AD | Have you ever been faced with an endless choice of colours, styles, furnishings, scales, textures, and more to consider when trying to design your dream home? And then, despite creating a detailed mood board, you have no more than your imagination and scrapbook of images to go by. If this sounds like an all-too-familiar scenario, then you’re in luck. Because, guess what, there’s an app for that! Or rather, several handy interior design apps that you can use to successfully turn your vision into reality.
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How can interior design apps help you?
Much of the design guesswork can now be carefully considered choices, all with the aid of technology. You can get all kinds of help from colour identifiers and floor plan creators, to inspirational interior themed boards, and even tools, such as a digital spirit level. And let’s face it, balancing creative ideas when you’re renovating is a challenge! Whether you’ve just begun your interior make-over, or you’re in the midst of a more extensive redesign, the five apps highlighted below might come in very handy.
Palette Cam
Used by artists and interior designers alike, Palette Cam allows you to identify and form colour palettes from saved photos or those you take on your camera. So with this useful app, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, your surroundings can be used to create a unique palette which can later be used in your design. Spotted a patchwork rug* that incorporates all of your favourite tones? No problem! Take a quick snap and upload it to the app.
High precision during your colour selection is available, as the app has a built-in zoom, meaning you can hone in on a particular area of your picture to get each of the visible codes. And you’ll also be able to save the HEX and RGB codes too, meaning you can use your newly created palettes digitally as well.
Magic Plan
If you’ve ever rearranged the furniture in a room more than once, and would dearly like to save yourself the effort again, then Magic Plan could be the app for you. It helps you to scan a room in less than a minute and create a digital floor plan on your device.
As well as giving you an accurate vision of how furniture might look in a particular space, you can also draw a floor plan from scratch, and then get estimations of costs and materials required to refurbish a space. These plans can also be exported as they’re compatible with Excel and AutoCAD. Used worldwide, Magic Plan could save you no end of time and muscle-power when you’re designing or furnishing a space.
iHandy Level
As the name suggests, iHandy Level allows you to check how level objects are. It’s the digital equivalent of a spirit level, and the reviews are glowing about its precision and accuracy. Following a quick calibration, you’ll never again have to worry about how flat a surface is, or how squarely your objects are hanging. iHandyLevel might be a simple, one-trick pony, but it’s really good at what it does.
Measured
With Measured, you can leave your tape behind. So when you’re browsing in shops, you can take accurate measurements, either in imperial or metric units. And then copy a photo to your clipboard for future sharing with zero hassle. All you do is point and focus your phone at the object you’d like to measure, then start measuring. How easy is that!
No interior design apps round up would be complete without mentioning Pinterest, would it? If you find you’ve reached an inspiration-block, Pinterest can be a fantastic way to get the creative juices flowing again. The only problem is the vast array of styles and thoughts shared on this platform make it very easy for ten minutes to turn into a couple of hours browsing. So the really hard task is restricting yourself to using it as an interior design aid, rather than going off in too many other tangents at the same time…
Have you ever used any of these interior design apps to help you visualise your dream home? If so, which ones are your favourites? What other digital tools have you used that you’d recommend? Have you got any interior design tips to share?
* This is a sponsored post.
I just downloaded PaletteCam, Measured (actually I chose one called Tape Measure) and I level. I’m about to decorate a new apt so symmetry and colors are so important to me–I want it to look great! Thanks for these tips. Did not know about these apps before!
Oh my goodness, that is such good timing on my part, I’m soooo pleased these apps are going to be so helpful for you. Good luck with the new apartment, how exciting!
These apps sound great, I’ve never heard of them but they sound so useful. I usually Pinterest and hope for the best! Will give them a try with my son’s little box room when we get to redecorating that this year.
I think they’re amazing, I mean who knew technology could be so helpful in this way. Hope you have fun when you come to do your son’s room in due course 🙂
These are some great and useful tips! I’m bookmarking this post and referring to this when I get my new home! Thank you!
Thank you, I’m so pleased they might be useful for you!
I LOVE interior design apps – they bring to life what my eyes can’t and let me see what’s possible! Thanks for highlighting them!
You’re welcome and yes, I agree, they’re amazing!
I haven’t ever looked at any apps for home interior but we are (hopefully) weeks away from our attic conversion being finished and I want the space to be perfect. I will be having a look at some of these suggestions x
Oooh, that’s exciting, I would love an attic conversion but our roof is too low, sadly. Good luck with your build, I hope these apps will be helpful 🙂 x
Thanks so much for sharing these. We are redesigning our whole house this year, so these will be very helpful. The only one I know about is Pinterest, so ‘ll be sure to give the others a try! xo
MakeupMuddle.com
You’re most welcome – I adore Pinterest for inspo but I do think these other ones are genius for being so handy! x
I am like this, when I have so many choices of what to do with colours, patterns and textures. I like so many different combinations. I want to redecorate my bedroom, so these tips are so helpful! Thank you for sharing these tips Lisa xxx
Ah, that’s so good to hear, thank you, Lauren, and good luck with your bedroom redecoration – how exciting! x
Oh. Oh no. There goes my productivity… I’ve been dreaming about my own apartment for a while now and reading about these apps is basically the same as opening Pandora’s Box. I can’t stop thinking about it now!
