Do you want to try your hand at interior design before an upcoming renovation, but can’t decide on a program? There are really a lot of them, and at first glance it is difficult to understand which one to give preference to. To make your choice easier, we've compiled a selection of 15 of the best editors. Read on to learn their pros and cons and find out which interior design program is right for you.

1. Interior Design 3D

A multifunctional Russian-language editor that is suitable even for novice users. It features a clear interface and numerous tools for designing rooms. Here you can:

• build a layout of rooms according to exact dimensions,
• add any number of floors,
• install doors, windows, stairs and interior partitions,
• perform finishing, including using your own textures,
• add furniture from the built-in library, configure its parameters and materials,
• prepare an estimate for repairs.

This program for creating a room design has 2D, 3D, “Virtual Visit” and “Photorealism” modes for visually viewing the results, and you will also find a convenient built-in tool for calculating repair estimates.

Get to know the capabilities of the Interior Design 3D program

Interior Design 3D Program overview

A professional editor in which you can create layouts of premises, perform finishing, design furniture and calculate the cost of work. Well suited for factories and other large organizations that require a multifunctional tool for core activities. For individuals who are not professionally involved in interior design, the interface with an abundance of tools may seem quite complicated, and the price too high (for example, PRO100 v.6 Professional costs 83,842 rubles).

PRO100 editor interface

A free service with good functionality, in which you can work directly through your browser. Allows you to create rooms of various shapes, model houses with several floors, perform individual finishing and install furniture from the catalog. You can work in 2D and 3D modes. Additionally, he offers to complete the design of the local area.

Planner 5D editor interface

Overall, this program for apartment renovation looks attractive, especially considering that it is distributed free of charge. However, there are also disadvantages: it requires an Internet connection to work. Moreover, at a fairly high speed, otherwise a large-scale project will be greatly slowed down.

A professional editor that allows you to prepare layouts of premises, perform finishing and furnishings. You can add windows, doors, roofs and stairs, and also create uneven surfaces: multi-level ceilings, sloping roofs. In addition to detailed house design, he offers landscape design.

Floorplan 3D editor interface

The disadvantages of the editor include a rather complex interface. Beginner users will find it difficult to understand all the variety of tools.

In the editor, you can create three-dimensional models of apartments and houses with decoration and furniture, and calculate the cost of repairs. You can view the finished project from the inside using virtual reality glasses and even organize an entire VR tour of your home.

Planoplan editor interface

The program for creating an apartment plan has a free version, but it has significant limitations in functionality: you can only develop one project of a limited area, floors are not available. To fully use the software, you will have to regularly pay for a subscription (495 rubles per month). You can also work in Planoplan through a browser, but you need the Internet for this.

Free software for modeling a home, arranging furniture and viewing the resulting layout in three dimensions. You can build rooms based on a scanned plan. allows you to add labels to the project to, for example, indicate the purpose of rooms. Objects from the built-in library can be used in the work. The proposed furniture catalog is not too extensive. You cannot change the size and shape of objects, which is a significant drawback. The completed project can be printed on a printer.

Sweet Home 3D editor interface

A browser application that allows you to preview your interior design. On the one hand, Homestyler does not require the installation of additional software, on the other hand, it requires an Internet connection. To ensure fast work, the interface and tools are made minimalistic. suitable for sketching out the initial plan for the arrangement of furniture, but it is unlikely to suit you if you need to carry out a detailed study of the interior design of the house.

Homestyler editor interface

Do you want to create accurate, realistic designs of apartments and cottages with your own hands?

An interior design program that performs three-dimensional modeling of rooms and furniture. There is a free version with a number of restrictions on functionality (saves in its own *.skp extension, no export to other formats), and a paid version - PRO. The software is somewhat different from its analogues in that all settings for the geometry of objects are performed after they are constructed. This, on the one hand, is convenient, since there is no need to do double work: first make presets and then edit the result. On the other hand, when you need to correct several objects at once, you will have to correct each one separately.

SketchUp editor interface

Application for two- and three-dimensional design of housing. There are various tools for planning and furnishing all rooms from the bedroom to the kitchen. Used items and materials can be immediately ordered from online stores.

The service is accessible through a browser. does not have a Russian menu, so it is not suitable for those who do not speak English well enough.

HomeByMe editor interface

10. IKEA Home Planner

A free program for modeling an apartment that IKEA fans will love. With its help, you can decorate your home with furniture from this store. Home Planner allows you not only to change the settings of items, but also to calculate the cost of finished furnishings and instantly order all items from IKEA. The software is not suitable for designing premises using furniture from other brands.

HomeByMe editor interface

The software allows you to design rooms of arbitrary geometry, install windows and doors. You can do the finishing and furnishing, but the built-in catalog is not very rich. Each piece of furniture is customizable. After completing the layout, you can immediately send the order to the furniture factory.

Editor interface Astron Design

A browser-based constructor for creating apartments and offices, allowing you to arrange furniture and, after completing the work, view the finished project from the inside. The result can be shared with friends on social networks. The apartment planning program has a free starting version, but the main functionality opens only after paying for a year of use. A stable Internet connection is required to work.

RoomToDo editor interface

A simple English-language application for your Android smartphone or tablet. Allows you to plan, finish and customize the arrangement of furniture. There is a photorealistic design viewing mode. The editor is convenient when you need to quickly figure out what a room will look like after renovation, but when you need an accurate interior plan, it will not work.

Master Design Editor Interface

An application in which you can plan residential premises, offices and retail pavilions. Allows you to build a layout of premises according to given dimensions, install windows, doors and other objects from built-in libraries. You can view the result in three dimensions. The interface is not very friendly, the user will have to spend time mastering it. An email address is required to download and use the editor.

