If taking the hassle and guesswork out of revamping your home sounds like a breath of fresh air, then you’ll want to check out our roundup of the best user friendly interior design apps on the market. Now you can stay abreast of trends and plan your next project from the palm of your hand.

Whether you’re building a new home, remodeling your existing one, or simply trying to redecorate an outdated space, these undertakings have the potential to become very stressful in an instant. Attempting to stay within budget and on schedule, keeping ideas and plans organized, visualizing the space, and even arguing with your sigg-O over which shade of beige works best in the living room are some of the common challenges homeowners face when trying to give their space a facelift.

Another hurdle can be the overestimation, or resulting waste of construction materials, as well as the source and type of materials – the greener the better – which is where a couple of these interior design apps become quite helpful in their ability to locate or suggest eco-friendly finishes and furnishing for your projects.

Fortunately, for your convenience, we’ve gathered a few of the most popular and well-rated–and all free!–mobile apps on the market, so pull up a chair and let’s get started!

1. Houzz

With over 8 million high-resolution photos, Houzz is the destination for professional remodeling and redecorating ideas and resources. Unlike many of the photos on other apps like Pinterest, Houzz is chock full of professionally curated projects – from architects to interior designers to interior decorators – there isn’t a shortage of beautifully executed homes. Furthermore, it also has furnishing and professional resources, which can help you locate that reclaimed wood entertainment center you’ve been looking for, or hire the perfect interior designer for your upcoming project. 

2. Wayfair

Unlike the others, this app doesn’t have any fancy or high tech virtual views, but it does give you the power to pick your décor from the comfort and convenience of your smart phone or tablet. From natural rugs to eco-friendly sofas, the Wayfair app can help homeowners choose their décor by browsing furnishings quicker and easier than shopping for it in person.

3. Planner 5D

This app allows you to view your space in multiple ways – 2D, 3D, and 5D projections, but you can begin by creating floor plans of your own or choosing from the existing selection. The interaction is as simple as drag and drop and it allows you to pick home furnishing so you can get an idea for how certain items will look in the room. In addition to that, you can easily transform your floor plan into a 3D rendering which allows you to view chosen areas of the completed space. And, if your resources permit, with the aide of virtual reality glasses, you can utilize the app’s 5D technology and actually “move” or “walk” throughout the space in real time.

Homestyler Interior Design

Brought to you by the maker of AutoCAD, a popular tool among professional interior designers is Homestyler Interior Design from Autodesk, Inc. This combines the planning capabilities of the Planner 5D app with the convenience of the buying options on Houzz. Play around with your potential purchases and make sure that they look great before whipping out that credit card. This app also allows for wall color previewing and you can even incorporate your own home interior photos for the most realistic outcome possible.

Paint Harmony

If you’ve ever tried to visualize a wall color with a tiny can of sample paint, then you know how many factors can ultimately affect the end result of this experiment. Not only can lighting play a role, but the surrounding wall color (the one you’re trying to paint over) can play tricks on your eyes by influencing the tint or shade of the sample hue. In other words, unless you paint an entire wall, it’s really difficult to know how the color will look.

And although the colors in the app aren’t one hundred percent accurate, you can easily fill in an entire wall with the touch of a finger. This app works in real time by allowing you to move the device over your walls and watch the color magically change on the screen, or you can use previously snapped pics on which to try out your new colors.

Now that you’ve read our rundown of the latest interior design apps, we want to hear from you! What did you think of our suggestions? Do you prefer doing it yourself, or hiring professionals for your projects? Let us know your thoughts on the EcoSalon Facebook page!

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Stone + Cloth rucksacks and iPad cases help provide education in Tanzania.

Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro can be an incredibly inspiring and enriching feat that creates life-long memories. For Matthew Clough, the arduous adventure to the top of the Tanzanian peak turned from an outdoor challenge into a revelation that spurred the birth of a beneficial business plan.  Stone + Cloth combines Clough’s design education with a sustainable cause, resulting in a collection of durable, high-quality and intelligently designed backpacks and cases that pay it forward. Ten percent of the label’s proceeds go to the Knock Foundation, which provides scholarships, school lunches and school supplies to Tanzanian students. We caught up with Matthew to hear more about Stone + Cloth and his philosophy that “we’re given two hands; one to help yourself, and one to help others.”

