Playing with interior angles

Design enthusiasts have a new way to noodle with interior possibilities, and boy is it fun.

New York’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, which is part of the Smithsonian, has teamed up with Parsons School of Design to display the museum’s furniture collection in an online game called Design-a-Room. Users can click on either “Arts and Crafts” or “Modern” to create rooms using furniture, rugs and wall coverings from either era.

It’s not just room planning. The museum sneaks in tidbits about the designers and their work at the top of the window. Try a pair of Gustav Stickley chairs against a background of William Morris wallpaper, for instance, and the website will tell you that Morris created more than 500 wallpaper and fabric patterns, and that Stickley’s Morris chair was based on the design for an adjustable-back reading chair.

If you’re a Modern fan, you can reduce the size of the George Nelson clock you’ve pasted in one corner of the room to draw attention to Charles Eames’ iconic lounge chair and footstool or Nelson’s Marshmallow sofa of barstool cushions and steel.