Designing your perfect home demands a keen eye, a good imagination and a reliable contractor. Pre-drawn house plans remove a lot of the stress that comes with developing a plan from scratch, but there's still a long way to go once the blueprints are made. Fortunately, apps are making house design and decoration easier than ever.
It doesn't matter what aspect of the home building process you're on, or what kind of plans you're working with, there's likely an app that will give you decoration ideas, help you better visualize the space, introduce you to the best new products and even better pick paint and window treatments. Here are some reliable apps that can help with your plans.
Getting ideas
Whether you're looking for indoor lighting inspiration or fire pit plans, Houzz is one of the best design apps out there. The website is home to over 2,00,000 design photos, easily organized for casual browsing. Homeowners in need of kitchen ideas can simply scroll through the collection of more than 500,000 images on the website. They can filter their search by browsing in terms of location or even style, so that homeowners with contemporary house plans can look at equally modern kitchen suggestions. If there's an idea that seems to stick out, the app lets users clip the image and save it for later. When it's time to buy a product, the app also has links to specific items in the photos.
Planning the layout
Chances are, you'll be spending plenty of time with your contractor figuring out the most efficient use of your floor plans. Yet, you'll want more than just a paper copy or PDF to work with. For the tech savvy, plenty of apps allow users to digitally map out their plans and decorate them accordingly. Some, such as Floorplanner and Home 3D, let you make a multi-dimensional rendering of the plans so that you can get a better sense of the size and scale of the space. Once it comes time to choose furniture, you'll already have a good understanding of what could work in any given room.
People that are already well underway in terms of construction may also want to consider MagicPlan, which automatically draws floor plans of your rooms based on pictures you've taken. This tool can be especially helpful if you're trying to determine how furniture is going to fit into a space.
Choosing window treatments
Once construction is complete, the design options will actually seem to multiply, as you must now choose the highly customizable details of your home. Window treatments are one of those elements that can greatly affect the look and feel of a room, as they filter the kind of sunlight that comes through while serving as decorative pieces in their own right. The Window Shopper from Blinds.com is a fun and engaging way to find the perfect window covers for your home. Users simply take a photo of their window and outline the dimensions on the app. They can then browse through a catalog of digital window treatments as they would appear on the window.
Selecting colors
Paint is another big decision in your new home, and many big companies already lend their name to a burgeoning field of color apps to assist in choosing the perfect shades. HGTV's Color Guide is a source of scrapbook inspiration, while Color Capture by Benjamin Moore will determine a palette based on shades in photographs you've taken. ColorSmart by Behr tries to match appropriate shades to photos of your room.