Kitchen Remodel: Realistic versus Reality

If you've attended any of my AutoCAD 2007 presentations, you've probably heard me talk about our recent kitchen remodel. This is what the kitchen looked like when we bought our house last summer.

Construction began late last fall and the design decisions were sometimes overwhelming. Fortunately, we were able to use the new conceptual design and visualization tools in AutoCAD 2007 (pre-release) to help us make decisions that would satisfy our wants and needs.

Soon after construction began and (fortunately) before the cabinets were ordered, we decided to modify the kitchen layout based on our appliance choices. Imagine that... clients changing their minds! That never happens! Right? Using the modeling tools in AutoCAD 2007 my husband and I were able to rearrange the design based on our new appliance sizes and feel confident that the space and flow of the kitchen would still meet our needs. In addition, we used the visualization tools to help us choose the tile design, cabinet and granite colors, floor covering, and, let's not forget, the wall color. I wanted to paint some accent walls burgundy but I wasn't about to take the heat from my husband if it was "too pink", "too red", "too dark" or "too much"! So, I painted the walls using AutoCAD first!

For realistic images of the space, I used the Render tool, which takes into consideration lighting and special material properties such as reflectivity.

However, I did most of my visualization work using the Realistic visual style (or a slightly customized version of it). It was easy for us to switch between visual styles. We could assign different visual styles to the many different named views. And, it gave us a good sense of how the space would look using various materials.

And now for reality! So, what do you think?

Yes... we still have our 15-year-old dinette set (above). Do you recognize it from the AutoCAD Release 12 Reference Manual? One of these days we'll have time to shop for a new dinette set.

But wait, there are more burgundy walls to consider. While remodeling the kitchen, we also remodeled the family room and updated the entry way. But those images will have to wait for another time! :-)