Visicon PRO editor interface

Free software for creating 2D home plans and furnishings. Allows you to draw walls, arches, doors and windows. You can insert pictures (textures) of different formats into the drawing to make it more realistic. The finished diagram can be easily sent by fax or email.

Suitable only for preparing a 2D diagram; there is no 3D visualization, which does not allow you to clearly assess the appearance of the resulting room.

Home Plan Pro editor interface

Almost all programs for creating an interior from the Top 15 have their advantages and disadvantages. Do you want to choose the optimal software for designing, finishing and furnishing premises? Pay attention to Interior Design 3D. This is a convenient Russian-language program that even a beginner can master. Numerous tools, a rich built-in catalog of furniture and materials, as well as convenient 3D viewing and a photorealism option make this editor a real flagship in the world of software for home interior design. Download Interior Design 3D right now and create a house project with your own hands!

Have you started a renovation, have a client appeared, or are you just interested in playing with the interior? Interior designer programs will help. We have described more than 20 of them. Some can be used on a computer, others are available as applications on a tablet or phone.

The era of drawing an interior sketch on whatman paper is over. And it was replaced by computer programs. The benefits of them are obvious both for certified designers themselves and for their clients.

The former can “draw” and change the interior without traces of a pencil wiped with an eraser; for the latter, such visualization helps to imagine what the interior will look like.

Designers who have received this specialty in universities (we hope it was useful) need the help of computer programs. But how do you figure out what programs are needed for an interior designer?

There are many of them. Some are paid, others are shareware, and in others you can work without paying anything to the developer. There are those that show the design on a plane, and many programs are able to present the sketch in 3D format, remaining on the printout.

Let's look at the best programs for interior designers. Do you have a favorite program? Which? And is it easy for you to work in it?

3. IKEA Home Planner

A program from a well-known company offering everything for the home. To get even closer to customers, IKEA created it.

Even beginners can handle the program. There is a room, there is furniture, decorative items (though from IKEA). So gradually, step by step, you can plan any room in the house: kitchen, living quarters, hallway, bathroom, regardless of their size.

The program is free.

Advantages: you can not only arrange everything as if it were “live”, but also calculate the approximate cost of the furnishings.

Flaws: no freedom of choice. Everything that is in a potential room can be chosen only from the company’s products.

4. Interior design 3D

A program for apartment design and renovation planning with wide functionality. The catalog of objects includes more than 50 pieces of furniture, over 120 options for finishing walls and floors, choosing colors and apartment layouts.

Clear interface in Russian. You can install and remove partitions, move furniture.

After reading the demo version, you will need to buy a licensed version if you like the program.

Advantages: You can choose the sizes of furniture and rooms. Expand, rotate the resulting sketch, print. Easy to use. Standard layouts available. There is a “virtual visit” option, when you can “walk” through an apartment or house. One of the few free programs for interior design in Russian, albeit conditionally.

Flaws: Only items that have already been programmed can be used. And, as often happens, you want more, better and, of course, for free.

5. ArchiCAD

The program is suitable for professional designers and architects, as it has a whole range of various options - from floor plans to construction documentation and specifications.

Shareware. The trial period of use is one month. Then you need to purchase a license to operate all the functionality. Currently, the rights to the programs belong to Grasshopper.

Advantages: all parts of the project are not separate, but interconnected. If changes are made to one of them, this will immediately be displayed on the general plan, in section, in the views where this part is involved.

Flaws: no multi-pass. That is, the created project cannot be created in several versions at once. Complex geometry is also too tough for the program. You can use the help of other software - but is it necessary?

Website: http://www.graphisoft.ru/

6. Google Sketchup

The program is designed for beginning interior designers. There are two versions - paid (Google Sketchup Pro) and free. The first has more options and wider functionality.

But even in the free version you can create a high-quality interior design in 3D format, changing the layout, color, arranging furniture, varying the size.

There is a free and paid version of the program. Designers, those who use it, how do you like the free version?

Advantages: You can add markings and dimensions to already made objects. In the program you can design not only a living space, but also a car, furniture, landscape design, an airplane, a street - everything that exists in space in three dimensions. The created project can be sent to the Internet.

Flaws: The free version has few objects. However, they can be downloaded from the World Wide Web. Simple lines and shapes are available, but flat shapes are easily transformed into three-dimensional ones.

7.FloorPlan 3D

A professional program for interior design - suitable for planning any interior with the ability to virtually move through rooms and offices. Possibility of rotation for better viewing of the project. You can choose finishing materials for walls, floors, stairs, ceilings, choose doors, windows.

The new version adds interesting options: broken lines, terraces, gates, attics, paths, fences, railings, balconies, etc. You can do landscape design.

The program is shareware. A little time is given for familiarization, then you are offered to buy a license key.

Advantages: incredible realism of the sketch, ease of use, wide possibilities. Don't have time to develop a plan? The library has ready-made layouts and standard interiors. They can be taken as a basis and brought to a presentable look.

Flaws: takes up a lot of space in the computer, the latter must have good RAM. Program for beginners. Professionals are unlikely to learn anything new.

8. Astron Design

The planning program from Astron allows you to set the parameters of rooms, select the color of decoration for walls, ceilings, floors, select and place furniture, decorative items, and indicate the location of windows and doors.

However, Astron Design can hardly be called a full-fledged interior design program. This is more of a planner for arranging furniture in a room with given parameters.

The program is free.

Advantages: wide possibilities, realistic picture. Updated catalog of objects and furniture in the new version.

Flaws: poor color range. The project is demonstrated in 2D format, that is, flat, like a regular drawing.

You can download it by entering the program name in the search.

9. PRO100

Software from Russian developers. In it you can not only create design projects for a house or apartment, but also design interiors and furniture. The service is easy to understand and can be used by both beginners and beginners.