Leena Oijala: Tell me a little bit about the story behind Stone and Cloth.

Matthew Clough: The opportunity I had to go to Africa and climb Mt Kilimanjaro was really the experience that got me to where I am today. Benson, my porter during the climb, was waking me up with hot tea every morning, carrying my meals and carrying my rucksack along the way, and was really the reason that I was able to accomplish my goal. My appreciation for Benson didn’t fully materialize until I really got to know him and learned that he makes less than a dollar a day. When I got home from Tanzania I had a sort of epiphany, and got reverse culture shock. I was appreciating the very simple things like having food on the table and having clean, running water, realizing that there are so many people in the world who have much less than I do. Since I’ve grown up in a way where I’ve been provided for, I felt like I needed to pass that on.  I thought ‘Why wouldn’t I help when I can and have the resources around me to do so?’

LO: How would you describe your design aesthetic?

MC: A quote I learned in school that I wanted to adopt to everything in my life was “A designer has reached perfection not when there’s anything left to add, but when there’s nothing left to take away.” So, just as simple as possible. The Benson backpack is named after my porter, as my relationship with him really is the inspiring force behind Stone & Cloth. The Lucas is also named after a porter that was leading our group of 15 climbers up the mountain. 

LO: Where do you source fabrics from? Where does the manufacturing occur?

MC: We’re sourcing 100 percent cotton in heavy rigid denim and canvas locally from vendors in Los Angeles, but the best quality fabrics are mostly from Japan or Europe. All of our bags and cases are constructed in Los Angeles. We’re focused on creating the best possible product, and although we want to be eco-friendly as well, our first focus is giving Tanzanian students the help they need.

LO: How much of an impact have you made in helping Tanzanian students?

MC: In terms of measurable impact we’ve been able to provide school lunches and school supplies to a classroom of 25 and award 5 scholarships to students. We believe that putting kids in school has the potential to break the poverty cycle, but we’re not about dispersing as many scholarships as possible – we want to find the potential leaders in the community to provide scholarships for them year after year.

LO: What inspires you?

MC: So many things, but community more than anything. The more I interact with my community the more inspired I am to make an impact and push my project forward.

LO: What sustainable fashion labels, initiatives and organizations inspire and motivate you?

MC: From a socially conscious standpoint I think Krochet Kids is incredibly inspiring and from a design and fashion standpoint J. Crew is definitely number one for me.

LO: Do you or will you follow trends when it comes to your designs?

MC: The way I’ve been designing products and using different fabrics has been something I’ve done by going with my gut, and I think that’s the way I’ll continue to go about it.

LO: What’s next for Stone & Cloth?

MC: My first full time employee started on April 1^st, and so I’ll be focusing more on spreading the story of Stone & Cloth around the world.

LO: What kind of design and fashion do you think the future holds?

MC: I think more than anything else people will be looking for the quality of the product. People will begin to wake up to the fact that the things we purchase should really be an investment, so they will be more willing to pay more for a high quality product that will last 10 years longer. Hopefully that means more emphasis will then be put on the skill of the designer.

Images: Stone + Cloth

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This one-of-a-kind iPad stand is made from sustainable or reclaimed Oregon black walnut.

Nothing is as timeless, tactile or naturally beautiful as wood – and when you know a tree hasn’t been sacrificed just for your new iPad, it’s a relief that your eco-conscience can remain clear.

This tablet holder from Block & Sons Co. is simplicity itself: a practical and visually arresting one-piece wooden block which keeps your iPad safe while showing it off. The stand protects your tablet from inevitable beverage spillages but also looks extremely classy.

