Cool Tool: Virtual Room Builder

If you have "design ADD" like I do, you're never quite happy with the way your rooms are arranged -- either that, or you're tired of them practically the minute they're done. You feel the constant, nagging urge to change things up and move things around. And your head is so filled with endless possibilities that you find it hard to actually pull the trigger on a major furniture purchase.

For instance, our living room sat empty for five months while I laid down furniture outlines on the floor with blue painter's tape -- then peeled it all up and made new outlines, or taped new ones over the ones that were already there. "Should the couch be 70 inches or 84? Let's make 'tape ghosts' of both sizes and live with them for a few months before we decide ... "

Once the furniture finally arrived, I wasn't happy with the arrangement we'd settled on. So I made poor Nick help me schlep it around into a new arrangement. No sooner had we done that than I decided that the first set-up was better and made him help me put it all back the way it had been. For awhile there, his standard response to my tentative "Umm, Nick?" was a weary, "What furniture are we moving today?"

Turns out, there is an easier way, in the form of furniture retailer EQ3's nifty new "Room Builder" tool.

Here's how it works: Choose from pre-made living room, bedroom, dining room, or home office templates, or build your own rooms by entering the dimensions and the placement of doors and windows in the spaces you want to design. Then simply click and drag from an illustrated menu of furniture, rugs, lighting (either specific EQ3 products or generic items), and accessories to fill your room and to try out different arrangements. (The company is obviously hoping that once you outfit your virtual room with EQ3 booty, you'll want to do the same thing in real life. But the tool is free and there are no strings attached.)

Resizing elements is a simple matter of clicking and pulling, as is reorienting them. Once you're done, you can save, print, and even email your room plan. Here, for instance, is our living room in its current state:

And here's an alternate arrangement I've been mentally toying with:
Now I can mull over the relative merits of each before I draft Nick for another rearranging session.

If you, too, suffer from design ADD, check out the Room Builder before you start moving couches. It just might save your back, your roll of painter's tape -- and, most important, your mate's patience.

Low to High: Egg Chairs

I've been noticing a lot of furniture "inspired by" the classics lately -- everything from subtle homages to straight-up ripoffs -- as well as some very similar styles in non-trademarked designs that are available at a startlingly wide range of price points.

So I'm trying out a new blog feature called "Low to High" that will compare the high-end designs and the knockoffs side-by-side. (Please feel free to alert me to other examples, and to share your thoughts on buying high vs. low -- and the quality and aesthetic compromises that entails.)

Here, we have Arne Jacobsen's iconic 1958 Egg Chair. Well-preserved originals and authorized reproductions, which are made from the original plans and often by the same manufacturer at the same factory as the real deal, command several thousand dollars. Unauthorized reproductions are a bit less, but probably don't quite measure up in terms of quality of construction and materials, as well as investment value. Finally, there are the pieces that are clearly modeled on the original, but that sell for a fraction of the cost -- and often offer a fraction of the quality and long-term value.

To wit:

Top to bottom and left to right: IKEA Karstad Swivel Chair, about $490; Commander Swivel Chair, $499, from EQ3; "Bolero" Egg Chair Reproduction, $1,150, from Modern Furniture Classics; Egg Chair in wool, $4,892, from Hive Modern; Egg Chair in leather, $10,680, from Design Within Reach

Clearly, DWR's authorized leather Egg is the best-looking of the bunch, and will likely retain its value in the long run. But is it $10K worth of better looking? I guess that depends on your standards -- and your bank balance. Hive Modern's wool version -- which is also manufactured in Denmark by Fritz Hansen, the maker of the original Egg -- is equally swanky. The Bolero looks OK, but I don't think I'd spend more than a grand on a chair whose provenance and authenticity was a little murky. EQ3's polyester-covered Commander just looks a bit saggy, sad, and shabby in comparison to the others.

Personally, I think the IKEA Karlstad is a fine-looking chair at a reasonable price, and it's upholstered in real wool. (This chair is currently available only in the United Kingdom, but I'm hoping it hits these shores soon.) Of course, being from IKEA, I know that it will probably fall apart in a few years. Maybe someday I'll be in more of a position to choose "investment pieces." But for now, that's my pick.

What's yours?