Decorating your home with the help of your phone

Apps that let you try before you buy

The size of the space, lighting and furniture can really affect how a colour looks in your home. A colour that looks great in your friend’s house, could look terrible in your own. With the use of paint colour apps you can try before you buy! Here are some of our favourites:

• Dulux Colour App: Simply take a snap of what you are hoping to paint, choose from over 900 different colours and see your ideas come to life. Not quite happy with that colour? Simply pick another one! Save the ones you love for later.
• ColorCote, Roof Viewer: This app lets you try different roof colours on your own house. First you take a photo of the exterior of your house. The tap the 4 corners to indicate the roof section of your house, the slider lets you indicate the roof profile. You now can try on different colours and email yourself your top picks.
• Mark on Call: With this app, you might as well ditch your designer. This clever app will let you superimpose pictures of fabrics, rugs, flooring and finishes onto virtual floor plans. It’s like having your personal showroom in your pocket.
• Freedom Furniture: Take a photo of the space your wish to fill, browse their furniture catalogues, pick an item and fill the space. It’s a great way to see what furniture will suit your home.
• Magic Plan: This clever app allows you to create floor plans and work estimates by simply taking a photo. Take a photo of the space you are wanting to work with, and the app will measure the space and let you add objects , photos and comments so you can see what works well.

Colour Match Paint

See a colour you love? Or have an existing colour you can’t remember the name of? Or simply unsure how to describe it? These apps take the guess work out of colour matching.

• Resene ColourMatch: This app couldn’t get more simple. Take a photo of a colour from any smartphone – it could be a flower, a building, an anything! It will use the photo to instantly match the colour in the pictures and match it to the nearest Resene colour. Once you have found your colour, use the app to find complamentry colours for a complete colour scheme.
• MyPanatone: Similar to the Resene app, MyPanatone is convenient and allows you to accurately identify colour by taking a picture. It will also general expert complementary palettes based on colours in your picture.

Other little gems

Here are a couple of other apps that we have found very useful.

• iHandy Carpenter: 5 tools in one and better yet on your phone. This app works as a plumb bob to verify the verticality of lines or walls, a service level to level any flat surface, a bubble bar, steel protractor and a steel ruler that can measure things much longer than your phone.
• LikeThat Décor: Ever been out and about and discovered a piece of furniture that you just must have? Take a picture of the piece with this app and it will instantly find you a similar item available for purchase.
• Pinterest: You can’t bet Pinterest as an easy, straight forward way to create mood or inspiration boards. Bookmark an endless supply of colours, furniture, décor and small touch ideas.