Each block is a one-off, hewn in Oregon from a single piece of resilient, beautiful hardwood. The wood is sourced from sawmill ends, leftovers from furniture shops, or even from trees felled in Portland city. The blocks are cut and finished by hand and have rubber feet which prevent slippage and provide stability. Each stand is polished and sealed with two coats of beeswax and linseed oil finish to bring out the wood’s grain and also make it water-resistant.

The two men behind the Block & Sons Co. describe it as “the contrast of Mother Nature’s beautifully imperfect engineering with the sleekly perfect tech devices.”

A combination, and a price ($95), which are proving popular.

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Necessity, it’s said, is the mother of invention. Small wonder, then, that a new small wonder designed to put computing into the hands of masses has been born in a country with, well, plenty of masses. The government of India has released a prototype tablet computer that it says will sell out of the gate for a mere $35.

The touchscreen tablet can draw solar power and runs on a variation of Linux and has no internal storage, though it’s memory-card ready. On the what-it-does-have-front, those oh-so-few beans will get you a built-in word processor, video conferencing capabilities and, most important, a connection to the internet. Cloud-based computing is a key factor in the device’s low ticket price and compact architecture, as users can access web-based tools and applications through a browser as opposed to programs installed locally on the computer itself.

According to Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal, the device is designed for students and low-income families, and will be made available to 110 million Indian schoolchildren as early as next year. Quoted in the guardian.co.uk, Sibal says, “The solutions for tomorrow will emerge from India. We have reached a stage that today, the motherboard, its chip, the processing, connectivity, all of them cumulatively cost around $35, including memory, display, everything.”

At $35, PCWorld, calls the device “virtually disposable,” in comparing it with the $100 XO computer developed by MIT and used in the One Laptop Per Child program. Who knows, the technology might even one-day give Apple’s $500 iPad a run for its money; India says it’s looking for manufacturing partner to mass-produce the device and eventually push the price down to $10. Yeah, that’s right. $10.

Image: seeveeaar

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As Benjamin Franklin said, “Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” While Franklin might not have foreseen the attachment future Americans would have to their accessories, the Peasants and Travelers’ cork Doctor’s Bag confirms wine is a gift that keeps on giving.

Peasants and Travelers, a two-year-old accessories label, released the cork version of their venerable Doctor’s Bag design for spring 2010. Owner and designer, Jee Kim, had discovered a swatch of the unexpected material during a trip to Asia. While it intrigued her, she wasn’t sure how she could use it. The sojourn was a break from her steady climb up the ranks of fashion with stops at Gucci, Neiman Marcus, and Banana Republic. But, once she was settled back in San Francisco and working on her new line of bags, she remembered it and decided it would be perfect for crafting a bag.

Made from remnants of wine bottle corks from Portugal that have been smashed down and laminated to retain surface flexibility, Kim says the resulting material, “is waterproof and apparently, floatable.” Although, she doesn’t advise you attempt setting your bag to sail to test it.

Cork has enjoyed a resurgence of late in home interiors and has long been accessible in the shoe industry as wedges, heels, and espadrilles, but what is so unexpected is the luxe and highly refined character it lends the bags.

A good thing gets around fast. It caught the eye of curators at New York’s MoMA who then featured a whole series of cork made accessories by Pelcor, a global cork fashion brand in Portugal, for their “Destination Portugal” exhibit which opened in May.

Our editor-in-chief, Sara Ost, was similarly entranced when she saw the Doctor’s Bag at SF’s Thread show a few weeks ago. Kim offers, “It has a fashion forward look, which you wouldn’t expect. People are so intrigued when they see it in person.” “Its appeal is unisex” says Kim, with men and women coveting its “classic style with a modern interpretation.”

The design is as efficient as it is eye-catching. It’s roomy and travels well, fitting into an overhead storage locker or under the plane seat. It’s part of Peasants and Travelers’ urbane villager line, which includes the paper tote bag, a larger weekender, and an oversized envelope that fits an iPad perfectly.

Nearly every inch of Peasants and Travelers’ bags are composed of reclaimed materials ranging from recycled cork to the repurposed cotton-dress shirt gingham lining “that, unlike nylon linings that rip and tear, gets softer with use”, enthuses Kim. The bags are BPA, phthalate and lead free but their most impressive green credential according to Kim is its longevity – “when you adore something, you won’t want to throw it away.”

