21 Apps for Inspiring & Optimizing Your Home


From home renovations to inspiration, here are twenty apps for beautifying your shelter.

The Apple app library’s treasure trove of design and interior related offerings is endless. It’s rather like delving into Aladdin’s Cave of Wonders, except it will cost you $.99 on up. Before your device’s memory becomes a cluttered closet of no return, here are twenty apps to get you started on reorganizing. Just as there is a pantone color fit for every surface, there is also an app to help you find it.  

Eco Modern Kitchen:

Winner of the 2011 Eco Design App Award, this app is focused on environmentalism, eco-friendly design, as well as sustainable and renewable materials. (Cost: $4.99)

Remodelista

View the latest Remodelista posts, browse by category, and shop. Includes a bookmarking feature for storing and managing favorite posts. The Wall Street Journal says, “For designing your home while away from home, the Remodelista app offers a wealth of resources to help take your vision on the go.” (Cost: Lite app version is free; go ad-free for $2.99)

Houzz

The Houzz app includes more than 325,000 original photographs from 55,000 architects, interior designers, photographers, contractors, and other remodeling pros. Fully sortable, perfect for organizing idea books. You can also use the app to find an interior designer locally (Cost: free)

House Plant 411

Perfect for the houseplant murderers among you, as well as those whose hands are blessed with green appendages. Take the House Plant 411 app with you while you shop to find the best plants for every dark and sun-infused corner of your home. (Cost: $3.99)

Dwell

Fresh, smart coverage of modern architecture and design in the palm of your hand. The Dwell App features videos, slideshows, editorial, as well as Facebook and Twitter integration. We predict Pinterest will be added soon enough. (Cost: free)

Fab.com

Fab is now the top rated shopping app for design inspiration and jaw-dropping sales on home décor and art. (Cost: free, plus earn credits while you shop)

Airbnb

Already touted as a compatibility tool, consider the Airbnb app a valuation one. Find out how much your space is worth and earn some cash by renting it out. Also book worldwide accommodations, including last minute lodging. (Cost: free)

Mood Board

Use the Moodboard app for creating inspiration boards. Each board is a blank canvas for organizing what inspires you. Add photos, text and color swatches, then redecorate accordingly. (Cost: $9.99)

Color Pulse

Benjamin Moore’s annual color forecast for 2012 is centered on the idea of Preservation, colors that encourage us “to move forward towards a kaleidoscopic vision for a sustainable future,”
 the company explains. (Cost: $24.99)

ColorChange

This app lets you to take any image and manipulate the colors within said image to help you to visualize what a room, landscape, person, or object would look like in a different color. (Cost: $2.99)

My Pantone

Pantone is the international language of color. Instead of trying to communicate a hue with obscure references only you understand, reference a Pantone color with the help of this handy app. It’s conceptually on target, though it has received some mixed reviews since its inception three years ago. Included are over 13,000 Pantone colors for creating custom palettes for renovation or inspiration. (Cost:: $9.99)

Doors!

Doors displays a slideshow of gorgeous, hand-crafted, envy inducing doors from all over the world. That’s all. (Cost: $2.99)

Fontify

There’s painting by numbers and sketching with fonts. Fontify the app lets you do the latter. (Cost: free)

Go Design

A sleek and common sense productivity app for professional interior designers seeking to access and organize projects on the go. (Cost: $9.99)

Dream Home

Integrate the latest interior design trends into your home, sourcing inspiration from hundreds of photos, colors, styles and room types. (Cost: $.99)

Mark on Call

Created by interior designer Mark Lewison, Mark On Call the app is the equivalent of designing your own personal product showroom with the help of an on-call interior designer. (Cost: $1.99)

DIY Home Color 

This app lets you change and match a color of home decoration. (Cost: $.99)

Handy Man DIY

A home improvement planner cum app designed to assist you in renovating your home. It provides all the mundane information you need to complete a gorgeous new project, figuring out the math on paint, flooring and measurements. (Cost: $1.99)

Renovation Budget Tracker

Renovation Budget Tracker purports that it will save you money on your next home renovation by allowing you to create categories and keep track of how much is spent. (Cost: $2.99)

Omni Focus

By far the most comprehensive task management system on the market today. Pricey, but well worth it for managing projects on any front (home, work, mental). Also allows location-aware task lists, and on-the-fly task entry with voice notes and image attachments. (Cost: $39.99)

Goop

Poor Gwyneth gets dealt a lot of crap, but her sense of style is anything but. The next time you go on the prowl for that perfect something for your abode, take goop with you. (Cost: $3.99. Shopping by Paltrow: worth every penny)

K. Emily Bond

K. Emily Bond is the Shelter Editor at EcoSalon and currently resides in southern Spain, reporting on trends in art, design, sustainable living and lifestyle.