Patent Application
20050277093
This invention is directed to a furniture visualization apparatus, and, more particularly, to templates each consisting of a two-dimensional sheet of light-weight, flexible material formed in the actual size of the footprint of an article of furniture to assist with visualizing how such furniture would appear in a room or other space of given dimensions.
One of the difficulties confronted by interior designers, builders, architects and the like is to assist their clients in visualizing how objects will appear within a room or other space. Many people are unable to appreciate how articles of furniture, paintings and other items can be arranged together in a room, and whether their individual and collective size is appropriate for the space. Historically, design professionals have resorted to drawings, typically two-dimensional renditions on graph paper, in an effort to represent the relative size of furniture and other objects, as well as how such items fit together within a room. Drawings of this type provide little guidance for many people.
The shortcomings of current practices such as described above have been addressed in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 1,988,461 to Reeves, for example, discloses a system in which walls are formed to define the boundaries of a room of desired size and shape, and then life-sized, 3-dimensional articles of furniture are placed around the room. The Harris et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,221,766 teaches the use of blanks which fold into the shape of wall cabinets and base cabinets of the type found in kitchens or other rooms. Sheets or stickers which are painted or printed with the actual look of the front of a kitchen cabinet or other piece of furniture are affixed to the assembled blanks to simulate their actual appearance.
Systems of the type disclosed in the Reeves and Harris et al patents are expensive, inconvenient and impractical. Each design employs 3-dimensional furniture and/or walls which are difficult to store and impractical to transport from one location to another. Further, such furniture must be assembled on site, and then disassembled when a presentation to a client is completed. Using 3-dimensional shapes requires one to stock a large number of items in order to provide a client with an accurate depiction of a sofa, table, chair or other article of furniture of the desired size. This adds significantly to the expense of purchasing such items and storing them.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,293,441 to Meyer describes a system wherein a 2-dimensional rendition of different articles of furniture is drawn or otherwise provided on each of a number of separate sections of cardboard or the like, and flaps connected to the sections allow them to be held in an upright position for display. Each article of furniture is tiny, not life-sized, and they are positioned around a miniature depiction of a room. While this approach solves the assembly and storage problems identified above, it is difficult for many to visualize how furniture will look in an actual sized room by looking at a miniature scale model. As such, the Meyer system is considered no more effective that the drawings prepared by designers and others for their clients, as noted above.
This invention is directed to templates for simulating the footprint of different articles of furniture, each of which consists of a 2-dimensional sheet of light-weight, flexible material such as olefin or neoprene formed in the actual size of the footprint of a piece of furniture. The sheets are easily transported from one location to another, and readily placed on the floor or wall of a room or other space to provide the viewer with an accurate depiction of the actual size of each furniture item and how multiple items can be arranged together within a given space.
In one presently preferred embodiment, each two-dimensional sheet has a top surface, a bottom surface and a peripheral edge. A stabilizing element is mounted to one of the top and bottom surfaces to assist in maintaining each sheet in a fixed position upon a support surface, e.g. a floor or wall. The stabilizing element may be one or more pockets filled with sand or other relatively heavy material, or hook-type fastening material, affixed at selected locations to the bottom surface of the sheets. The hook-type fastening material is preferably employed where the sheets are intended to be placed on a carpeted surface, whereas the sand-filled pockets can be used on wood floors, concrete or other smooth surfaces.
The top surface of the sheets are formed with spaced markings defining fold lines along which the sheets may be folded to reduce their length in at least one dimension. One or more spacers are mounted to the sheets which extend from their peripheral edge. Each spacer has a length dimension which is sized to permit even spacing of the sheets a desired distance from a wall or other object. Further, one or more bubble levels may be mounted to the sheets, particularly those intended for mounting to a wall for simulating a painting or the like, to allow for leveling of the sheets.
The templates of this invention provide life-sized footprints of different articles of furniture to aid in the visualization of how a room will look when furnished, while avoiding the pitfalls of the prior art. They are relatively inexpensive, easy to store and transport, require no assembly and can be rapidly placed around a room or other space, in different arrangements, as desired.
The structure, operation and advantages of the presently preferred embodiment of this invention will become further apparent upon consideration of the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring initially to
The template 10 is intended to be placed upon a support surface such as a floor to simulate the footprint of an actual-sized article of furniture and thus aid in the visualization of such item in a room or other space. In order to assist in retaining the template 10 in position on the support surface, the sheet 12 is provided with one or more stabilizing elements 20 mounted preferably to the bottom surface 16 of the sheet 12. In the embodiment of
Alternatively, as shown in
While the stabilizing element 20 of
Other features of the furniture templates of this invention are depicted in
The template 38 of
In
While the invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof.
For example, the templates 10, 38 and 54 are depicted as having a generally rectangular shape whereas the template 26 is round. It is contemplated that the templates herein could be essentially any shape required to simulate the appearance of the footprint of a particular article of furniture.
Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.