But no one said that it should always be difficult for professionals, right? The main thing is to realize the idea and idea and present it in printed form or on a tablet to the client.

Shareware program. The demo version has limited functionality, but it is enough for an amateur. The licensed version is not expensive.

Advantages: objects can be moved, the project can be rotated for review, and options for layouts and items can be found in the library. It is possible to apply dimensions to the room.

Flaws: The program sometimes “plays” with textures on its own. They suddenly stretch or contract.

10. Home Plan Pro

The Home Plan Pro interior design program allows you to quickly create a plan for a house, office or apartment, using modifications of doors, windows, furniture, and decorative objects. The good news is that there are quite a lot of these objects, so you can create an attractive interior design.

The program is simple, and it is precisely this simplicity that makes it unattractive for professional designers.

The program is shareware. You have to pay for the license.

Advantages: the finished project can be sent by email or fax directly from the program, or printed.

Flaws: interface in English. According to professionals, it is not worth the money - it is too simple.

11.Apartama

This is not a program, but an online service for creating interior design in 3D modeling. It also contains ready-made projects so you can get an idea, and a decent amount of all kinds of objects and finishing materials.

You can create a project specification, print it, send it by email. Once you’ve finished working on the design, you can take a virtual tour of the property.

Advantages: furniture, finishing materials, and decorative items are sourced from online stores, so they are always relevant and the choice is constantly expanding. Here, you can immediately calculate the cost of redevelopment with the furnishings, and change something if necessary.

Flaws: This is an online service and requires an Internet connection to work. Therefore, you won’t be able to sit in the countryside, in the forest and get creative without a network.

12. Planoplan

Another online service for creating an interior. The catalog contains real furniture, not something created by programmers. You can create a drawing of an apartment as a background and drag and drop images onto it. The layout can be your own or standard.

In objects you can change the texture, color, add matte or gloss, change the scale, and some spatial parameters. There is a PRO account, which has wider capabilities.

There is no need to pay for use.

Advantages: The program is full of real objects, and the picture quality is pleasing. And its demo version can be downloaded for free.

Flaws: The service works online only.

13.KitchenDraw

This is a narrow-profile service. However, ease of use deserves a mention. From the name it is clear that only kitchen design is possible. But her options are not limited to this.

In the program you can make a 3D kitchen, as well as prepare estimates, reports, calculate the cost taking into account VAT, discounts, and exchange rate fluctuations.

14. AutoCad

This program is for those who like to draw the old fashioned way - on whatman paper, using a ruler, pencil and compass. Now this is possible in AutoCad.

Create vector plans and images using simple lines: arcs, straight lines, curves, shading, etc.

15. 3D Max

This program is specifically for professional designers. The picture turns out clear and realistic. Therefore, the customer will be able to see what his home will ultimately look like. The designer is given complete freedom of action.

But it is worth considering that the sketch takes a long time to create, so you need to be patient. If the result is worth the wait, you can be patient, don’t you agree?

Advice for designers: It would be nice to accompany the picture with drawings, an estimate, or simply a description of the sketch on paper. This will be useful to both the customer and the person who will manage the repair.

16. VisiCon

In this program, you can not only change the layout of an apartment or room, but also its creation itself. In the tasks you can enter the number of rooms, the layout of the home, the purpose of the room.

The plan is created in a three-dimensional image, variations of textures (including your own) and colors, selection and placement of furniture and decorative items are available.

Shareware program. In the simplified, also known as demo version, limited functionality is possible. VisiCon Pro is a licensed, more complete version of the program.

17.Room Arranger

Using this program, you can create a project for an entire office, home or a separate room, furnish it with furniture, add accessories, and choose the color of the finish. You can move walls and erect partitions.

The service's capabilities also allow you to design a landscape design or garden.

Shareware program. 30 days free use

Advantages: program is Russified, 3D format, virtual walk.

Flaws: The graphics are far from realistic. For a virtual review, you need another program - the so-called 3D viewer. The developers of Room Arranger recommend Cortona3D Viewer.

A beautiful, functional online service for creating the layout of a house, office, apartment, residential and non-residential premises with realistic graphics. To decorate the rooms, objects that exist in reality are offered. You can later buy them.

The created project can be sent by email, published on one of the social networks or on the website.

Advantages: furniture arrangement in 2D and 3D, virtual walk. You can build walls yourself, giving the room any shape, so the service is also suitable for those who are building their own house or cottage.

Flaws: You can only work if you have an Internet connection.

To work, you need to log in through your FB account or register in the usual way.

Advantages: Real picture, three-dimensional image.

Flaws: There is no Russian version, but artists should understand each other without words, do you agree?

Another clear and fun online service for creating interior design. You can enter your layout plan and operate with it. To work you need to register.

The smallest details down to the heating system, stairs, flooring and space for partitions.

Advantages: three-dimensional format, virtual viewing of the apartment from the inside. The dimensions of the partitions and walls are immediately visible on the monitor.

Flaws: visualization of the picture suffers. English speaking service. But even without knowledge of the language, you can understand the functioning of the resource.

Having figured out what programs interior designers use, let's move on to applications.

Interior design programs aren't just for Macs, desktops, and laptops. Owners of tablets, smartphones, and iPads can now download one of the applications listed below to their gadget.

And immerse yourself in the delightful world of concrete, wallpaper, paint and furniture. Next we will talk about applications.

21. Photo Measure Lite

In this application, you don't need to draw a room plan. Enter its dimensions and insert furniture and decor.

The originality of the application is that you can come to the store with a tablet or smartphone, photograph objects of interest: furniture, plumbing fixtures, kitchen sink or stove, washing machine, etc. Write down the parameters. And then add a picture, indicating the parameters, to the room plan.

