Mobile Interior Design Apps

As tools to make your professional life as an interior designer a bit easier, the recent upsurge in interior design apps is a blessing for virtually everyone in our industry. With the capacity to view potential changes to virtually any space instantly on your smartphone or tablet, and to modify them in a heartbeat to present to a potential client, not only are such tools long overdue in our digital age – at least one of them should also be at your fingertips – now!

While many of these applications are designed for the home owner to use, improved functionality and universal availability make them appealing to professional designers as well. Plus, since most of them are freely available for both Android and iOS systems, downloading and using them now is quickly becoming mandatory for a cutting-edge designer.

While the list of available interior design apps as far too long to present here, there are multiple online locations that have evaluated and reviewed many of the most popular among them. These sites include: 1stdibs.com, BestProducts.com and DigitalTrends.com (for flat fee, pay-to-play apps).

Popular Digital, Mobile Interior Design Apps

With that in mind, and knowing that newer and better apps may be right around the corner, we offer a few of the most popular, most helpful interior design apps on the market at the moment:

• Houzz Design App – Arguably, the best of the bunch (CNN once called it the “Wikipedia of interior and exterior design”) the Houzz App database contains more than 5 million high-res home images tagged and organized according to style, room, and location. Browse, search, and save favorites to your smartphone or tablet, which both stores your ideas and gives the app’s real-life, professional design consultants an idea of what you’re into. (Free for Android or iOS.)
• ColorSnap Design App – Sherman-Williams has solved your desire to splash an entire palette of colors onto any interior (or exterior, for that matter). The app can analyze the colors of any photo on your smartphone and let you know which shade of Sherman-Williams paint it matches. Peruse the contents of its 1,500-shade inventory and apply it to virtual sample rooms. (Free for Android or iOS.)
• Autodesk® Homestyler® Design App – Enabling you to make smarter home design choices faster than ever before, you can watch your design ideas come to life within a photograph of your client’s space, simply by experimenting with high quality 3D models of real design products. (Free for Android or iOS.)
• MagicPlan Design App – When it comes to saving you time and effort, the MagicPlan app transforms the painstaking ordeal of taking measurements and drawing up floor plans into an effortless process. The app computes distances within a space simply by analyzing a snapshot. Simply add objects, annotations, photos and attributes to generate reports or complete estimates. (Free for Android or iOS.)
• Home Design 3D Gold - This architectural app lets you import floorplans and change the space itself; visualize new openings, raise ceilings, or take out entire walls, then add in the furniture and other amenities of your choice. See the results of your designs in either 2-D or 3-D, and share projects with collaborators who can make modifications with you in real time. (Cost is $9.99 for either Android or iOS.)

These interior design apps will soon become ubiquitous, enabling even the smallest design business to offer cutting edge technology to their clients. The interior designer who does not use such high-value tools, does so at their own peril.

Looking for interior design trends and tips? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Understanding the Millennial Home Buyer [INFOGRAPHIC]

According to an article at MultiBriefs.com, the market of first-time homebuyers was at a near-record low in 2015, accounting for less than one-third of new home purchases. The good news is, this three-year trend has begun to tick upward in 2016, largely driven by the millennial home buyer, making up 35% of new home sales this year.

Critical to understanding this trend is the make-up of the marketplace for new home buyers. Based on a variety of market surveys, millennials were responsible for anywhere from 42% to 61% of the new home buyer market. These are home buyers below the age of 36, who are buying a home for the first time.

This infographic, borrowed from Zillo.com, details much of this home buying trend among millennials, according to their research:

Understanding Millennial Design Clients

“Millennials are shaping the market more than anyone realized. In fact, half of all buyers are under 36 and half of sellers are under 41,” said Zillow Chief Marketing Officer Jeremy Wacksman, referring to results from a survey of more than 13,000 homeowners, sellers, buyers and renters that are part of the new Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report.

Beyond these facts, the research shows growing diversity among the millennial home buyer demographic, from racial to cultural differences, even though an increasing number of this youthful group of home buyers seems to be heading for the suburbs – with 47% of millennials choosing to forgo living in the city.

For interior designers looking to build or grow their business, understanding and marketing this increasingly influential and important demographic group is critical to your long-term business plan.

To help you understand the millennial home buyer in more depth, we recommend these earlier posts from the TD Fall Blog:

Marketing to Millennials [INFOGRAPHIC]

Know Your Marketplace – Millennials Influencing Interior Design Trends

Looking for interior design trends and tips? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Online Video Marketing is Becoming a Must-do for Designers!

A recent study predicts that 80% of online content will be video-based by 2020.

Depending on who you're reading or talking to, YouTube has grown to become one of the Top Three Social Media sites on the internet, at times eclipsing both Facebook and Twitter. In fact, in the US, YouTube has now outgrown Facebook as Number One!

Beyond this, the trend toward video consumption among online consumers of digital information requires all of us to increase our emphasis on video as a marketing tool.

