#cbdwa

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Design Apps to Spend Hours Creating your Dream House on...

Designing a home rarely goes to plan, mainly because there's a big difference between how incredible things look in your imagination and how they actually turn out looking.

(But to be fair, why you ever thought purple walls with lime green cornices would look nice is beyond us…)

The good news is that apps have transformed the process of design. You can now design, decorate and redecorate an entire house, from the hues of the walls down to the colour of the furniture, all from your smartphone.

Here are some of our favourite Design Apps – and be sure to let us know if you have your own favourite in the comments!

Design Home

Design Home has been topping the Android and iOS charts in recent weeks because users are loving the app’s detailed graphics and highly customisable features. It allows users to design a room and rate other’s rooms, as well as viewing other user’s designs for that all-important inspiration.

Home Design 3D

Home Design 3D is available for both Android and iOS that allows you to use all of its many amazing features for an hour for free. Its capability is so incredible that even professions have been using it to make their mockups for clients.

Home Design Outdoor/Garden

Home Design Outdoor/Garden is the version of the previous app that lets you get down in the dirt without getting your hands dirty. This particular app allows you to make outdoor areas and gardens for your home in an incredibly user-friendly way. The app also renders the gardens in full 3-D graphics, so that you will be able to check your creation instantly.

Floor Plan Creator

Finally, Floor Plan Creator for Android allows users with no experience in designing floor plans to create accurate basic floor plans for that dream house. The app provides you with predefined room shapes, but you are also free to make your own with touch, mouse. You will also be able to input your own dimensions in this app and make it more fitting for your specific needs.

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How To Pick Your Perfect Block of Land

Before you can even think about designing your commercial building, you need to be able to find the perfect spot to put it. Critical from both a cost and commercial perspective there is a number factors to consider when deciding where and how to build. 

Shape and orientation of the block:

If you’re planning something particularly specific a larger block tends to provide for better flexibility to fit within design constraints. However this may come at greater cost or in a poorer location. Likewise if the block of land is beset by natural impediments that don’t fit within the design constraints such as a slope, it can result in significant costs to terraform the land to make it suitable. So by filtering blocks by their shape and slope can help save significantly on potential changes to designs.

The Council:

Council regulations and rules differ from council to council and their effects can differ from property to property. This makes it imperative to be in contact with the council to make sure your plans fit within height restraints, what materials you are allowed to use and even privacy constraints. The council can also be a significant and valuable source of information. Nearby planned developments could have beneficial or damaging impacts to the commercial viability of your development. Maintaining contact with councils to stay aware of potential future problems is extremely important in choosing a property. 

Location: 

Can have significant effects on construction costs, utilities and commercial viability. During the building process there is the simple logistics of how will materials and planners will get to the site. This might mean two similar blocks in different areas can have markedly different costs. Additionally the prices of water, sewage, electricity and internet is different location to location and again consulting the council can provide valuable information to a prospective builder.

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Project Updates!

Our office development in Welshpool has been granted planning approval. The building stage has already started and is due to be completed early next week! 

This stunning residential addition in Cottesloe is ready to be submitted for planning approval and we should have planning approval by the end of November. We also have another residential addition in Noranda that whose concept floor plan has just been finished, and development approval plans will be started this week (photos still to come so look out for this one!).

And check out this lovely patio due to be built in Carramar! Development approval plans have been completed and will be submitted this week for planning approval.

And last but certainly not least, our multi-use commercial development in Ellenbrook has reached the Building Design Stage and will be completed in just 2 short weeks - including all consultants designs and reports. Great work team!

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Why us?

Imagine staring at a building plan and trying to visualise exactly how your new house, business headquarters, office or restaurant will look like when it’s a million times the size of the paper in front of you.

It’s pretty difficult, right? You can never really be sure exactly what you’re going to get when you get handed the keys in several months’ time.  

Our interactive 3D designs allow our clients to see exactly how their building will look and how the internal layouts will work before it has been built.

Quite simply, our interactive 3D designs save you time, money and peace of mind.  

This allows you to make changes to your job before it reaches the construction stage, saving your pocket from the costly fees most builders charge to make changes during the construction stage.

Another benefit of getting your house designed by CBDWA is that it is custom designed to suit your needs not the needs of a builder, as most builders make their money by building the same design over and over again so they’d prefer it if you didn’t make any changes.

You’re also not locked into a contract with a builder, which means you hold the power and can take your house plans to several builders, get a number of quotes, chose your favourite and end up with the best value for money deal possible.

But that’s not all! CBDWA doesn’t just design your building we provide a full design package from concept designs, council approved designs, organise and liaise with all consultants and Council application submissions. So, all you need to do is tell us what you want designed and start building with peace of mind that you know exactly how it’s going to look when construction finishes.  

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Walk through your house before it’s built!

The Virtual Reality boom is approaching, and with it brings immense opportunity for innovation – whether it be an even more immersive gaming experience, changing the way we watch movies, or even acting as a substitute for tourism.

Less commonly noted, the architecture industry can also benefit immensely from this new technology.

Imagine putting on a VR headset, and suddenly you’re standing in your new office building, store, warehouse or restaurant. You move your head to the left, and you can see the stunning city view your building overlooks, through your pre-selected windowpanes. Hmm, the windows are a little smaller than you thought when you looked at the 2D plans – you want your workers and visitors to be able to see as much of the beautiful skyline as possible – no problem, you’ll ask the architect to make them larger before you approve the design.

You walk forward and turn your head towards one of the tables your designer has selected for you – it’s currently a dark red colour. You wonder what this would look like in a lighter shade – so, you point your hand in the direction of the table and turn your hand as it cycles through the possible colour variations right before your eyes. You were right, a lighter colour looks much better.

The possibilities for the software are endless – from being able to walk around your new office months before its even built, to tweaking materials, colours and designs right before your eyes.

It might be a little while before this technology is fully developed and cheaply available, but gosh, isn’t future of design exciting!

Check out this video by design company VRtisan for a taste of what this might look like. 

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Project Updates!

We’ve got some exciting updates on some of our projects for you all.

Check out these 3D Tender and construction drawings for an Architect. This new gorgeous apartment design in North Perth has almost been completed and will soon be sent out for construction tender.

Our modern office development in Welshpool is currently working its way toward council approval - we should be starting the building stage this week.

A concept design for a stunning residential addition in Cottesloe has been completed and the clients are super excited to move forward to submitting a planning application this week.

And finally a little something to get you wishing lunch was sooner – our new Pizzeria restaurant fitout in Maylands has had its building plans completed. Pizza is coming.

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The Free Images Offer

With the building industry being so quiet and competitive, I don’t believe that too many designers or builders would be willing to work for free. Truth is, there are places offering free 3d images with their drawings but this is not a realistic 3d image of how your building is going to look. It will be a rough conceptual image that is created with a very basic drawing package.

At CBDWA we will provide you with:

- The most cost effective design that works inside your budget!

- A design contract that you sign which is a fixed price - No surprises!

- You own the plans and you can shop them around for the best value!

- A realistic and interactive 3d design that you can view and walk-through your building before it’s built!

And what you will get for free is a friendly, informative consultation that help you make the best decision for your next build. All you need to do is contact me direct;

Michael Bluntish on 9249 7610