By now, we’re all well aware of the inspiration, discovery and even expression that apps like Instagram and Pinterest offer designers and design enthusiasts alike. But what’s the new new in tech for the creative set when they want to get their inner decorator or DIYer on? We polled designers, trend experts and influencers from the home decor world to get the scoop on what apps make their jobs easier, more fun and more inspiring—or all three.
Hayley Francis , Trend & Design Expert at The Mine :
“Recently I’ve been loving Pantone Studio app (above), which puts all Pantone colors at my fingertips. It also allows me to upload images and extract the colors from that image, which is super convenient when I find inspiration images or architecture with colors I’d like to use for future projects.”
Elizabeth Rees from Chasing Paper :
“I love Adobe Capture to find colorways of images and real life scenes! I also love Adobe Lightroom for editing images.”
Alyssa Clough, Social Media Editor at Domino :
“ Planoly is a planner and scheduler for Instagram that I’ve been using lately. It’s a time-saver and great for curating the look and feel of your feed because it shows you exactly what things will look like before you post.”
Designer Amy Stringer-Mowat from American Heirloom :
“I’ve been using the Coolors by Coolors srl app to generate color palettes. We’ve been shy to use color, and it is certainly helping us make new combinations!”
Ashley Viola of Meridian :
“Since our artisan partners are scattered all around the world, we use WhatsApp as our main method of communication and collaboration when I can’t be physically in their workshops. Through WhatsApp , we stay in touch, share images of what they’re working on/what we’re looking for and hear stories about their daily lives. Sometimes an artisan will send an image that’s of one thing, but something different will come out of it (maybe it’s something in the background), and that leads to a new and great idea.”
Gretchen Hansen, CEO and founder of online interior design company Decorist :
“ Magic Plan is a great app for easily creating room plans—a perfect start to any online interior design project.”
Mark Addison , entertaining expert and author of Cocktail Chameleon :
“My creative inspiration is literally all around me—online, in print, in nature and in the air. I use the Evernote app to catalog, notate and share what inspires me in a way that keeps my creative thoughts and ideas organized, my projects on track and my desk uncluttered, which is a constant struggle!”
Leura Fine, CEO of online interior design company Laurel & Wolf :
“The Laurel & Wolf app , of course! It’s my lifeline (but also great if you’re using the service.”
Obviously, there are plenty more apps out there. Other than Instagram and Pinterest, what are you loving right now that didn’t make this list?
