Virtual renovations

Can't decide between tile or hardwood, or what colour to paint? Your computer can show you how the options will look before you buy

Joanne Hatherly , CanWest News Service

Everybody loves to try before they buy. Consider taste-test tables set up in grocery store aisles, or the mandatory road-test for a car.

But renovating a house is a bigger undertaking than sipping on a can of Coke or test-driving a car, so it can be challenging for homeowners to stretch their imaginations to visualize the effects of a makeover.

Would the living room look better with ceramic tile or hardwood floors? How about the front door: Should it be a craftsman, colonial or mission?

The computer revolution changed all that, so that now with the click of a mouse, the phrase "what you see is what you get" is becoming reality.

At the end of 2006, Home Hardware introduced HomeWorks, a home-imaging software package that allows consumers to piece together a digital do-over. It paints, installs doors and windows, refloors rooms, sets up new columns, re-surfaces the driveway and more.

Andrew Pantelides, a national product manager at Home Hardware in Montreal, says the software was designed for contractors and as an in-store retail tool, but they quickly saw it "had legs" for the customer's in-home use.

They linked it up with more than 30 national suppliers so the package uses manufacturers' windows, doors, flooring, interior and exterior paints, landscaping, siding, roofs, screens, masonry, stone pavers, railings and more.

It might be the most comprehensive digital re-modelling package on the market. Other retailers are picking up the trail, as well. Browse the Rona website that features virtual walk-throughs on home plans and downloadable landscaping plans. (rona.ca).

Before HomeWorks, the best-known digital imaging application for the home was introduced through paint manufacturers' websites where browsers could digitally repaint virtual rooms. Benjamin Moore has its Personal Colour Viewer; Glidden had ColorHomeII, Sherwin-Williams Color Visualizer, and Behr Paint Your Place.

Increasingly, manufacturers have posted these packages on their sites as free downloads. Upgrades that allow shoppers to use photos of their own homes can be purchased for less than $20.

Other home-related manufacturers and retailers followed. Now consumers can digitally tinker with landscaping, design their own closet organizer, and figure out how to make over kitchens and bathrooms.

The programs have grown more sophisticated while they've become simpler to use. Daryl Stanley at Victoria's Floor Covering International retail started using a digital flooring program in October. He still bumps around as he navigates the program, but in a short time, he has become adept enough that the program has changed his sales calls.

"I used to draw diagrams for customers," says Stanley. "Now I can show them whatever it is they want -- tile, hardwood, carpet, luxury vinyl. If they want to see what Brazilian cherry will look like in their living room, I can show it to them."

He notes, however, that consultation is still a big part of the selection process. "I don't think any program can make it perfect, and there are still things to discuss."

Pantelides says Home Hardware has sold 80,000 HomeWorks packages nation-wide since its introduction in late 2006, and 65,000 users have registered for product updates and "webinars," online how-to seminars for do-it-yourselfers.

Online surveys show most purchasers plan to use the $24.97 digital tool for more than one project. The company is looking to expand the package's functions to include lighting, even outdoor Christmas lighting.

How easy -- or hard -- is it to use HomeWorks? The proof, in this case, is in the computer's disk drawer.

Ross Bay Home Hardware owner-manager Greg Hellyer invited a reporter to navigate the program with James Cook, 23, a staffer who had never used it. The program loads quickly into the store's computer. Cook wanders through the options and opens a detailed illustration of a craftsman-style house complete with porch. He scrolls through paint choices -- the variety is as wide as the stock on the store's shelves. He picks a brand and then a style, which opens a sidebar of colour choices.

In seconds, he's painting by pointing and clicking from colour to house. In no time, Cook transforms a tastefully painted house into a garish pink and purple monstrosity.

"If you're having a fight with your husband about what colour to paint the house, this could save you a lot of time and money, and maybe even avoid the fight altogether," says Cook. Has he ever fought with anyone over wall paint?

"Well, my brother wanted to paint our apartment red, and I thought he was out of his mind," Cook says. "But we did it, and it turns out he was right. It looks great. If I could have seen this first, I wouldn't have argued."

Cook closes the paint function and tinkers. He adds columns, doubles up the crown moulding, re-sides the house, adds storm doors, trades window styles, re-shingles the roof, and contemplates changing the masonry on the porch piers.

The program is brand specific -- those 30 to 40 big-name suppliers Pantelides mentioned -- and provides a product list that users can take to the store, which means when they order a specific paint colour, that's the colour they will get.

Cook cautions, however, that colours on a computer monitor do not always look the same on the wall, so customers should check the paint colours in the store.