RENOVATIONS SERIES: Hit the web before you pick up the paintbrush

Before painting that living room wall a (seemingly) lovely shade of olive green - wait. Your design disaster can be avoided.

New online tools allow everyday designers to paint their walls a dozen colors without picking up a paint brush, rearrange furniture without hiring a mover, and redesign or renovate an entire room without spending a dime.

With the economy down and the popularity of TV shows such as Bravo's "Top Design" up, virtual room-design Web sites now give people the chance to minimize budgets and maximize creativity.

"You can try a limitless number of things and see which one you like the best before you rip your house apart," said Michael Sanders, the Creative Director of Scenecaster, one of several free online room-design tools that have surfaced in the past couple years.

He's used Scenecaster to renovate his own bathroom - six times.

Depending on the site, users can upload their own floor plans, choose room dimensions, or pick a template for bathrooms, bedrooms, backyards and more.

Each program has its own arsenal of furniture, flooring, and other flourishes that can be clicked and dragged into the 3D space.

DesignMyRoom allows users to buy the furniture displayed in their virtual rooms, or at least see how much it would cost. Scenecaster allows users to upload photos of a grandmother's heirloom or their own wallpaper samples into a room.

"They're making real works of art up on the site. It's not just, ‘Here's a bed, a dresser and a paint color I like,'" said Mike Brunzell, the senior vice president of sales and marketing at Swatchbox Technologies, which operates DesignMyRoom. "It's kind of a fun, escapist place to go and play with this virtual environment and really get as crazy and creative as they want."

To help the creatively clueless, DesignMyRoom features designs from top industry professionals that can be incorporated into any room.

And for those who are still worried they might have questionable taste, user feedback and ratings will keep their designs in check.

Local interior designer Lee Roth said many of her clients use online design tools before they come to her. And while they are a great place to gather ideas, she said a lot of the work is still hands-on.

"You still have to do your reality check," Roth said. "You have to measure your space. You have to coordinate colors. You have to make the translation from what you see on the Internet to what you have really."


Click and renovate

Here are several sites that allow you to virtually renovate or redesign a room:

• www.designmyroom.com

• www.scenecaster.com

• www.mydeco.com/plan-my-room

• www.hgtv.com, search "room planner"