Also, that second picture reminds me of a building at my uni that’s called Casa Confetti and I just really wanted to share that.
x Envy
verdwaaldinvertaling.blogspot.com
Pandora’s Box, I like that! I know what you mean though, the temptation to go off piste with these apps is overwhelming. And your uni sounds fantastic, what an amazing building, lucky you x
The spirit level app sounds amazing, that’s something that’s always so handy but I never seem to have one! Pintrest is also my favourite app and look for hours through the amazing interiors! X
Pinterest is such an amazing site, isn’t it? The only problem is, as you say, you can spend HOURS on it! x
I’ve never heard of any of these apps, apart from Pinterest of course. I’ve spent a long minute trawling through interior inspiration on Pinterest, even when I’ve had no plans to decorate anything! xxx
Pinterest is such a time waster, isn’t it? I mean I love browsing too but you really need to be laser focused and determined not get distracted, haha xxx
This is a great post! I’d never heard of these but PaletteCam sounds so cool. Will deffo check it out!
Thank you – they’re all great apps, so handy!
Such a handy post! I’ve been planning to redecorate my bedroom for the longest time so I think I’ll definitely play around with these apps and see what works best! I plan to do quite a drastic makeover so it will definitely help me decide what to do before I actually go forward with it. Thanks for sharing x
Oh that’s great timing, I’m so pleased. A drastic makeover sounds a lot of fun, albeit a lot of work too, haha. Exciting times 🙂 x
We’re currently refurbishing a few rooms in our house – my bedroom, the guest bedroom and our downstairs bathroom – so these will come in handy. Especially ‘Magic Plan’; the guest bedroom is essentially a “box room” so this will help us plan the space better. Thabks for sharing Lisa.
This is such good timing, I’m so pleased this post is helpful, it sounds like you’ve got a lot of planning and designing to do – good luck and I hope you’ll share the photos in due course! x
I hear about interior design and specifically AutoCAD a lot at work – I would love to give these apps a try before going onto the more difficult programs!
I used to work at an architects practice and watching them use AutoCAD was mind blowing – I feel these apps are a whole lot easier!
Pinterest gives me so much inspiration, I love all the the grey and purples at the moment!
Love, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
Pinterest is so great at that, isn’t it!
Great post! This is such a great resource for anyone looking to redo their space. This year I redid my home office when I started working from home, and heavily relied on Pinterest for inspiration. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you 🙂 I have spent soooooo much time on Pinterest recently, looking for inspo to revamp my daughter’s bedroom. Sadly, she and I have very different tastes, haha!
Nice apps! For a personal stylist I am a lousy decorator and need all the help there is 😹
Hahaha, that did make me chuckle, love that, Jenni!
How did I not know about any of these! Definitely will be trying some of these out when I’m next due to decorate! Thanks Lisa!
No problem, they’re fab apps, lots of fun!
This is so helpful!
My partner and I have just moved into a new flat and are in the process of settling in and designing it. Not a day has gone by that I haven’t scrolled through Pinterest for inspiration. I’m definitely going to check out Palette Cam, each room has it’s own nearly neutral statement wall, so I’ve been trying to find pieces of furniture and decor that compliments; and Magic Plan, our living room is rather small and I’m unsure if the room will look crowded if we add in another sofa, I was thinking it was going to have to be a put in and see situation but hopefully Magic Plan will be able to help us avoid any unnecessary moving of furniture.
Thank you for sharing. X
Oh, fantastic, what brilliant timing, I’m so pleased this post is helpful! It sounds like these are definitely the apps for you – how exciting to be starting from scratch with a neutral canvas, I hope you’ll share some photos or write about it in due course! X
Admittedly, Pinterest is a valuable way to stockpile ideas and research ways others have successfully blended colors with product. And, while I have found some hideous rooms, there is also a lot of gold.
Ha, oh yes, I’ve seen some very “interesting” concepts on Pinterest but it’s good to see what you don’t like as much as what you do 🙂
I love Pinterest, once I’m there it’s down the rabbit hole I go. I start pinning inspiration for favorite rooms, dream home, etc. and next thing you know it’s hours later – lol. I am such a visual person and this plays right into my creative and imaginative brain 😀
And that is EXACTLY why I have to limit my time on Pinterest, it really is a rabbit hole – glad I’m not alone!
I do use Pinterest for looking ideas, more recently when looking for ideas in re-designing my bedroom when I got a new bed 7 months ago 🙂
Nic | Nic’s Adventures & Bakes
I love Pinterest, there are so many swoonworthy interior room design ideas on there!
This is such a helpful post! I have saved ideas in Pinterest and also Houszz but I really appreciate the information that some of these apps provide. Thanks for sharing Lisa!
Thank you, Jodie, I’m so pleased it was helpful – Houszz is great too, but Pinterest has my heart!