Best UrbanTurf Addition of the Year: Re-imagined

• December 19, 2012

by UrbanTurf Staff

A backyard in Truxton Circle re-imagined.

Fixer-uppers have become some of the most popular homes for buyers in the DC area. But frequently, UrbanTurf has found, these properties are in pretty rough shape, so bad in some cases that envisioning what a home could eventually look like once it is fixed up is fairly difficult.

Enter Lori Steenhoek.

A little over a year ago, UrbanTurf reached out to Steenhoek, the founder of Capital Pixel, a DC-based design firm that specializes in 3-D imagery and architectural visualizations, for a new concept called Re-imagined. The new series would help “re-imagine” what a DC home could look like with the help of some renovating and rehabbing. Steenhoek would find a home on the market in need of some work, and then set about creating “re-imagined” renderings of various rooms in the house.

UrbanTurf was floored by the results. From a home on Capitol Hill to a row house in Truxton Circle, Steenhoek masterfully transformed home after home to the delight of our readers.

As we ran these articles, many readers inquired about Steenhoek’s re-imagined creation process. Here, in her own words, she describes the process of creating a rendering, which is illustrated in the videos below:

People often think that creating a rendering is as simple as pushing the “Render” button. While I really wish that my keyboard had one of these magical buttons, it’s not always that easy. I start with some basic listing photos. Each step after that represents one more iterative rendering. When each of the images in the process are strung together, you can get a little insight into how I went about creating the rendering. You’ll notice there is a lot of trial and error – adding new lights, adjusting the brightness, rearranging furniture, adding colors, and creating new textures.

Press play. Re-imagining a backyard, detail by detail

Press play. Re-imagining the living room

Here are a couple of our favorite Re-imagined renderings, with the original photos.

A Re-imagined Porch in Trinidad

Small and Underutilized

Re-imagined: A Screened-In Porch

The Attic of a 16th Street Heights Row House

Unfinished and Messy

Re-imagined: The Perfect-Sized Playroom

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/best_urbanturf_addition_of_the_year_re-imagined/6422