Building or remodeling a house requires real vision – both from the architects who design a space, and also the people who plan to live there. But when homeowners see plans on paper, they often just nod and smile and hope for the best.
“They’re nervous. It’s a lot of commitment. Typically, a home is their largest asset, and they want to make sure you get it right,” said Jackson Heller, a founding partner with Ohio-based Walk Your Plans.
Walk Your Plans is an immersive technology service that lets clients project blueprints or floor plans onto the floor and walls of a giant warehouse. Walking through the space lets them test proportions and get a sense of traffic flow before construction begins.
The company recently opened Walk Your Plans Wichita near 53rd St. North and Webb Road.
Cara McClenny says she and her parents, James and Sarah Milne, decided to become licensees because they understood the need.
“You can look at a piece of paper all day long, and you can get somewhat of an idea,” McClenny said. “But to regular people, I would say, just walking in and not really having that idea of what it looks like, (projections) can give them a really clear perspective in the scale that they’re looking at.”
Garrett and Andi Beasley recently walked through plans for a home they plan to build between Rose Hill and Douglass. Portions of the blueprint were projected onto the floor, showing every door, closet, and kitchen appliance at full scale.
With an iPad, the Beasleys used augmented reality to place furniture such as couches or beds.
Andi Beasley said the full-scale walk-through was more helpful than she imagined.
“You know what doors look like, but just to be able to see what my front door looks like and walk in through my front door and into the space was awesome,” she said.
Beyond giving clients a better visual of their designs, walk-throughs often save them money. An average change order on a house under construction is around $5,000, and the average new-home build has more than six change orders.
Sessions at Walk Your Plans start at about $1,500. But if clients correct things during the design process, the changes are quicker and less expensive.
The Beasleys noticed during their walk-through that the standard interior doors in their plans were more narrow than expected.
“My husband has wide shoulders, so he doesn’t want to have to turn sideways to go in through a doorway,” Andi Beasley said.
The couple noted the change for a follow-up with their designer.
McClenny said full-scale projections come in handy during major kitchen remodels, too. More than 80% of people who walk their plans end up changing the configuration of their kitchen island. Many also shuffle appliances or cabinets.
“You can come in and just kind of see, ‘Is that high enough for me to reach, or do I need to move that down, or make the door bigger?’” McClenny said. “Mini changes like that, that may not have been as important when you’re looking at it on paper, become more apparent when you’re looking at it on our elevation wall.”
Heller, from the company’s Cleveland office, says the goal is to bring designers, contractors and clients together. The company can also help visualize outdoor projects like landscaping, patios, fire pits and swimming pools.
“At the end of the day, the decision-making process is so much more clear, just because everybody’s on the same page,” he said.
