Drawing up a house plan or designing your home can be a challenge for most. But, for the tech-savvy among us, it can be as easy as downloading one of these super-powered home design apps built to help with everything from a quality house plan to breathtaking interior design.
If you’ve got an eye for design or you’re planning what your dream home should look like, any of these awesome mobile apps will help you along the way.
MagicPlan
MagicPlan is an award-winning house planning app available on both Android and iOS. You can use the app to create traditional-looking architectural looking house plans or play around with it to see what your rooms might look like with furnishings in them.
MagicPlan allows you to make accurate plans in 2D or 3D by extracting measurements from photos you upload, so you get everything right the first time. The app will even give you cost estimates based on the materials and edits you make.
Pricing: Free, users will have to upgrade to a paid plan in order to download and export files.
Cons: Android users need to have phones with gyroscope functionality and AR Core to use the app’s room scanning feature.
Download in the App Store or on Google Play
Planner 5D
Planner 5D is a home and interior design creator that lets you create 2D, 3D, or Virtual Reality Mode plans. The app is simple to use and can be worked without any special design skills.
Users can create custom floor plans, customise room layouts and furnishing, and generate lifelike images of their designs. Planner 5D allows you to create an unlimited number of design projects with all sorts of different textures and colours.
Planner 5D is particularly great because it will let you create and design your projects in online and offline mode. The app also supports Chromecast, which means you can work on your designs on a mobile device and view them on a larger screen without having to export your files.
Pricing: Free; users will have to upgrade to a paid option to access the app’s full functionality.
Cons: Only 150 items in the 5000 item catalogue are available for free. iOS users will have to sign in every time they want to use the app's full capabilities, Android users sign in once after purchase, and that’s it.
Download in the App Store or on Google Play
Floor Plan Creator
Floor Plan Creator is a lightweight app that packs a heavy design punch. The app lets you easily design and share detailed and precise floor plans.
You can create professional quality floor plans for single and multiple story structures. You can use the app to automatically generate measurements, and if you have supported laser meters, you can achieve an even greater level of precision. According to the developer, you can use the app with certain models of the Bosch Hersch and Stabila meters.
You can also use the app’s symbol library to add specific details about the windows, doors, furniture and electrical wiring in your plan.
Pricing: Free, but users can make in-app purchases for added items and features starting for R11.
Cons: Available on Android only. Cloud syncing features and export capability are only available on the upgraded plans. Users can only draw straight walls.
Download on Google Play
SketchUp
SketchUp is yet another high powered design app that you can use to draw the home of your dreams. This design-friendly app allows you to draw and model structures in 3D without all the hassle of high tech equipment. The app is so good you can achieve the same level of ease and precision as using pen paper.
SketchUp has many functionalities that would make it good enough for most professionals having to create technical drawings as a part of their process. Some of its best features include 3D drawing and modelling, import of reference images and documents, light rendering, a 3D object warehouse and 3D rendering.
The only drawback of the app is that it is only available to iOS, macOS and Windows users.
Pricing: Free, the free plan will be suitable for most personal use.
Cons: Not available for Android users.
Download in the App Store
Design Home
Design home is an app that allows you to live out your interior designer fantasies. You could simply be looking to find inspiration or planning out what your home will look like, Design home has something for you. It allows you to create designs for spaces in your dream home using furniture pieces from actual home design brands.
If you’ve bought a piece of furniture you weren’t quite happy with, the Design Home is just the app you need. You’ll never have to worry about which furniture pieces go with what or which colours again. Design home will help you make your ultimate home design a reality. And the best part about it all is you can actually buy all the furniture pieces you like within the app.
Pricing: Free
Cons: Users don’t get full control over the shapes of the rooms.
Download in the App Store or on Google Play
The verdict
If you’ve got home design ambitions or you just want some inspiration for your dream home the apps above will give you everything you’re looking for.
For interior design and a hand with what your home might actually look like once complete, Design Home is by far the best mobile app you could ever use. It will develop your understanding of the furniture colours, textures and feel you want throughout your home. You'll also have access to an incredible community of like-minded individuals to share ideas with and don’t forget you’ll be able to buy any furniture pieces you love right away.
For structural design, a lightweight option like Magic Plan will do an adequate job in most situations. If you want something a little more powerful than that Sketch is the obvious frontrunner. It is simple enough for most people to understand yet it has features and functions most professionals would be happy to take advantage of.
But you don't have to do it all alone. You can always hire an architect or an interior designer to draw you a house plan. These apps will help you understand your needs and wishes better, and you can always show some screenshots you made yourself to the professional.
