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Ebay32's little girl's bedroom, all bold blues and violets, is getting great feedback. "Very cute," says one admirer. "Adorable," says another, while yet another gushes: "OMG!!! u r so talented." They've given it five stars.

Culr66chic isn't faring so well. The mix of light brown colors, wood furniture and bamboo shades in her bedroom is understated in comparison, and earns her just three and a half stars. Someone called tpalm tells her: "Could use a tad more color possibly."

This is all happening on a new Web site, DesignMyRoom.com, launched last September. It enables the public to virtually design, decorate and furnish a room online, and discuss their interior decorating ideas with others.

And while it's probably a stretch to say this is to amateur decorators what myspace.com is to your teenage kids, nevertheless it's proving popular.

There have been tens of hundreds of visitors since the launch, says Jesse Engle, vice president of business development. A handful of them are "very, very active." The majority is just browsing and not participating as actively, he says.

The Web site creator is Swatchbox Technologies, supplier of similar software tools for retailers and home products manufacturers. Among the companies sponsoring the Web site are flooring firm Armstrong, paint brand Benjamin Moore, Lowe's, tile supplier Daltile and HGTV.

The product placement is obvious, and the sponsors even have links to the Web site on their own sites. Engle makes no apologies for that. "It's really a sophisticated new form of advertising," he says, adding that retailers who provide homeowners with design tools enjoy higher average sales.

Computer-aided visuals for the home are nothing new to consumers, of course. Walk into any home-improvement store and you can play with the color of your own room on a screen at the paint department. Furniture chain Ikea allows customers to design kitchens, bedrooms and home offices online, then save the information to Ikea's server and pick it up at their nearest Ikea store.

The fact that customers know they can work on their own design at home or in the store, and then get final planning advice from staff at the store, seems to be a draw, says Jackie Terry, public relations manager for Ikea in Tempe.

"We recently added two new planning stations in the Work Ikea department and noticed a big increase in customers who wanted to jump right in and start designing their own offices."

Terry adds: "People who are just visiting the store to get a basic idea of our offerings seem much more relaxed when they find out they can continue their planning in the comfort of their own home."

Tucson interior designer Julia Thorson has used similar tools at Copenhagen Imports and Dunn-Edwards Paints.

"Most manufacturers are going to get smart to this and offer it in order to sell their products," she says.

But she warns that what you see onscreen with computer-aided design tools isn't necessarily accurate. Colors, in particular, don't translate well, she says. "It gives you just a real general idea. I seldom if ever pick a color from a Web site alone."

Copenhagen makes use of computer-aided design with one of its office lines, Jesper.

Made in Denmark, the furniture line features modular designs of bookcases and entertainment centers that can be slotted together according to the dimensions and needs of a room.

"We sit down the client and you can plug in this and that piece of furniture," says Copenhagen interior designer Maurice Brantley.

He sees computer-aided and virtual design taking off. "The interior designers coming out of school today are very savvy."

Gale Petrie, president of the American Society of Interior Designers' Arizona South chapter, says clients will start expecting more computer-aided design as they become more familiar with it.

Her members use a popular aid called Google SketchUp, which gives clients who otherwise have trouble envisioning a room a realistic 3-D image.

According to Engle, there's a place for more sophisticated computer program in remodeling, with actual measurements and to-scale graphics. But DesignMyRoom provides purely a visual aid, something for (not-to-scale) placement, color and coordination, rather than a tool to determine what fits where.

"We absolutely know our audience," says Engle. And that is women age 25 to 54 who don't want to measure and fit, but to play and look. "They prefer photographs, visualization, things that end up looking more real."

But the real bonus at DesignMyRoom.com is the community, he says. Not only are homeowners able to discuss their projects in a chat room setting, they can get ideas and follow blogs from well-known interior designers like Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz and Robert Verdi, host of Discovery Home Channel's "Surprise by Design."

Says Engle: "About 3 percent of Americans use interior designers when they plan a project. The rest of us muddle through the process. We try to get ideas from magazines, talk to friends and family, we visit a lot of stores, and it's really up to us to try to pull things together."