Interior Design, Building and Other Fabulous iPad Apps

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Image Courtesy Houzz

I had a wonderful weekend playing around with an iPad 2, thanks to Vodafone, who gave me the opportunity to review one for a few days. I hightailed it to the iPad app store and started fluffing around looking for house design apps. What a treasure trove! 

Image Courtesy Houzz

First stop was the 'Houzz' app…..over two hundred thousand beautiful, inspirational interior images. There are links to products, professionals and ideabooks put together by professional designers (architects, interior/ lighting/landscape designers..... just to name a few) and you can create your own virtual ideabook too! Once you get into it, some of the images have interactive tags, which detail product specifications and links to the product manufacturer’s international website. 

Down the rabbit hole I went!

Next up was the 'Remodelista' app.. all that’s new and noteworthy in the home design world. You can view Remodelista’s daily content with a simple swipe of the finger. All their archives are available as well as lists of products associated with each post. Oooh, the images are so crystal clear. I’ve really gotta get me an iPad. Pronto.

I stumbled upon the ‘Home Design 3D’ app, an interactive floor plan design platform. This one really got my heart racing. You can create, layout, design and visit the home of your dreams. Drag and drop any object (windows, doors) or piece of furniture by dragging your finger across the screen to create a 2D drawing and then view it in 3D. 

Change the wall colours, floors, ceilings, colour of the rugs, anything. You drag everything….with two hands, one hand....no need to manually type in any dimensions. 

‘The Jetson’s' never knew how good it really was going to be in the year 2011did they?  I stopped for a minute and thought to myself, am I really doing this? … creating something in 3D, spinning it around, changing elevations and dimensions with such ease? I thought back to my uni days, in the early 80’s, when an assignment was marked down if it was not handwritten and when the only computer was in the librarian’s back room for her use only…. how personal computing has come such a long way in my short lifetime and I get to enjoy it all now!

You can watch a demonstration on the magic of the Home Design 3D iPad app HERE. View it and I guarantee you will be whispering just like I was...."oh, I gotta get me an iPad".

Ooooh I also stumbled upon 'Moodboard'... as it says, "the perfect app for organising things that inspire you". You can create a moodboard from a blank canvas, adding photos, diagrams, text, swatches and images from anywhere .... perfect for home decorating projects, planning a renovation, or a build!... or even planning your perfect holiday... wedding... or 'life goals' board or 'vision' board.

Look, I even worked out how to do an iPad screen shot!

You hold down the power button and the iPad button at the same time. 

The screen flashes white and the screenshot is saved to your photos.

One of the programs that comes with the iPad is ‘Newsstand’, a direct portal to popular magazines. Click on your favourite mag and it gets added to your virtual library shelf. When you click on your favourite shelved magazines you are taken directly to the magazine’s iPad store in order to purchase whatever virtual magazine issue your heart desires. It's so much cheaper than a newsagent!

Ok, and for you DIYers out there, check this out!

This app, 'Sight Level', enables you to turn your Vodafone iPad2 into a virtual laser level. Your virtual tool belt just got handier! No excuses for leaving your tools at home. If you're on site, working from your plans on your iPad, your tools are built in! It gives a precise digital readout too.

Ok, so then I got seriously side tracked and started searching for Paris stuff.  I found the ultimate Paris app....'Paris 2GO'.

Say for example, you are heading out to the Palace of Versailles for the day (like we did on the blog last Sunday, in my 'Sundays in Paris' post)..... you get a history lesson.....

... you can call up a Metro map....and one that doesn't have creases all through it and tears on the creases (you know the drum).....

... and then you can go in for the big kill and get a monstrous history lesson.... on everything....

.... enough to inspire you to go back to your Paris apartment and watch the 2006 'Marie Antoinette' movie, starring Kirsten Dunst... as I did. Twice.

Ok, so I could waffle on for ages about all the wonderful apps out there. I sort of have. This was a dangerous exercise because now I know what I have been missing out on. I am seriously getting myself an iPad for Christmas. It’s for a good cause…..work….right?

Vodafone have a range of tablets available and they have a deal going at the moment where you pay absolutely nothing up front ($0), just like the phone plans. For only $45 per month, you get 1.5 GB of data to use each month! I am going to be their first campaign customer. Big Statement. But True. You can see all their plans HERE.

'Pay nothing upfront to give an iPad2 as a Christmas gift with Vodafone' - great idea I reckon.

Do you use an iPad for your blogging? What are your favourite apps? Is there an exterior house design app out there?....for pulling together house elevation ideas?.....where I can click and drag gables, cupolas, eave returns and chimneys?.. and play around with roof pitch and stuff? My mind is ticking over about all the stuff I could do!

Hey, and thanks Vodafone, for the loan of the iPad. I'm totally sold.

Happy Wednesday!