The race to try to bring good design to the masses has a worthy new entrant: SpruceBox. This Web-based visualization tool from workshop/apd’s Matthew D. Berman, Assoc. AIA, and Andrew D. Kotchen, Assoc. AIA, allows consumers to envision what a kitchen or bath would look like with various product, color, and finish combinations. SpruceBox, which evolved from an earlier effort called RightFrame (see residential architect, January/February 2011), is available for kitchen and bath showrooms to install on their websites. So far 87 showrooms, mostly in the New York metropolitan area, have signed up.
According to Berman, who co-founded SpruceBox along with Kotchen and software engineer Jay Orfield, the company’s goal is simple. “It’s about getting better design out to more people,” he says. “Most people appreciate design. Most people can’t afford to have somebody else do it for them.” SpruceBox also includes partnerships with manufacturers, who provide information on their products as content for the site.
Berman, Kotchen, Orfield, and their team have invested many hours of work into making SpruceBox’s visuals beautiful, realistic, and user-friendly. The beta version is live at www.sprucebox.com; give it a try yourself and see what you think.
