WALK THROUGH YOUR DREAM HOME — BEFORE IT’S BUILT
With Plan Your Space, buyers get a feel for the floor plan and a chance to make changes
In a time of AI and computer-simulated everything, Greater Vancouver-based business Plan Your Space is allowing people to take a real-life walk through their newly designed home to see how everything feels before construction begins.
Plan Your Space was founded by Manny Deol in Langley two years ago after Deol project-managed the build of his family's home. They were working with a great architect and designer, and when the framing started going up, Deol says he and his family began asking questions: Why is our powder room this small? Why does our kitchen feel like this? Why didn't we move this wall over here? Because that would have been a much better flow.
“Even my parents' bathroom, I think we rearranged it during the build, which cost so much money,” he says.
Deol says he asked their framer on this project if the changes they requested seemed normal, and he said, “Yeah, everybody makes changes during this stage.”
That's when it hit him that there must be a better way to finalize design choices when building. He started brainstorming how people could view their floor plans before committing to them.
“I came to what we currently do. We project floor plans on the ground, to scale, so each family or homeowner can come and walk through their future build, with real walls and real furniture,” he says.
To do this, they require a PDF of the floor plans, which they get directly from homeowners or architects or designers representing their clients, he says.
“We have real physical walls and real furniture on wheels, like a real kitchen island, dining table, toilet, and side table, so you can walk around and move things.”
Deol has a marketing background — he ran a marketing agency for seven years — but says his family has been in the construction industry for years. Plan Your Space allows him to embrace two things he loves — marketing and interior design, says Deol.
“I'm very passionate about interior design. I enjoy it. I study it. I love it. I have both my passions in this business.”
THERESULTOFTHESE WALK-THROUGHS
Common changes people often make after walking through their floor plans are adjusting their bathrooms so they're bigger, sometimes losing a bit of their bedroom to achieve this.
They often rearrange their kitchens a bit, says Deol, changing the design to have more space around their kitchen island or moving their dishwasher.
He adds that providing people with furniture on wheels for walk-throughs is a big part of their service. Currently, the furniture they provide — beds, side tables, dining tables, couch sets and more, is provided by Rove Concepts. They're adding appliances on wheels to this offering — dishwashers, washing machines and the like will be provided by Midland Appliance.
BUILDING COSTS TOO MUCH TO GET IT WRONG
In the past two years, they've helped around 200 clients with their floor plans, says Deol. They charge around $1,500 for a twohour
We have real physical walls and real furniture on wheels, like a real kitchen island, dining table… so you can walk around and move things.
walk-through.
When people spend over $1 million or $1.5 million on building a new home, they want to know they've got their floor plan right, he says. They feel a lot more secure when they've done this walkthrough.
“We haven't had anyone come in that hasn't made a single change. Even if it's a minor change like moving a wall,” he says.
Plan Your Space is about to move to a bigger location in Burnaby, which is double the size of their current facility, says Deol. And they're looking at opening two more locations in Canada.
“We are super excited.”