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Interior Design Software: Develop The Best App for House Renovation

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Every year house owners spend billions of dollars on renovation of their houses. Interior designing is probably the most time consuming and financially costly process. People spend weeks or even months on planning, calculations, selection of  wallpapers, carpets, elements of decoration, furniture and choosing complementary color shades for the rooms. But they can never be sure that numerous hours spent on considering all things will lead to a result they expect to see. 

Redesigning may seem frustrating only if you do not have good auxiliary tools at your disposal. Not so long ago design programming solutions were widely used only by professional engineers, designers and architects. But now everyone can benefit from their functions and easily become a masterful interior creator. A person does not need a specific education or any particular set of skills to start using any of interior design apps. Such user-friendliness is what makes this software so appealing, popular and worthy of development which provides a great business opportunity for the startupers and entrepreneurs. 

Should I build a mobile or web solution? 

It’s a well-known fact that everything nowadays is located on our gadgets. Any user will likely do something on the go using a smartphone or tablet rather than sit in front of a desktop. And when startupers or business owners choose what solutions to develop, they always tend to go for mobile apps instead of web ones. However, what really should be taken into account is the specifics of a certain industry. 

In case with interior design solutions, you should have broad objectives in mind. Your future app can be used not only for creating a virtual design. F.e. if you add some third-party integrations allowing users to choose pictures of various furniture models, your solution will likely be utilized by furniture manufacturers. Your users will have a chance to choose a real item and then order it at a factory. Manufacturers will easily export images and they can even create a custom item based on a sample design provided by the user. If you add numerous drawing tools like adjustable pencils, brushes, color palettes, sticky notes, etc. – such solution will attract professional interior designers.

You can even end up with a community of dedicated app users if you implement really useful features. It is obvious that user-friendly interface, presence of a messaging option, integration with social media and image sharing websites will let you win the attention of people interested in redecorating their houses. And while common people will easily settle for a mobile version of your application, the professionals like designers and manufacturers would rather choose web solutions. 

So in any case it would be more reasonable to develop a holistic interior design platform and ensure web and mobile presence. This will definitely grant you a wider user base and competitive advantage on the market. 

What features should be added? 

To form an expert opinion about interior design niche and tools it requires, we checked out and analyzed numerous solutions available for the computers as well as mobile devices. It was quite easy to point out all demanded and frequently used features. So if you consider developing your own app aimed to help people with renovation and decoration of their houses, then you’d better implement the following options: 

  • Advanced set of tools. Any interior design software should offer various instruments for sketching and drawing. Lots of customizable pencils and brushes, erasers, tools for inserting columns, diagrams and charts, ability to add text or sticky note – all these features are mandatory. It is impossible to perform floor planning without drawing a plan and inserting all measurements like height and width of walls, the total floor area, etc. 
  • Rich color palette. Sometimes it is hard to select winning color combinations and decide what shade of curtains will look great with the wallpapers color tone. That is why it would be very reasonable to add color palette with as many shades as possible. Some examples of color combinations would be appreciated too. If you think about more smart and advanced option, then add a feature for uploading images and generating color palette automatically. This AI powered option will definitely attract more users to your solution. 
  • Integration with image sharing services. Who would not like to rearrange the room without any efforts? This is probably a dream-come-true of any person involved in redesigning a house. So integration with services sharing images (like well-known and popular Pinterest) is a must for your app. Such option lets users select real items of furniture or decor created by an existing brand and check if they will fit into a living space. This gives a major advantage and saves users’ time, because all chosen items can be ordered and bought without even leaving the house. 
  • Ability to create a library or portfolio. It is a common situation (applicable to all spheres of life) when you can’t make up your mind and start searching for other variants to compare if yours is really the best. That is why your users should have an opportunity to create and save as many interior designs as they want, then compare them and choose the one up to their liking. So creating a library of designs or portfolio folders will be a perfect solution for both types of users – common and professional ones. 
  • 3D modelling. Transformation of 2D design into a 3D model grants a unique opportunity to check whether a place is furnished ergonomically and how all chosen elements will look in it. 3D modelling should include 3D pictures, live mode and 360 views with zoom inzoom out for better user experience. You can also set  a default catalogue of various items in 3D and allow users to extend it by adding new models. 
  • Exporting feature. When a user creates a detailed plan of the living space, that person will likely want to export that scheme in PDF or JPG for further usage. Exporting of images is also important, since they can serve as examples for furniture or decor manufacturers. When users order a certain item, they can refer to the images extracted from your app. 
  • Adjustable catalogue of items. Customization always attracts more users. If you provide a catalogue of various furniture items, it would be preferable to allow people changing their models, selecting other colors, switching fabrics. As a result a user will get an image of the desired item and then can use it as a sample when addressing a furniture store or factory. 
  • Virtual measurers. What can be better than all necessary measuring tools gathered in one app? Offer your users a bunch of various rulers, surface levels and protractors to verify if all lines and walls are precisely aligned and all angles have the right degree.  