It will be visually clear whether what you like is suitable or not. Of course, you can draw everything by hand. But progress is a fascinating thing.

The application may also be of some interest to designers. Arriving at a client’s home, you can “transfer” what you see into your pocket equipment and bring the project to fruition at home or in the office.

22. HomeStyler Interior Design

An application that will be interesting for both amateurs and professionals. The beauty of it is that it already contains many projects created by other users. Once inspired by ideas, it is easier to generate a new design masterpiece.

The application is almost no different from a computer program. There is an apartment plan, you can upload your photo and work with it. The arrangement of furniture is carried out not on a plane, but in a three-dimensional image.

23. Master-Design Interior

This application was created by programmers to help designers. Wherever you are, dear professionals, you can manage your project, creating kitchens, bedrooms, children's rooms, living rooms. You choose the layout, sizes, furniture from the catalog and arrange it.

The free version doesn't have as many options as we would like. But they are quite enough to create a draft design. And if you want to work in the application constantly, you can purchase unlimited.

24. Interior design

This application provides a wide range of creativity for designers and owners of houses and apartments. But this is rather a collection of ideas rather than an algorithm for creating your own interior.

But it contains bedrooms and kitchens, children's and living rooms, balconies, hallways, and bathrooms. As a source of inspiration, the application has a right to exist.

25. Home Design 3D

But in this application you can already create interior projects. Moreover, there is a choice of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional formats. And you can switch from one format to another without losing what you created through backbreaking labor.

In the free version, you can create a design and save only as screenshots. But by purchasing the full version, the user has the opportunity to enjoy all the options, a wide selection of objects and functionality.

Pleasant surprise from the app developers– high detail of the interior and objects located in it, colorful graphics, accurate rendering of textures, realistic lighting with shadows.

26. Planner 5D

This application almost completely replicates a full-fledged program. There is a function for creating a detailed plan of a room or site design; you can design a swimming pool, the facade of a house, and such functional elements as windows, stairs, partitions, and curtain design.

To help the user there is a rich catalog of various objects: from furniture and objects to textures and shades.

The 3D graphics are mesmerizing. The resulting interior looks very realistic. You can even recreate the interior of an apartment or house from the movie. Interesting feature, don't you think?

Conclusion

Of course, we did not talk about all programs. It is even possible that some were not mentioned.

What do you think about the programs and applications we reviewed? What programs do you use as a professional designer or home owner? Please have your say in the comments.

We at Design Mania have worked hard to create this collection and we will be very pleased if you share it on social networks.

Before starting construction or renovation of a house, you need to make a plan for the location of all rooms and premises. “Interior Design 3D” solves various problems of creating a cozy home, from placement on a scale plan of the living room, bedroom, bathrooms, kitchen, hallway, nursery, to exterior and interior decoration.

Apartment layout in the program
Interior Design 3D - Video instruction

The time of paper sketches is gone forever. A drawing on paper does not allow a sufficiently complete assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of different types of projects; in addition, it is inconvenient to make changes to it. A simple rearrangement of furniture on the plan or moving a doorway requires its complete redrawing. With the help of modern software, anyone can make a home plan to scale. To start working on creating a layout of your future housing, you just need to download an apartment planning program in Russian.

Watch the video tutorial:

Simulation software function
apartment interior design

The apartment planning program allows you to create a 3D model of the premises on your computer or laptop in a few clicks. Key Features:

• ‎✓ Not demanding on system resources,
• ‎✓ It has a simple, convenient and understandable interface even for beginners,
• ‎✓ Allows you to design rooms, plan the location of doors and windows,
• ‎✓ Has tools for finishing (choosing wallpaper, flooring, arranging furniture and decor).
• ‎✓ The 3D interior design program has three options for viewing the finished project: 3D view, Virtual visit, photorealistic shot.

In the Interior Design 3D program you can create a project of any complexity

What to consider when designing
apartments in the program

Living space should be comfortable, ergonomic and aesthetic, so remodeling an apartment can sometimes include unexpected solutions. For example, for a better result, you need to move an interior door or remove one of the walls. In this case, you need to act for sure, because redoing the experiment will be too expensive.

You can check how your design ideas will look in practice in the Interior Design 3D program for remodeling your apartment. With this software you can experiment as much as you like:

• ‎✓ Change the location of rooms,
• ‎✓ Add partitions,
• ‎✓ Remove unnecessary walls,
• ‎✓ Arrange furniture and appliances,
• ‎✓ Choose various finishing materials from an extensive built-in catalog.

The editor has everything you need to create a realistic interior

So that “financial surprises” do not take you by surprise, draw up an estimate before starting work. An apartment design program will also help with this. Click on the button of the same name on the toolbar and fill out the proposed fields. Indicate the quantity, type and cost of materials or work. The planner will automatically calculate upcoming expenses and provide a detailed report.

How to work in the apartment planning program

To create a realistic housing project in the editor, the first thing you need is a three-dimensional layout. You can select a standard apartment layout in the program. Here you will find one-, two-, three or four-room options. On our website you can also download finished housing projects and adjust them to suit you.

Need a custom project? Then you will have to prepare the layout from scratch, that is, draw a detailed plan yourself, and then do the finishing and furnishings. It's easy, read the instructions:

• ✓ Step 1. Draw the rooms

Design begins with preparing the layout. In the left panel, select the button "Draw a room". Draw the walls to the desired length and close the contour, returning to the starting point. After this the object will appear "Room", and a floor and ceiling will be installed inside. Build all parts of the home in the same way.

Draw the rooms

• ✓ Step 2. Add windows and doors

Install entrance and interior doors. To do this, click the appropriate button on the toolbar and select an option from the catalog.

Install doors

The catalog has regular, double and arched options; select the appropriate one and indicate the place on the wall where the object should be located. In the tab "Properties" You can customize the appearance of the doors.

