HomeCat
Design your backyard office
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Hey HN! Ilya and Nikita here. We’re building HomeCat, a tool that lets you design a backyard office space - https://myhomecat.comWe started out by helping people design sheds, and quickly realized that many people actually want to build a backyard office. There wasn't really an easy way to do this, so we thought we'd take on the challenge.Right now, you can design a backyard shed and our tool will make it code compliant. It's maybe 90% of the way there, since you also have zoning/HOA and other edge cases. But it does figure out most of the details for you. Right now, it's pretty simple: enter your address, what you want to build (i.e. 8x8 backyard office), and it'll create a few concepts for you. If you like one, you can customize it with the chat.Here's an example of a design that's compliant in SF: https://myhomecat.com/scene/classic-cottage-137134efWe would love for you to try our tool if you are planning your backyard office. As a bonus to the HN community, we can professionally design one for you for free if you comment what you're looking for.Happy labor day!
HN · launched Sep 7, 2026 · 40 upvotes (top 17%) · 0 views
Niche: interior and architectural design software · 162 launches, 18 in the last 7 days ▼ -5% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Real estate
- Vertical SaaS
- B2C
- Commercial product
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 162 launches in interior and architectural design software →
Could you build this?
Partial The web UI and configurator interface can be vibe-coded, but real architectural backyard shed/office design requires 3D parametric CAD modeling, structural engineering validation, and local zoning/building code compliance checks.
What it would actually take: A production version requires Three.js/WebGPU on the frontend backed by a parametric geometry kernel (like OpenCASCADE via WebAssembly) to calculate dimensions, joist spacing, and materials cut lists. It also needs rule engines integrating municipal zoning ordinances and standard building codes (IRC/IBC). Building this demands CAD software engineers and construction/structural engineering domain knowledge.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: Sketchup, Ikea (furniture catalog)
Concerns raised: Pricing not visible without login, Geographic coverage limited/unclear which regions supported, Code compliance automation difficult for complex rules, Renderer perspective/orthographic rendering issues, Address recognition limited to certain countries
Feature requests: Complex interior design with multi-catalog furniture, Orthographic/perspective rendering fix, List supported countries/regions on website, Expand to Western Australia and New Zealand
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 61 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #7 of 62 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 283 days after the earliest competitor.
- Outdoor Kitchen Systems · ph · 2026-10-22 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.40
- CurbMuse · ph · 2026-11-14 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.38
- Yardlet · ph · 2026-10-26 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.37
- HomeLab Architect · ph · 2026-10-29 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.37
- Landscape Plan · ph · 2026-10-10 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.36
- Home Planner · ph · 2026-10-14 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.36
- HouseDesign · ph · 2026-10-09 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.36
- Soft House Plans · ph · 2026-11-05 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.36
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