The 10 Best Apps for Home Decorating!

Koubachi App: Gives Plant Watering Reminders

You guys know that I don’t have a very good track record for keeping plants alive. I’ve thrown in the towel for some of my plants and gone faux like in my family room where I finally bought {this faux fiddle leaf fig tree}:

For the plants that I’ve been able to successfully keep alive, I owe it to the fact that they’re hardy suckers (snake plants and pothos are virtually unkillable!) and that I use the Koubachi app to remind me to water them. To start things going on the app, you simply click on the gray mat to add a plant, input information about your plant including the type of plant, your name for it, and where it’s located in your house, and then you calibrate (calibrating involves watering them and then telling Koubachi when they are dry and in need of more water). Once Koubachi has figured out the watering needs of your plant, it sets that watering period and sends you alerts whenever your plant needs to be watered, misted, or fertilized. Simple but super helpful, especially for plants in rooms that you’re not in on a daily basis.

iHandy Level App: Turns Your Phone into a Level

When it comes to hanging multiple pieces of art, I use my standard level or laser level (you can see my laser level in action in {this post}) but when I just want to make sure that a single picture is straight, I whip out my phone and fire up the iHandy Level app. This app is my favorite of all of the free level apps out there because there aren’t ads on the screen getting in your way and it’s pretty darn accurate. You can also upgrade for a few dollars to a version that includes more features such as a surface level and plumb line. 

Photo Measures Lite App: Save Measurements on Your Photos

If you’ve ever been at a store or flea market and found what you think may be the perfect piece of furniture but you aren’t sure if it’s the right size for your space, this app might be a good one for you! With the Photo Measures Light app, you can take a picture of any space in your home and add measurements to it so when you stumble upon the perfect “find”, you’ll know if it’s going to fit. With the free Photo Measures Lite app, you can only save two photos at a time so I create the images with measurement overlays in the app and then screenshot to save them to my phone so I can delete those pics from the app and be able to import new ones. You can also purchase the upgrade if you want to be able to save more than two pics or want to be able to sync it with your iPad. Note that this app does not take the measurements for you (honestly I don’t trust any app to do that anyway) but just makes it simple to mark them on your pics. 

Even though I use Pinterest almost daily, I only added the Pinterest app to my phone about a year ago (I’m a laptop girl through and through!). But it’s really nice to have the mobile version (it’s a great way to kill time when you’re standing in line, etc.) when I’m out and about. I have a bunch of standard boards like “dining rooms” on my Pinterest home page but I also create boards for big projects that I’m working on and pin anything and everything that inspires my decorating along with products I anticipate using in the space. Right now I’ve got a Kitchen Remodel board going – you can check that out {here} and if you’re not already following me on Pinterest, you can find me {here}. 

 

Picmonkey App: Edit Your Photos on the Go

I’ve been using PicMonkey as a quick and easy editing tool for years but it’s only more recently that they came out with a mobile version. I use it a lot to create collage images and images with overlay like this pic below from my post on styling bookshelves. You can create the white background boxes using the “Stickers” feature and then simply add text on top of it! It’s an easy way to add text and overlays to pics you take while out shopping – you can add the price, measurements, etc..

Wunderlist: The Ultimate To-Do List App

I LOVE to-do lists. Seriously I would get nothing done without them and always have multiple lists going at any one time. While I still love a good pen and paper list, I’ve started making my lists electronically more often and out of the apps that I’ve tried, Wunderlist is my favorite. You can not only create different lists but you can star prioritized items and assign due dates so that you get reminder alerts and never miss a thing. And you can invite other users to collaborate (like with your Grocery list so everyone in the family can add to it from their own phone). I love that it has little check boxes and you get a happy little ding sound when you check something off, giving me the same sense of accomplishment as crossing it off a pen and paper list. 🙂

 
Paper App: Sketch on the Go

Along with loving to-do lists, I also love to sketch things out. Design inspiration hits me at the strangest times and I love being able to just grab my phone and do a quick sketch. The Paper app has tons of different sketching tools (I love the super fine pen!) and you can choose your favorite colors to sketch with too. Once you have a few sketches in the app, you can start organizing them into these cute sketch books so they’re easy to find when you want to refer back to them.

ColorSnap, Color Capture, & Color Smart: Paint Color Matching Apps

While I’ve never used one of these paint color matching apps to choose the exact color that I’m going to paint with it, I have used them to get me going in the right direction with my choices. Most of the bigger name paint brands have their own apps and they work similarly – you either upload a photo or take one with your phone’s camera and then you’ll be given some suggested colors that match. The three that I’ve used are Sherwin-Williams’s app called ColorSnap, Benjamin Moore’s app called Color Capture, and Behr’s app called Color Smart. 

 

Waze

Ok, Waze isn’t exactly a decorating app, but I’d sure have a hard time living without it! Whether you need directions to pick up an amazing find on Craigslist or go to a new home store or if you know where you’re going but want the fastest route to get there based on current traffic, you’ll love Waze. Living in an area where hopping on I-95 is the fastest way to get many places, Waze has been a lifesaver because I-95 can often get pretty trafficky and Waze routes me on alternate roads to get to my destination faster. And I love that you can add your favorite places on the Favorites page so that you’re given the best route to go with just a single click! 

LIKEtoKNOW.it App: Shop Instagram Pics

If you love Instagram like I do, you probably know that a lot of bloggers (including myself) use RewardStyle to link items in the pics we share so that it’s easy to shop things in the pics that you see and like. RewardStyle recently developed the LIKEtoKNOW.it app to get those product links even easier. Once you download the app, when you either “like” or screenshot an image on Instagram that has linked products through RewardStyle, that photo and all of the linked products go straight to the app where you can look at them right away or revisit them later when you have more time. You can also search and follow your favorite Instagrammers and then see every single one of their pics that they’ve linked products to, including posts you might have missed! The app is great and gets crazy high reviews! You can click {here} to download the LIKEtoKNOW.it app and check it out (be sure to look me up)!

So those are my ten favorite home decorating related apps, what about yours? I found several of these through friend recommendations and am always up for finding a few more keepers so I’d love for you to share! Enjoy your weekend everyone and be sure to check out some of the weekend sales if you’re wanting to freshen up your home or wardrobe for spring – I’m not sure why this weekend is such a big sale weekend but there are a bunch of Friends & Family and other sales going on at my favorite stores:

 

Serena & Lily has their Friends & Family event with 20% off using code NEWIDEAS – these are the Serena & Lily products that I own and love:  

Anthropologie has 20% off plus free shipping of $150+ if you have an Anthro Perks rewards card (you can snag one online if you don’t!)

Pottery Barn has 20% regular priced items off plus free shipping this weekend with code LUCKY!

There are more finds over on my Shop page {here} to check out too. I’ll see you back on the blog next week!

XO,