Click "Add window". A catalog will open where you need to specify what type of objects to install in the house. Balcony blocks are also located here. Having chosen the appropriate type of window, indicate a place for it on one of the walls.

Select a window from the catalog

• ✓ Step 3. Customize finishing materials

In the list of objects, select the room you want to decorate. Open section "Properties" and in tabs "Walls", "Floor" and "Ceiling" customize your desired materials. The built-in library offers many options for tiles, wallpaper, laminate, painting, but if you don’t find the right one, you can add your own textures from your personal computer.

Customize finishing materials

• ✓ Step 4. Install furniture

Click "Add furniture". The catalog has sections for each room, where you will find a huge selection of various furnishings. Click on the one you need and install it in any part of the room. You can use your mouse to rotate the object and adjust its height in the panel on the right.

Arrange the furniture

To ensure that the item fully matches the real prototype, in the “Properties” tab, adjust its dimensions and material of manufacture.

The project you see in the illustration was made using Interior Design 3D. Do you want to create the same ones? Download the multifunctional home builder and try it right now!

Download the program for apartment planning

To start developing your own project, go to the download page and download the free software distribution to your computer. Run it and wait for the installation to complete, following the instructions of the Installer Wizard. When the process is complete, you can launch the editor via the desktop icon.

Discover your talent as a designer by experimenting with colors, textures and their combinations. Experiment, bring bold ideas to life so that your home is exactly the way you dream!

25.03.19 107 893 129

And saved 168,000 ₽

Two years ago, my husband and I bought an apartment of 56 m² in a new building.

Olga Bystrova

made a design project

We had no experience in repairs, and the phrase “epoxy grout” evoked horror and awe. A design project for an apartment from professionals cost 3,000 RUR per square meter, and you had to wait three months for it, continuing to pay for a rented apartment all this time.

Armed with Google, Excel and our own heads, we made a design project ourselves. I'll share my experience.

How to make a design project for an apartment yourself

This article is about our experience. Things may be different for you

Yes, we did the design project ourselves, but this does not mean that we did it better than a designer would have done. After that we didn't become interior designers. We do not recommend that everyone urgently repeat our experience, but simply talk about it.

Why do you need a design project?

A design project is a set of drawings, collages and visualizations that a designer prepares for a specific apartment.

Usually the project is given to the customer in the form of an album. It not only shows what the room will look like after renovation, but also provides technical calculations. For example, how much tiles for the bathroom, paint or wallpaper for the walls will be needed, where the electrical wiring will be laid, where the sockets will be located, and so on. The owner of the apartment sees the future result, and the builders understand what to do.

A professional designer creates drawings in special programs on a computer. We drew everything by hand - we needed a ruler, graph paper, colored pencils, a gel pen and a tape measure. For notes and calculations, we created a separate document in Google Sheets. It included all the information related to the renovation, including drawings and pictures from the Internet with interiors that we liked. I also recommend downloading all the drawings to your phone so that they are always at hand.

In addition, my husband and I created a separate chat on WhatsApp. This way, I didn’t have to constantly look for dialogues about construction among other personal messages.

Take measurements

The first thing a design project begins with is measuring the apartment. All angles, lengths and heights of walls, openings and window sills are measured. In the cadastral plan, an error of half a centimeter does not matter, but in a design project such an error can lead to the fact that a desk or a custom-made tabletop does not fit into the planned place.

5000 R

average cost of measuring an apartment in Moscow

Of course, you can measure everything yourself, armed with a level and a tape measure, but at this stage I advise you to still call a professional measurer. It’s easy to make mistakes out of habit, and these mistakes are then fraught with unnecessary expenses and rework.

The specialist’s services cost 5,000 RUR; a friend recommended him to us. The surveyor arrived, measured the apartment in half an hour and returned the results a week later.

Understand what must be in the apartment

After living in rented apartments for a long time, we knew for sure that we wanted to leave small cabinets, a breakfast bar in the kitchen, a glass shower curtain and a hard folding sofa in the past. This helped us decide what must-haves in our apartment: a large bed with a mattress, a bathtub rather than a shower, plenty of storage space and a full-size dining table. We had to place all this on 56 m².

Having decided on the obligatory things in the apartment, we sat down at the computer and copied absolutely all our property, from furniture and equipment to bed linen and the cat. The list was made like this: my husband opened cabinets and chests of drawers and listed all the things, and I filled out a document in Google Sheets. The inventory took the whole evening.

I advise you not to just list all the things in a row, but to break things down into categories: bathroom, hallway, kitchen, living room, bedroom, office. It doesn’t matter what size the apartment is or how many rooms there are. The main thing is to systematize everything.

Decide on a renovation style

If you don’t fully understand what you want, I advise you to focus on ready-made interiors. I collected photos of all the interiors that I liked and put them in folders “Bathroom”, “Living Room”, “Kitchen” and so on. I looked for ideas in several places at once.

"Pinterest"- an endless gallery of images at your request. I advise you to look even at those interior projects that seem too expensive to you. There you can find good solutions for storage, layout and simple design. I found a great idea for the bathroom - to make three hanging baskets for different types of laundry.

Instagram- another resource for inspiration. I searched for blogs using the hashtags “planning”, “repair”, “design project”. The authors post renovation plans, visualizations and drawings, and also give advice. You can find good solutions or remake something for yourself. In one design project I saw a chandelier, which I later found in an online store and bought for our apartment.

On Instagram you can find not only pictures, but also a lot of other useful information related to repairs: users describe their mistakes and findings, share suppliers, stores and crew contacts. I once read a story about how a man bought tiles, but there weren’t enough of them. He had to urgently buy additional tiles from another place - and they turned out to be a different shade. I remember the incident, so we purchased extra tiles for our apartment in advance.