Is it expensive to build interior design app?

The cost of interior design software is quite expensive, usually it takes up to $35,000 or even more depending on the features you would like to add. The cost is also defined by the number of programmers involved in building your app and working hours they are going to spend. 

You may be wondering what you should do if you don’t have such sum of money. Should you give up your idea and forget about building your solution? Absolutely not! The development companies know how hard it can be to find some investors or collect necessary amount of money to get started. That is why you can choose to develop MVP which will provide you an opportunity to understand whether your app is appreciated and has a growing potential. The developers will spend 2+ months on the development of your app with a set of major features. This will let you enter the market faster, which is important for every promising business. 

If you consider adding some monetization options to your app, your app will pay off itself. People will use your app because it costs more than $6 000 to hire a professional designer while it will be more affordable to use your app (even with some paid features). The designer can be hired for one project and the app can be used for creating numerous designs.

Best examples

apps for interior design

If you are still thinking about developing your interior design software and searching for some good examples of such solutions, we are ready to share a couple of our favourites with you. 

IKEA home and kitchen planner. Everyone has heard about IKEA and probably bought something from it. This merchant giant went ahead and created two web platforms for virtual interior design. With IKEA interior planner everyone can enter their home measurements, specify where the entrances are located and get started with designing and decorating the space. The result can be viewed in 3D. It is even possible to save your custom design plan to a server and then get a consultation of a specialist and order all the furniture and decorations you’ve previously picked. Although this solution is free and does not have any monetisation options, it brought millions of dollars to IKEA because the app users tend to buy the furniture they’ve selected using the planner app. 

Havenly. Although it’s an app that can be used only on iOS devices, you should not underestimate it. Apart from possessing all necessary features for creating the designs, this solution offers services of real designers. You can not only collaborate with professionals and create a room of your dreams but also order all items you liked and Heavenly team will take care of shipment for you. They work with reliable and popular brands and retailers, so a choice of goods for decoration is very wide. Havenly constantly brings profit to its owners due to the packages it offers. Users can buy mini for $79 and full for $129 and get a certain spectrum of services. Moreover this platform collaborates with 200+ vendors of furniture and decorations and lets the users buy various goods. 

Houzz. What can be better than a huge collection of ideas gathered in one app? Houzz is created for those who are trying to get inspired and are searching for some great design examples. This app offers a huge library of pictures, concepts and designs. Moreover, it allows to write or read feedbacks regarding various design products. What makes this solution unique is that it lets users look for professional architects, builders, furniture and decorations suppliers nearby. This app has  a huge audience of 40 million active users and even offers paid advertising options and opportunity to sell goods, which is a great monetization strategy. 

To wrap it up

When it comes to interior design, any person starts with thinking over a certain concept. To fully develop that concept and end up with visually appealing interior, one needs inspiration and good ideas. And that is exactly when all interior design apps come handy. A possibility to create a design without any physical efforts and change it as many times as one wants is what makes all virtual design platforms so appealing and popular.

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