Available at 10 locations, including Urban Outfitters.

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Billed as the greenest-of-the-green-tech gadgets, enter the iPad – a blockbuster with staying power, enjoying colossal success beyond its celebrated opening weekend. (Wondering as I write, how long it’ll be before my spell-check passes over “iPad,” as it now does “iPod.”) For the eco-geek, this is great news: An A-level toy in sustainable form. A maker makes good on its promise to be a leader in corporate environmental solid citizenship.

Indeed, there are a lot of reasons for you to feel good about buying the iPad. The much-talked-up tablet features a way-long battery life, an arsenic-free display glass, is free of brominated flame retardants, has no mercury in its LCD display, lacks any PVC and is fitted with a recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure. All this is an articulation of an admirable commitment by Apple that goes far beyond design. Behind the scenes, the company’s approach to its facilities, production, water use, transportation and recycling is as state-of-the-green-art as is its technology.

But not everyone out there is drinking the apple juice. Not at all at ease with yet another massive production demand for an insanely desired electronic device, more than a few watchdogs are looking behind Apple’s green curtain. These folks are drawing attention to yet more precious metals mining, increased supply chain requirements and the device’s energy use over its lifetime. “End-of-life management,” too, is of a great concern for both the iPad itself and the devices that it will no doubt (in many cases needlessly) replace. Just hours, in fact, after Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPad back in January, Greenbiz’s Managing Editor Matthew Wheeland referred to this latest gotta-have as “still another resource-intensive gadget.”

Moreover, the iPad is cloud computing-based, relying on the ever-growing methodology to access videos and music and other forms of data streaming. The rapid growth of this approach requires the construction of places to store vast amounts of data, immense facilities that gobble up tremendous amounts of electricity.

Greenpeace Press Officer Daniel Kessler, writing in The Huffington Post, recently opined: “If we hope to phase out dirty sources of energy to address climate change, then – given the massive amounts of electricity needed in order to run computers, provide backup power and coordinate related cooling equipment that even energy-efficient data centers consume – the last thing we need is for more cloud infrastructure to be built in places where it increases demand for dirty coal-fired power.”

You might say there are bigger enviro-challenges to address than these. Greenpeace and the other hardcore greenies would do better to focus on some of the real uglies out there, including those who portray their products and manufacturing processes as environmentally friendly when they’re truly anything but. But the “radicals” on this issue, as is often the case, have a purpose and an important point to make.

The advent of the iPad begs some real questions to those of us who love new(er) and clever(er) gadgetry, green or otherwise – questions that perhaps we didn’t ask ourselves when we joined the compact disc, cell phone and laptop revolutions. We’re an insatiable culture with an insatiable appetite for progress, particularly high-tech progress, and if we can call it green, well that’s just great. But it’s good – critical, in fact – to keep in mind that (even green) tech progress comes with a price. More stuff means just that – more stuff. And that requires mining, manufacturing, transportation and power. It also means your old stuff has got to go – somewhere. (It’s interesting to note, says Wheeland, that those in the recycling biz adore the iPad almost as much as they adore flat-screened televisions.)

So ask yourself before buying in: Do you need a new device – or do you want a new device? This is not always a simple question, and can require a hard look at a fine line between what truly inspires you and what’s simply a new toy, between charging your creative engine and consumption for its own sake. We’re presented with new options to make our lives easier and more enjoyable every day. Discerning which of these roads to follow – read: purchases to make – is a big issue when considering how well we want to play with our community and our planet.

Image: Robert Scoble

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Lust for Apple’s iPad reached a fevered pitch the second the company allowed pre-orders online (March 12th). We anticipate that the iPad will remain a trending topic on every corner of the internet, as sales begin at Best Buy and Apple stores April 3rd.

Greenpeace has been using iPad buzz to get people thinking about a need for greener information technology.

