Interior design apps are helpful tools for trying out a new look in a room, finding furniture and accessories, and channeling your interior decorator. Top picks include popular interior design apps for Android and IOS.
Houzz
With a rating of over 4.5 stars and about 350,000 downloads, Houzz is popular with Android users looking for ideas and inspiration. It rates highly at Apple with 4.8 stars and over 14,000 reviews. The app is also a way to find home professionals from general contractors to designers to repair specialists.
Sketch Feature
Houzz has over 14 million high-resolution photos categorized by style, location, or room type. This sketch feature allows you to draw and annotate directly on the pictures. Save your ideas in your idea book and share them.
Visual Match
Use Visual Match to discover and buy products and materials directly from photos on Houzz. Find verified product reviews and sale items. Select the View in My Room feature and use the camera to see what products would look like in your home.
Where to Download
The Houzz app is free at Google Play and App Store. Reviews were mostly favorable although some people had trouble finding specific products. Others were put off by unanswered questions by designers, and some experienced technical glitches.
Design Home
Design Home is designated as an Editor's choice on Google Play and has almost half a million downloads. It also has about 4.6 stars at iTunes.
Interactive Game Style
Design Home turns decorating into an interactive game. Play by furnishing three-dimensional rooms in various styles and locations with real-life furniture and accessories using high-end, brand-name products. Play against other users with daily design challenges where the gaming community votes on their favorite room designs. If your design wins, you collect the prize.
Purchase Products
Purchase the products that you're designing with by clicking on them. However, this app is limited to a narrow scope of high-end furniture and accessories and offers little else in the way of additional design features.
Where to Get It
Design Home is free at Google Play and App Store. Many reviewers found the game fun and creative but some grew weary of the ads. Others ran into technical difficulties, causing them to lose points or rewards.
Home Design 3D
If you're looking for an app with some serious design features, try Home Design 3D. Users compare it to Google Sketch Up, giving you the ability to build walls with windows and doors in two dimensional platforms and then convert to three-dimensional scenes where you can paint walls or apply textured surfaces like brick or stone.
How to Use
Home Design 3D allows you to furnish and decorate your home inside and out. Objects can be edited for their size, color, position, and altitude on walls. Choose from thousands of furniture and accessories. View your rendered designs under different light settings. The program also offers import and export features, and the ability to share your designs by way of e-mail and file hosting services.
Download the App
You can find Home Design 3D for free at Google Play and App Store. Although its advanced design features impressed most reviewers, many were frustrated by the lack of multi-level design capabilities.
Additional Design Apps to Check Out
A few more interior design apps worth downloading:
- BENJAMIN MOORE COLOR PORTFOLIO® MOBILE APP - A designer favorite mentioned at BobVila.com, this app allows you to snap a picture of practically any object and it will search the database of all Benjamin Moore paint colors to find the closest match. Free at Google Play and App Store.
- iArtView - Try out different artwork for your home by viewing it in place without needing to measure beforehand. Available by subscription from App Store.
- magicplan - It allows you to create floor plans by snapping photos of the room with your phone's camera. No need to draw or measure, but you'll need a subscription ($10 per month) to access the plans as documents or buy them individually for about $3. Free at App Store and Google Play.
- Chairish - If your preferred decorating style is Midcentury Modern, this is the app for you. Keep current on new listings for vintage items or that one-of-a-kind collectible you've been searching for. Free at App Store.
- BrightNest - BrightNest can help with tips and ideas on clever cleaning/organizing solutions and inspiring ideas for creative decorating. Free at Google Play.
Keep Checking Back
Look for new interior design apps under lifestyle in the app stores or just do a keyword search. Anything that makes life a little easier and home a little prettier might be worth a tap.
