around until we were happy with the result. We're curious to know if there are any websites or apps out there that would actually make this process easier and more useful than using the graph paper approach again. Our priority is definitely functionality over looks.
I've done a bit of Googling but a lot of the results seem focused on creating fancy 3D floor plans with furniture placed from a provided catalog, etc. and it's hard to tell which ones support something simple like I have in mind.
Ideal features:
* Easy to create 2D floor plans including windows and doors, etc. with specific dimensions.
* Easy to create 2D furniture of custom sizes with labels (e.g. "Sonya's Desk").
* Can print out results, ideally including dimensions and with a look similar to graph paper.
* The ability to work offline would be preferred since we may not have internet at the new place while we're doing this.
We would prefer to do this on a Mac laptop, but we also have access to an iPhone and older iPad.
We're moving soon and want to create a floor plan and furniture layout for our new place. The last time we moved we made the floor plan on graph paper and cut out pieces of furniture that we moved around until we were happy with the result. We're curious to know if there are any websites or apps out there that would actually make this process easier and more useful than using the graph paper approach again. Our priority is definitely functionality over looks.
I've done a bit of Googling but a lot of the results seem focused on creating fancy 3D floor plans with furniture placed from a provided catalog, etc. and it's hard to tell which ones support something simple like I have in mind.
Ideal features:
* Easy to create 2D floor plans including windows and doors, etc. with specific dimensions.
* Easy to create 2D furniture of custom sizes with labels (e.g. "Sonya's Desk").
* Can print out results, ideally including dimensions and with a look similar to graph paper.
* The ability to work offline would be preferred since we may not have internet at the new place while we're doing this.
We would prefer to do this on a Mac laptop, but we also have access to an iPhone and older iPad.
I know it has "3D" in the title, but you can hide the 3D view and does everything you want.
posted by flimflam at 3:39 PM on October 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by flimflam at 3:39 PM on October 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Wow, that is, honestly, much closer to what I was looking for than I expected to find. Thanks!
I will keep an eye on this in case anybody has any alternative recommendations but definitely liking Sweet Home 3D so far.
posted by unus sum at 4:02 PM on October 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
I will keep an eye on this in case anybody has any alternative recommendations but definitely liking Sweet Home 3D so far.
posted by unus sum at 4:02 PM on October 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
I wish I had known about Sweet Home 3D when I was busy designing for a recent house remodel. I used Room Planner from Living Spaces and while the software is kinda of "quirky," I was blown away by how quickly I could model my house and start playing with wall colors. The user guide is really out of date, so the whole process may involve a lot of...cursing figuring out stuff. Once you have it all designed, using the web app on iPad is a very smooth walkthrough experience. I think it requires an active internet connection, though.
posted by oxisos at 5:18 PM on October 2, 2021
posted by oxisos at 5:18 PM on October 2, 2021
I was going to suggest Floorplanner.com which I found both amazingly impressive for a web-based tool, and extremely frustrating at times. But now I wish I’d found Sweet Home 3D earlier!
posted by fabius at 6:44 AM on October 3, 2021
posted by fabius at 6:44 AM on October 3, 2021
I used Roomsketcher for a while. It's one of those "free but to do anything useful you need to pay" freemium software. It works, and there are all sorts of existing furniture in the library you can plug in to generate a 3D view once you got all the pieces in. But it'd be really primitive wireframe (with full textured renders a premium feature).
posted by kschang at 12:23 PM on October 3, 2021
posted by kschang at 12:23 PM on October 3, 2021
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posted by flimflam at 3:37 PM on October 2, 2021 [5 favorites]