Large furniture centers ready-made interiors are assembled from exhibition samples. My husband and I went to Ikea, Grand and Rumer. I advise you to photograph not only exhibition samples, but also the price tags, as well as the dimensions of the furniture on them. Also, take business cards: when the time comes to buy furniture, you won’t have to go to the store again.

Choose stores that are located close to each other. This way you can visit several points in one day. Be prepared to walk a lot

Websites with ready-made interiors- this is not only a lot of photographs, but also articles with useful tips for those who make repairs. I actively used the House and Inmiroom websites through their mobile applications. It’s convenient that these resources allow you to choose a specific style, and the system will select a suitable collection of photographs and articles about such interiors. Here are my selections in the House mobile application with the interiors I liked:

Make drawings

The main part of the design project is drawings made based on measurements. I advise you to draw an apartment plan on graph paper and make several dozen copies of it. Then you won't have to draw it again every time.

Planning solution

First of all, I advise you to decide whether you will do a remodel - separate the bathroom, combine the kitchen and living room, fence off the dressing room in the bedroom. We must understand that redevelopment needs to be legalized, and this is not so easy. About redevelopment in T-J They have written more than once, so I will not delve into the topic of its coordination.

When it becomes clear what the rooms in the apartment will look like, you need to decide where the furniture will go. We did it simply: we found standard sizes of furniture on the Internet - table, chairs, bed, sofa - and transferred them to graph paper on the same scale as the apartment measurements. Then they cut out the “furniture” and simply moved it according to the plan on graph paper. There are special programs that allow you to do all this on a computer, for example, free Sweet Home 3D or Magicplan, but you need to understand them. It was more convenient for us to arrange paper furniture.

After renovation, the total area of ​​the premises will decrease slightly - for example, plaster can add up to five centimeters to the walls. There will also be curtains, baseboards, cornices - you also need to leave room for them. It is necessary to plan in advance in which direction the doors will open: they should not block the switches.

We photographed the final layout and uploaded the image to our table, creating a separate “Layout” sheet.

Collages

After planning, we began choosing furniture and interior items. The main thing to decide on is the exact dimensions, colors and texture of surfaces. To understand how different things would fit together, we made collages. They helped me collect the picture in my head and transfer it to paper. After this, it became easier to start from the actual dimensions of the furniture and its prices.

The easiest way to do this, of course, is in Photoshop, but Word was enough for us. I simply copied images of furniture on a white background from furniture store websites, cropped them and moved them around the page. In the same way, it is convenient to try on and select floor coverings, wall color, wallpaper and lamps.

A special service on the Ikea website helped us plan cabinets for the dressing room and kitchen. But we must take into account that IKEA furniture has non-standard sizes.

I found a lot of interesting interior items from sellers on Instagram. For example, beautiful and inexpensive lamps. However, I don’t recommend buying through Instagram: the markup is too high. I decided to see if there were similar lamps on Aliexpress, and I found them four times cheaper.

At this stage we had to do a lot of shopping. Before buying something online, I wanted to see things in person. In stores, I asked for samples of materials so that I could see at home how the shades and colors were combined. By the end of the renovation, we had a whole collection of samples - tiles, wallpaper, paint, furniture wood and textiles. Some stores rent samples of products. It's not free, but if you doubt whether the sconce will match the wallpaper, it's better to pay, bring it home and check it out, rather than buy it and then return it.

If you can’t find some furniture, you can order it from a carpentry workshop. The prices will be more expensive than Ikea, but it will be exactly your size and color. We needed a tabletop of certain dimensions - we had to order it from the workshop. I also looked for carpenters on Instagram. There are many such blogs, and it’s hard to choose among them. I asked the masters for client contacts and relied on their recommendations.

Having decided on the interior and furniture, we drew the final planning solution, where all the furniture was placed in its place. The picture was photographed and uploaded to the main table.

Scheme of demolition and construction of partitions

If you decide to do a redevelopment, then the first thing the repair work will begin is the demolition and construction of partitions. Having decided on the layout, we transferred the measurements to graph paper and drew the boundaries of the partitions that were to appear in the future.

I recommend taking measurements of the apartment again during the renovation process, when the new walls have already appeared. When constructing new walls or leveling existing ones, the dimensions of the premises may change slightly. A couple of centimeters in one corner, a couple in another - in the end the sofa won’t fit into the room.

After building the new walls, we had to “move the furniture” on the bedroom floor plan - otherwise the open door would always end up against the bed.

Lighting and switches connection diagram

Having decided on the walls and furniture placement, we moved on to the electrical wiring. This is the most difficult stage: you need to understand lighting standards, lumens, lux and other subtleties.

For calculations you need to know several parameters:

1. We measured the area of ​​the room and the height of the ceilings ourselves.
2. We looked at the luminous flux of the lamps on the packaging.
3. Lighting standards and correction factors for ceiling heights were found on the Internet.

The illumination rate must be multiplied by the area of ​​the room and the correction factor. We divided the resulting number by the luminous flux of our light bulbs. The final value is the number of lamps needed for a particular room.

The more light sources, the smoother it will be. If you are afraid of getting confused in the calculations, you can contact a store that sells lamps, they will help you understand the standards.

You need to decide in advance what kind of light the apartment will have - built-in or overhead. It depends on what kind of ceiling there will be - suspended, suspended or simply painted. Built-in lamps are less noticeable: the main part of the lamp is hidden between the ceiling and the ceiling. But you can make a built-in light only if you have a suspended or suspended ceiling. Overhead lights are simply attached to the ceiling and look more bulky, but you don’t have to sacrifice ceiling height for them.

In addition to the usual chandeliers and built-in lights, we installed electrical wiring for sconces and light pendants. To do this, we had to ditch the walls - this also had to be taken into account in the design.