Are they really trying to take the wind out of Apple’s iPad sails, nee sales? Or is it reasonable to ask Apple fan-girls and -boys to think hard before they buy another wireless gewgaw, with another battery and batch of peripherals and accessories? Or for that matter, to ask us all how many times a day we really need to check our Facebook and Twitter feeds.

A March 30th Greenpeace statement cited research that predicts a triple increase in electricity consumption by data centers and telecommunication networks in the next decade. It called on computing giants, especially Apple, Microsoft, IBM and Google, to “get [their] carbon footprint under control.”

While Greenpeace views the IT industry with a skeptical eye, cloud computing insiders like Sherrie Wu, vice president of product development at AirSet in Berkeley, California thinks the trend of cloud computing – doing everything online, including storing files, accessing and using applications, versus downloading them and working from a hard drive – is already doing more good than harm, environmentally.

Wu explained, “Cloud computing like we offer at AirSet lets office teams collaborate on documents online in an integrated environment. Team members or even family members’ access to information, with cloud computing no longer relies on printed or email copies. Teams can keep their schedules, contacts, files, and all the other digital data that are important in one secure place, again instead of printing or emailing.”

Reduced paper consumption and fewer logins to get to the information you need sounds great. But with all of the electricity consumption, can cloud computing, including the iPad, have a silver-green lining?

Get informed and weigh in below, or Tweet your thoughts our way @ecosalon

Basic Reading:

Official iPad Product Specs

“Apple won’t say how many iPads it has sold in advance of their debut Saturday, and it’s hard to predict how many enthusiasts will camp overnight and swamp Apple stores when the doors open Saturday at 9 a.m., as they did for last summer’s launch of the most recent version of the iPhone”¦” – An Associated Press story by Jessica Mintz anticipating a successful iPad launch.

“The iPad”¦relies on cloud computing – a system where information and core processes are accessed through a network, rather than on a local server. The iPad is only one instance of this type of operation. Google is another, and the practice is increasingly common”¦.” – A Guardian UK story by Vincent Bevins discussing the environmental benefits and potential drawbacks of cloud computing.

“Apple has indicated that the iPad is highly recyclable and free of harmful chemicals. The likely long-term environmental impact of the iPad is nonetheless ambiguous at best”¦ it seems [like] another device that adds to our modern electronic clutter and feeds into the cannibalistic trend of shrinking product lifecycles.” – Change.org writer Giovannia Mejia discusses electronics makers’ use of “conflict” minerals, and compares the IT industry to the diamond industry.

Further Resources:

IPad Accessories Chart on Testfreaks.com, a design blog.

A feature story about Seton Hill University’s Plan to Issue Freshman iPads and MacBooks.

The iPad reviewed from a regular consumer’s and the techie’s point-of-view, by New York Times’ David Pogue.

This is the latest installment of EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and business highlights by columnist Lora Kolodny.

Image by: curiouslee

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E-readers are spineless compared with hardcover books, lacking the soulful carbon fingerprints of readers past. You cannot fold the pages of the wafer-thin gadgets, or make your mark with splotches of food or wine. And the idea of clutching the casing to your chest after reading the final line of a novel just leaves me cold. As one book club friend of mine waxes, “There’s just something about the smell of a book.”

Still, we all can smell and see the writing is on the screen when it comes to these devices outsourcing print media, sparing trees and saving money. According to ID TechEx, the total market size in 2010 is a whopping $131 million, and is expected to soar to $1.7 billion by 2014. Much of that growth is attributed to huge success of Kindles and other portable e-readers. “In 2020, the market value will reach $7.45 billion thanks to the availability of flexible, color displays and faster refresh rates,” the market analysts predict.

Why do users find them so friendly?

“I bought one for my wife for her birthday and enlarged the fonts so she can read the words on the screen without squinting or wearing reading glasses,” says Steve Montoya, a Bay Area IT consultant. “She’s an avid reader. Recently, she read a series she couldn’t get in e-print, and couldn’t wait to finish it and get back to her Kindle.”

While you can’t download all desirable titles now, the Amazon library and others are growing every day.

