Using Chief Architect to create 3D renderings of your home is an invaluable tool in the decision-making process. It allows you to visualize your ideas in a realistic setting, helping you understand how different elements—like layouts, materials, and color schemes—will work together before making any commitments. With the ability to explore various design options and see them come to life in a virtual space, you can make more informed choices, avoid costly mistakes, and feel confident in the final design of your home.
If you’d like to learn more about our 3D rendering services for a room or your entire home, contact us below.
One of the key areas where Chief Architect provided significant assistance was in the lighting design.
You can spend about $5,000 to hire a lighting designer but from my experience, it’s not worth it. Especially if they cannot provide you with the 3D renderings to really validate that their lighting design aligns well with your vision.
We used Chief Architect to help us place precisely where we wanted each type of lighting fixture to go.
One of the issues that arose during the build was that our builder had vaguely listed ’50 recessed lights’ in our specifications sheet. We later found out that this actually referred to wafer lights, which are not the same as traditional recessed lights. We had to carefully consider whether it was worth the cost and effort to challenge the builder, especially since every prior issue had been a struggle. The wafer lights included in our pricing were cheap, with a poor 80 CRI, an excessively wide 110-degree beam angle, 884 lumens, and limited dimming capabilities down to just 20%. In short, these lights would have created an unattractive atmosphere, making it difficult to achieve the warm and inviting environment we wanted for our home.
Before building this home, we had no understanding of these details. We had visited many houses and couldn’t quite identify why some felt cold and uninviting while others felt warm, even when only the electrical and drywall were in place, before any painting was done. As an avid photographer, I suspected the difference was due to the lighting, but convincing my husband was difficult. It wasn’t until we completed the 3D rendering in Chief Architect that he realized I was absolutely correct.