Next you need to think about how all the lights will turn on and off. Switches are single and double, regular and pass-through. Pass-through switches allow you to control one lamp from several places at once: for example, you can turn on the light in the hallway in the room, and turn it off in the kitchen.

Another ingenious invention of electricians is a master switch that turns off all the light in the apartment at once. These are often installed in hotels. We installed one master switch in the bedroom so that we don't have to check before going to bed that the lights are turned off everywhere. The second one was installed at the front door so as not to run around the apartment, turning off the lights in all rooms before leaving. If you like dim light, you can install a dimmer - a device that allows you to control the brightness of the light.

All distances from the floor, corners and other landmarks to the switches must be indicated on the diagram so that builders can then understand where everything is located.

Connection diagram of sockets and pins

For this diagram, you first need to make a complete list of outlets for each room and indicate which devices they will be used for. The main thing I understood is that there are no extra sockets. It is better to make at least one spare socket in each room, so that later you don’t find out that in the bathroom there is nowhere to plug in a hairdryer while the washing machine is running, and in the bedroom there are not enough sockets for all charging devices.

Sockets are needed for all built-in appliances - microwave, oven, refrigerator in the kitchen, speakers, set-top box, Apple TV in the living room, and so on.

The diagram also needs to indicate the terminals for the Internet, television cable and landline telephone, if you have one.

It so happened that we were drawing electrical wiring at three in the morning. We really wanted to sleep, but everything had to be handed over to the foreman urgently, by six in the morning. While they were drawing, they argued over every little thing and almost got into a fight, and also made some annoying mistakes. Ideally, such painstaking work should, of course, be done with a fresh mind and without haste.

Wall development

Imagine that the renovation is completed and you are standing in front of a finished wall in the bedroom or kitchen. This picture from your head needs to be transferred to paper. The image of all four walls in the room is a scan. Such a drawing must be made for each room.

When you make a layout for the kitchen and bathroom, in addition to the wall material, you need to remember how the communications are located - water and sewerage. Unfolding the walls of the toilet helps to understand where the toilet will be located and at what height the sink will be installed. In the bathroom, you must not forget about the height of the shower. It is best to focus on the growth of family members.

An important point is the layout of the tiles, how they will be assembled into a beautiful pattern. The tiles must fit together correctly, especially if they are not plain, but with a pattern or ornament.

The development helps to imagine the layout of the tiles in advance and calculate the required amount of material. You need to calculate with a margin, because the tiles can break.

If it’s difficult to make the layout yourself, you can contact a tile salon - sellers have special programs for this. But most often this is a paid service.

We included cabinets, shelves, a tile backsplash, built-in appliances and lamps in the layout of the walls in the kitchen. Before ordering a kitchen in the salon, we wrote down all the items that would be stored in the cabinets: dishes, cutlery, food supplies, spices, and so on. It became clear how many cabinets and drawers we needed.

When laying out the walls in the kitchen, you must not forget about sockets for appliances, hoods and communications.

Floor and wall finishing map

The floor and wall finishing map is the same layout, only specific materials and their quantities are already prescribed here. We dealt with it the fastest, since we thought of everything when we were making collages. The most difficult thing was to draw the layout of the floor: in some places the laminate joined the tiles, and it was necessary to indicate exactly where and what kind of layout the tiles should have in this place.

We didn’t make a scheme for decorating the walls, since we planned to paint them almost everywhere. I had to struggle with choosing paint shades. I advise you to definitely do the painting - check the color on the real surface. To do this, you can order samples with several shades in the store, bring them to the construction site and ask the workers to apply them on the wall next to each other. This makes it easier to compare colors and understand what really suits.

Estimate

When we were done with the drawings, we created a “General Estimate” tab in the table and began to calculate the costs. Information about all the work and materials that appeared at the previous stages of creating the design project was also transferred here. I had to fill out this tab very scrupulously and carefully: there was too much to take into account.

To make it easier, we divided all expenses into sections: bathroom, kitchen-living room, bedroom, balcony, hallway, dressing room. In each, standard subsections were created: costs for finishing materials, appliances, plumbing, furniture, electrical, lighting. In addition, there was another large general section where we listed the costs of rough finishing and builders' salaries. Here we also took into account the costs of consumables - garbage bags, as well as the services of a plumber from the management company, garbage removal, and the like. Each material was considered with a margin of 10-15%, and the cost of delivery was not forgotten.

As a result, we ended up with a huge table with almost 200 rows. It almost completely covered all our renovation costs, including the purchase of small things like light bulbs and boxes.

Four months later, when the renovation was completed, we checked the planned budget with the real one. The result was an overrun of about 20% - mainly due to the fact that new ideas appeared in the process that were not taken into account in the estimate. After moving to a new apartment, we never regretted that we undertook to do the design project ourselves, and we believe that we got the ideal home for our family.

What I learned during the renovation process

Everything must be done strictly according to the drawings. If there are no drawings, then it is better to stop the work, otherwise there is a risk that the builders may do something to their own taste. And it may differ from yours. Significantly.

Something will definitely go wrong: the tiles won’t fit together, there won’t be enough laminate, and the electrician will go on a drinking binge. Life is unpredictable, you need to mentally prepare for such problems in advance and react calmly, and not panic.

Before starting renovation work, it is important to think through even the smallest details of the interior of the room.

With the help of special programs for apartment planning, you can create accurate drawings and come up with the design of rooms, kitchen, bathrooms, dressing room and other areas of your home.

Today, all professional designers use, because paper drawings cannot fully convey all the pros and cons of the layout . Also, they are difficult to make changes to.

If you want to save on design development services or are a beginner, our selection of programs will allow you to choose the most suitable software for you. Now creating unique and functional designs has never been easier.