“You can get books, magazines, newspapers, even audio books to listen to with headphones,” Montoya says.

The graphite feature also is a huge power saver, he finds, noting you can get several days of reading on one charge. And since it works on a cellular network, it also makes it easy to instantaneously order books and have them appear on your library. Plus, the e-readers never seem to lose connection.

“My brother-in-law is in Afghanistan and his iPhone doesn’t work, but his Kindle does,” says Montoya.

If the prequel of our paperless future is the tragic death of magazines and newspapers, will the sequel be the disappearance of paperback and hardcover reads? Are there upsides to this plot? Here are some of the pros and cons of e-reading devices:

Cost

Pro: If you are a voracious reader without a library card, you probably will save money on an e-reader. If you are a voracious reader with a library card, you probably will save on late fees.

Con: You have to spend a lot for the cheapest iPad, which is wifi-only, holds 16GB of storage and sells for nearly $500. The Que is $649 and has a 4GB of data storage. The 3G wireless Amazon Kindle is more affordable at $250.

Storage

Pro: When the Kindle was introduced in 2007, travelers loved the benefits of of storing up to 1,500 books on a device the size of a small paperback read. And the library of available books to download keeps expanding (the first chapter of any book is free). Let’s face it, we are a storage-challenged human race with too much junk and not enough apartment and home space. This eliminates the need for shelving.

Con: Our private libraries are important for sharing with our friends and children and passing down treasured collections – classics and complementary fiction that rocked our world. Plus, it’s a lot easier to lose a gadget than an entire dusty collection.

Green

Pro: Many green publications, including Inhabitat, sing the praises of e-readers because they ultimately aid the environment by requiring no deforestation to manufacture, compared to the traditional paper publishing industry. This doesn’t even include the energy, materials, dyes and carbon from shipping that shames the print industry. According to a study by Cleantech, the carbon emitted in the lifecycle of  a Kindle, for example, is fully offset after the first year. And more earth-friendly models are on the move, like LG’s Solar ebook introduced last year, boasting a thin photovoltaic cell which keeps the juice pumping so your novel won’t go kaput during the climax.

Con: What is being offered is a new thing to buy, to keep you busy on the subway. High tech by nature is incompatible with green with exceptions such as solar panels, which also require an investment in energy to make. Green means a return to what your grandparents did, a return to simplicity: Walk a few blocks to school and work. Open a book on your front porch and snooze. That’s 18th Century technology. Also, the effectiveness of reducing emissions by popularizing these gadgets is dependent upon the publishing industry standardizing its adoption of the technology while committing to cutting down the production of physical books and other print media. Is this likely to happen anytime soon, other than by default?

Convenience

Pro: Toss the paper thin, lightweight, wireless device in your bag and you’re good to go. The new generation of Kindles is lighter than a paperback at 6″ and 10.2 oz. and you can hold it with one hand, which aids those carpal tunnel issues. This is why so many e-readers are the new companions of commuters. Hopefully, driving laws will keep users from biting into New Moon while behind the wheel. If you thought texting was was a dangerous distraction while driving…

Con: The tactile experience of gripping a book, magazine or Sunday paper can outweigh the fact it might be heavier to lug. It is this experience that is woven into our cultural wiring. No matter how hard technology tries, the tendency for consumers to prefer print over e-readers will endure for many years to come. With regard to our cultural connection to books, a graduate student at the University of Toronto wrote that his first experiences with a reader felt like “a courageous betrayal of every word written from the moment papyrus gave way to paper.”

Connection

Pro: We are a society that needs to stay connected now more than ever. In terms of signal range, e-readers never seem to drop out.

Con: Losing connection might be easier on the eyes. Having your head in a book just isn’t the same as having your peepers fixed on a screen for hours of pleasure reading. Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) cases are rising in people looking for relief from fatigue, strain and irritation caused by focusing on worlds and images on a surface without well-defined edges contrasted against backgrounds. Eyes simply respond better to most printed text of bold black letters on a bright, white background.

Images: E-readers

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