Virtual Home Designs

Online tools make re-creating your home easy and fun

Gone are the days of relying on pint-size paint cans and siding samples to help design your home’s exterior. While these methods may help a homeowner gauge how their home might look, oftentimes homeowners are left saying, “It’s not what I pictured.” While companies like Valspar and Sherwin-Williams have long been offering homeowners the chance to virtually see exterior paint colors, nowadays whole exteriors can be virtually created—thanks to companies like Ply Gem and CertainTeed.

Ply Gem, a leader in exterior building products, offers the Designed Exterior Studio, now with a MyHome feature, that allows homeowners the opportunity to upload a photo of their house’s exterior and experiment with everything from colors to components such as windows, siding, stone veneer, shutters, trim, roofing and entry doors. “The tool gives homeowners the opportunity to personalize and customize their design,” says John Stephenson, senior vice president of marketing for Ply Gem.

Certain Teed, also a manufacturer of building products, offers a similar visualization tool called ColorView, designed to help homeowners find the perfect color combination and create a complete custom exterior, including roofing, vinyl or fiber-cement siding, trim, fence, railing and deck.

ColorCoach, an application designed to assist in exterior product color selection, and CurbAppeal, a user-friendly app designed for the iPad, are also available through Certain Teed.

“The CurbAppeal app helps create a beautifully coordinated outdoor living space and brings product selection into the 21st century,” says Matt Gibson, marketing director for CertainTeed Siding.

Thanks to technology, homes can now be picture-perfect before the work begins.

Ann Marie O’Phelan is a Southwest Florida resident and regular contributor to TOTI Media.