Planner 5D

Planner 5D is a well-thought-out program for creating interior design, which the developers regularly update, adding new features and sketches.

The project is one of the most popular Russian startups. Today Planner 5D is used by most professional designers around the world.

The main advantage of the program is its accessibility and simple interface. Even those who have not previously encountered knowledge or drawings will be able to easily understand these tasks.

The program catalog contains a list of ready-made projects, and if you like one of them, you can easily adapt it to the layout of your apartment.

Advantages of Planner 5D:

• Distributed free of charge;
• 10,000 various interior items, interior decoration elements;
• View the finished design in 3D with the ability to make adjustments.

PRO100

Pro100 is a popular service for decorating premises. The functionality is more complex than in the previous version and you will need to spend some time mastering it.

The program allows you to approach the issue of modeling a future apartment with a professional approach, taking into account electrical drawings, water supply, and so on.

In the demo version of the program, you can select only a limited number of interior items. However, you can always use the function of adding your own furniture.

You can draw it and add it to the desired room. When you first start the program, create a new project and specify the dimensions of the room.

The application will automatically design the base, and you can continue building the apartment of your dreams.

Planoplan

Planoplan is an excellent tool for creating professional interior designs. The main feature of the application is the ability to work with real furniture models.

Developers regularly add accessories from the most popular stores to the existing catalog. Planoplan has a Russian interface.

What you can do in Planoplan:

• Independent creation of an apartment layout;
• Launching a virtual tour function at the end of project development;
• View the finished solution on your smartphone;
• Thinking through all the details - from how the light will move in the apartment throughout the day and to the properties of the heat supply.

To quickly understand the functionality, we recommend that you simultaneously read the instructions and tutorials on the developer’s website.

HomeStyler

HomeStyler is software for working with interior design from the creators of 3D Max and AutoCAD.

The application is paid, but on the Internet you can find a lot of free activation keys that are suitable for any version of the program.

After the first launch, you will be asked to choose one of three operating modes:

• Interior from scratch;
• Loading a ready-made diagram from a computer;
• Selecting a suitable layout design from the HomeStyler program gallery.

This way you will receive the most accurate drawings, taking into account all the features of the apartment, and in the future you will not encounter planning inaccuracies.

The program catalog has a huge number of options for finishing walls, floors, window decoration and furniture. The final design is very realistic.

IKEA Home Planner

IKEA Home Planner is an ideal application for those who plan to buy all their interior items (or most of them) from IKEA.

The company released an application for developing room design more than 10 years ago, so its design may not seem entirely modern.

At the same time, new IKEA items are constantly being added to the program: from various shelves and beds to small figurines.

Since IKEA is the largest retail chain for home furnishings, such an application will be useful for those who are planning to make budget, beautiful and thoughtful renovations.

Sweet Home 3D

Sweet Home 3D is a simple design creation software. It will not surprise professionals, but will be very useful for beginners.

With Sweet Home 3D you can create a visual plan for furniture placement.

For example, if you doubt that the closet will not fit next to the bed, just create a new room in the Sweet Home 3D application and add similar fittings to it with the dimensions you specified.

Visualization will allow you to better imagine the future interior and make significant adjustments to it.

The application version is distributed in English, but there are many working russifiers on the network.

Sketch UP

Sketch UP– cross-platform software for full-fledged work with the design of living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, utility rooms, and local areas.

Two versions of the application are available:

• Paid. It has advanced functionality and is intended for professional designers;
• Free. The developers have released this build for non-commercial use. With its help, you can also create high-quality three-dimensional projects.

The application catalog has a lot of furniture models and interior decoration color schemes.

Another plus is that interior items for Sketch UP can be downloaded from the Internet. There are catalogs of ready-made furniture designs online that you can download to your computer and add to your project.

Sketch UP's interface is simple and allows beginners to get started right away. The main thing is to correctly register all the dimensions of the room and individual interior elements.

With a finished project, it will be much more convenient to start repairs, because the craftsmen will be able to better understand what kind of result you expect.

Also, based on the final design, it is much easier to select furniture in stores. In the extended package of functions, you can create models of sections of the road, local area, garage or other objects.

Astron Design

Astron Design is a professional program with which you can arrange objects in a room according to pre-specified parameters.

Available functions:

• Choice of finishing options for doorways;
• Access to the furniture catalog of interior items. In total, more than 10,000 titles are available;
• Calculation of the exact distance between several objects;
• Changing the color palette of furniture;
• Placement of decor;
• Selecting the location of windows;
• Setting lighting parameters;
• View the finished design from different angles.

FloorPlan 3D

Another program for creating quick designs is FloorPlan 3D. With its help, you can create a project for planning several rooms at once.

The software is suitable both for creating the interior of an apartment and for your own home.

A well-thought-out system for selecting furniture and interior decoration will allow you to take into account all the nuances of your future home.

In addition to standard interior items, users can choose finishing elements, plants for the local area, paths and many landscape design elements.

The final picture is realistic. By launching the virtual tour mode, you can walk around the resulting room, evaluating your work from all sides.

The free version of the application has a limited number of functions, but this will not stop you from creating your own unique interior. FloorPlan 3D supports Russian language.

Interior design 3D

Interior design 3D is a project of Russian developers. The main feature of the program is a constantly updated catalog of more than 20,000 interior items.

The trial version of the software limits the viewing of lighting options, heating parameters and electrical layout.

At the same time, the application will be quite sufficient for those who simply want to create a visualization of a future renovation.

The interface is very simple. In total, the application has several main tabs that are easy to understand.

Finished projects can be viewed from all sides, and can also be saved for viewing on mobile devices.

In general, the application is quite functional and is suitable for those who do not have time to master complex ones.