The study, performed by Cisco, predicts that consumer internet video traffic will dominate other types of traffic by 2020, taking a massive 80% share of the global market. However, when Video-on-Demand, Peer-to-Peer video, and business video are added to the mix, that number may climb as high as 90% of all internet traffic!

Here are a few of the high points from the study:

• By 2020, 80% of global Internet consumption will be video content.
• Traffic from wireless and mobile devices will rise to 66% in 2020.
• It would take an individual over 5 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks every single month in 2020.
• Every second, nearly a million minutes of video content will cross I.P. networks by 2020.
• Internet video to TV grew 47% in 2014, will increase fourfold by 2020.
• Consumer Video-on-Demand traffic will nearly double by 2020, to the equivalent to 7 billion DVDs per month.

Of course, in the design business, video can make a massive impression on potential clients, enabling you to share images of stylish, high-quality case goods, luxury upholstered furniture, stunning wall coverings, beautiful area rugs, and other offerings. Video is also the perfect medium for introducing yourself to potential clients by making an impression on them with your knowledge, expertise, and personality; not to mention using video testimonials from satisfied clients!

Whether or not you're currently using online video to promote your design business, the current trend toward online video consumption discussed above should be more than enough to inspire you to begin or expand your use of this invaluable online marketing tool.

Looking for interior design trends and tips? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Yes, Business Networking is Still a Thing!

As an interior designer, business networking is critical to your long-term success. You will need to develop a circle of dependable contractors and referrals; people who can help you complete your client’s design projects on time and on budget. You’ll also need to work with a variety of suppliers: from draperies to carpeting; from plumbing fixtures to flooring; from lighting to wall coverings; and from furniture to accessories.

And yet, even with all of these people in your list of business contacts, you may be missing a vital resource to help you grow your design business: local realtors.

Design Trends for New Home Buyers

Why should you work with realtors? The best real estate agents work intimately with their clients, sometimes over decades-long periods, and will often have a better idea than builders about what buyers are looking for in a new home. Building relationships and networking with the realtors in your market can easily become mutually beneficial, with each of your providing leads and sharing information on market trends.

With this in mind, we share this information from an article from the folks at BuilderOnline.com, listing the design trends that are currently most in demand among home buyers, according to the realtors they surveyed:

• Open layouts
• Modern design
• Neutral color schemes
• Multigenerational floor plans
• First-floor master suites
• No dining rooms
• White kitchens
• Extra-large garages
• Big closets
• Barn-style sliding doors
• No vinyl floors
• Oversized master bathrooms
• Finished basements with 9-foot-high ceilings

Of course, questions remain: Are these home design trends realistic for a particular client? Are they as trendy in your market? DO home buyers seek these things for their own comfort or to boost eventual re-sale value? And many more.

Expanding your Business Network Expands your Resources

These questions are impossible to answer in a blog post designed for a national audience. However, if you’ve put in some time on business networking, developing a list of sources for goods and services – AND information, you’ll be able to keep your finger on the pulse of your marketplace, and will have the answers to all those questions.

Looking for interior design trends and tips? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Winter Design Trends 2016 & 2017

From cozy and traditional to open and masculine, winter design trends this season, and heading into 2017, are as individual and diverse as are peoples’ personalities and locations. While this is not exactly surprising, it can certainly make your job as an interior designer more difficult.The good news is that, if you can take a step back and look at the larger picture, seasonal trends to tend to follow some sort of pattern, making them at least a bit more predictable, as well as more functional and practical. This can make following those trends far less challenging for the designer who is watching the marketplace closely.Winter is the Season to Get Cozy

Whether you follow HGTV.com or Decorilla.com, “cozy” is definitely an “in thing” this winter. Of course, how get there varies greatly and, perhaps, should. After all, not two clients are alike, and neither are their living spaces.

While the room in this image may seem more cluttered than cozy to some, a closer examination reveals that every piece had a place and a purpose, allowing the room to feel intimate without being muddled or chaotic.

On the other hand, the cozy feeling in this space is enhanced by textures and, with the increasing popularity of flannel, cashmere, wool, and cotton being used as upholstery, throws or quilts as accents, along with knitted accessories, there is an obvious warmth to this space that may not have existed before.

There are several ways to make a room feel warmer and, without a doubt, creating that feeling with wood is one of the best ways to do so.

Expanding the “Man Cave”

Then again, the use of wood in a living space is a sure way to be consistent with another design trend this winter, creating a more masculine interior for those who wish it. For this extrapolation of the “man cave” to a living area, dark, moody, masculine interiors are the countertrend to all-white interiors, which are also increasingly popular this winter. (HuffingtonPost.com)

Clean and uncluttered rather than stark and austere, the all-white interior is making a comeback this winter. And yes, growing desire for spirituality, peace, and tranquility in contemporary culture is the driver for all-white spaces and color schemes.

And, simply because it exists, this unique, and uniquely powerful and beautiful, treatment of a fireplace absolutely must be shared – as possible inspiration – and in pure appreciation.

Which of these trends have you seen in your market? Are there others that have made an impression on you? Share your thoughts and insights with us below.

Looking for interior design trends and tips? Get in touch with TD Fall today.