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Get Organized: Apps and Tools for Home Decorating and Remodeling

Jill Duffy
 & Jill Duffy Contributor

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Get Organized: Apps for Home Décor and RemodelingLast year, I had to have my kitchen gutted down to the studs and rebuilt. Initially I thought I could get away with simply replacing a few broken items, like the 20-year old oven and a window sill that was built incorrectly, but as we peeled back the layers of the room (a raised subfloor built on the cheap, a dropped ceiling that made a small room more cramped, a door frame so narrow no appliance could get through it), it was clear that only a complete overhaul would solve even the most basic problems.

Get OrganizedIt took months. It cost a lot. And it wasn't fun. No home remodel or redecorating project ever goes smoothly, but I know it could have been a lot worse had I not approached the whole thing with a sense of organization from the get-go. I used a variety of different apps and services along the way, some for my own planning purposes and some to help the contractor understand our space better before he even set foot in our home. The payoff was well worthwhile, as I have now have a kitchen that's much more useable, spacious, and pleasing to the eye. Here are some of the tools I used throughout the ordeal.


Get Organized is a weekly series of articles on PCMag.com to help you keep your digital files and online life organized. Check back every Monday for new tips and tricks.

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Camera

When redecorating or remodeling your home, do not undervalue the power of digital photography. Take as many photos as you can of the space you'll be changing both for your own reference and for anyone who will be helping you with the project. Include windows, light fixtures, crown molding, countertops—everything. Take photos at different times of day to get a sense of the natural light and artificial light in the room. And, take pictures any time you see something you like outside of your own home to use it as inspiration. (I talk more about saving visual ideas of things you like on one of the following page.)

Take pictures using whatever device you have on hand, including a smartphone. Often, the visible details of the photo aren't as important as the general principle you're trying to capture.

Sync all your images (I used the Photostream feature in iCloud) to ensure that you have copies of everything whether you're at your desk or out shopping for ideas.

Tape Measure

Carry a tape measure. Have another person hold it while you take photographs any time you come across something that requires measurement. The visual representation will be easier to understand and more accurate than typing it as a note. If you tell a contractor "the oven is sunk four inches beneath the tile floor," he might not believe you—but he will if you have visual evidence.

Pinterest

Pinterest (free), the visual cork-board site, became my go-to tool for saving visual representations of things I liked. You can upload your own photos, and save pictures from the Web. Whenever I was surfing the Internet and found images of kitchen design that struck my fancy, from faucets to backsplash ideas, I used Pinterest to collect those images and sort through the possibilities later. There were many more decisions to make than I ever could have anticipated, and Pinterest worked beautifully for saving ideas that I could review later. Often, once I had ten or more images pinned to a board, I would notice a pattern or preference that I didn't even know I had, such as coming to the conclusion that I really liked white countertops.

Drawing and Vector Art Software

While I didn't need any vector art or drawing software for my kitchen project (my contractor took care of that part for me) I did use Skitch (for Mac) (free) to draw a floor plan of a previous apartment when I had to break my lease and find a new tenant to take it over for me. Let me say that including a floor plan alongside pictures of an apartment goes a long way toward attracting serious parties.

You can use Skitch or Google SketchUp (also free)—or a more hefty piece of software such as Adobe Illustrator, or even AutoCAD—to design layouts as well as play with the placement of furniture and appliances. All those tools come with a learning curve, though, and you need to be comfortable with your math skills to use them effectively. To save yourself a lot of time and headaches, use a more simplified tool designed specifically for floor planning, such as Urban Barn's Room Planner (next).

Urban Barn's Room Planner

Urban Barn's Room Planner (Web app) (free) lets you map out rooms in your home and virtually rearrange furniture. You can select furniture models from the Web app (many of which are also for sale, of course) as well as enter the dimensions of pieces you already own to create custom items to move around the room. To see Urban Barn’s Web app in action, see the video on the main page of this article.

Photo Measures (for iPhone and iPad)

Photo Measures (for iPhone and iPad) ($4.99) lets you photograph your room and mark it up with measurements. You can take the app with you when you go shopping and consult it when buying anything from wall paint (you'll want to know the square footage to buy the right amount of paint) to curtains. Bring it along on a remodel consultation to help potential designers and contractors get an idea of the space. A free lite version of this app is also available.

D-Photo Measures Free (for Android)

D-Photo Measures Free (for Android) works similarly to the Photo Measures for iPhone in that you can photograph rooms or other parts of your home and overlay measurements on them. You can also mark up the images by drawing on them with your finger to make other notations, perhaps noting unseen elements, like the location of water pipes or which walls are load-bearing.

Video Painter (for iOS)

Video Painter (for iOS) ($1.99; free lite version also available) is the best virtual wall paint appI've found so far. It lets you take a picture or video of a room and virtually paint it a new color. The colors in the preview image look accurate, and the selections include real paints from Behr, Benjamin Moore, and other reputable companies. I also love that this app works in real time. You can hold your phone up to a wall and, with the video camera running, apply new paint colors in the moment.

Swatchmatic (for Android)

Swatchmatic (for Android) (free) does the opposite of Video Painter: It lets you view in real-time a color you find in the world that you like (and want to put on your walls), then reveals complementary color options for trim, accent walls, window dressings, and other décor.

About Our Expert

Jill Duffy

Jill Duffy

Contributor

My Experience

I'm an expert in software and work-related issues, and I have been contributing to PCMag since 2011. I launched the column Get Organized in 2012 and ran it through 2024, offering advice on how to manage all the devices, apps, digital photos, email, and other technology that can make you feel overwhelmed. That column turned into the book Get Organized: How to Clean Up Your Messy Digital Life. I was also the first product reviewer at PCMag to test fitness gadgets, including everything from early Fitbits to smart bras.

Currently, I'm passionate about the meaning of work and work culture, and I enjoy writing about how managers and employees can communicate better, with or without software. My most recent book is The Everything Guide to Remote Work. I also love a good workplace drama. 

In addition to writing about work, I cover online education, focusing on learning for personal enrichment and skills development. I have a soft spot for really good language-learning software. Although I grew up speaking only English, some twists and turns in life led me to learn Spanish, Romanian, and a bit of American Sign Language. I've studied at the university level, as well as at the Foreign Service Institute, where US diplomats and ambassadors learn languages.

My writing has also appeared in WIRED, the BBC, Gloria, Refinery29, and Popular Science, among other publications.

Follow me on Mastodon.

The Technology I Use

Squeezing every last bit of usage out of the devices I already own is the only way I can tolerate my personal consumption. In other words, I do not own the latest cutting-edge technology. I buy things that will last and try to take care of them.

My life is organized by Todoist, and my notes live in Joplin. Where would I be without Dashlane as my password manager? Probably locked out of all my many online accounts—I have more than 1,000 of them.

When I share my contact information, it's an excruciatingly long list of phone numbers, messaging apps, and email addresses, because it's essential to stay flexible while also remaining somewhat mysterious.

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