If you’ve ever dabbled in interior design, whether professionally or as a DIY project, you’ve realized how difficult and time-consuming it is.

Luckily, the hard work usually pays off, and you’re left with an appealing and comfortable interior. Sometimes, however, you start regretting your choices of color, furniture, finishes, and more.

This is why it can be extremely helpful to visualize your room clearly before you even start the project. The best way to do that is through 3D interior design apps. By the way, if you want to know more about app development, Thoughtsoncloud is a great place to start.

Whether you’re an expert in interior design, a beginner, or simply an enthusiast, you’ll find the following apps to be lifesavers when you start on your next project.

Design a Room

Design a Room is one of the best apps for those who’d like to play around with colors, textures, and finishes and different combinations of flooring, walls, ceilings, cabinetry, and more.

Created by Armstrong, the app allows you to either upload a photo of your own room, or choose one from their gallery.

If choosing from the gallery, you can decide on the specific style you’re most interested in, going from traditional to contemporary, and if you’re unsure you can simply opt for the “eclectic” style which is essentially a combination of all the others.

You’ll receive hints that tell you whether the product you’ve chosen is functional - as in you shouldn’t be putting hardwood floors in the bathroom, etc.

If you’re planning anything from repainting your room to changing the flooring, the app can help you decide which options will suit you best.

Interior Design 3D

Interior Design 3D is a handy PC application for DIY enthusiasts and amateur designers. It helps save money while renovating your home or replacing your furniture. Start in the software by importing an existing floor plan or creating a 3D home design from scratch according to the scale. 

Interior Design 3D software also has built-in floor layouts for rooms, big and small apartments, and two-story houses. You can customize them to complete the work faster. Among decor elements, you will find a diverse collection of furniture items and 600+ decoration materials (wallpaper, tile, laminate, etc.).  

What’s more, the program offers the Virtual Visit option, which simulates your presence in the room of your creation - you can walk around and turn to different angles to better feel the vibe of the rooms. 

This interior design app for PC is super intuitive and requires no experience in the industry whatsoever. So you will feel comfortable brainstorming and rearranging your home with it no matter your background. 

Besides, you will avoid any furniture sizing flaws since you will have all of them planned out in advance on your printable  floor plan made in the program.

IKEA Home Planner  

That’s right, your favorite furniture shop has its own interior design app. IKEA Home Planner is a web-based application that allows you to configure your own floor plan in a user-friendly way.

It should be noted that it’s not ideal for professional interior designers as it has limited features. However, amateurs and average homeowners will find it rather interesting to use.

All that you need to do is enter the dimensions of the room, as well as its doors and windows, and choose the items you like from their gallery.

If you like the design you’ve created, you can itemize a shopping list to calculate the cost of your new room.

The app is free, easy to use, and can be very helpful when you’re setting the budget for your room remodeling project.

RoomStyler 3D Home Planner

RoomStyler 3D Home Planner is a free app that’ll get your creative juices flowing. You don’t have to be a pro to have fun and design your own room with this app since it’s very easy to use.

You can insert the walls, doors, and windows to perfectly recreate your own room, and their gallery has countless interior finishes and colors to choose from. The measurements are available in meters and feet, so you can opt for whichever is more convenient for you.

The furniture, appliances, and décor that you insert into the model you create are real products that are available for purchase, so you can easily find out their price and where to find them.

You can view your 3D creation from any angle, the only drawback is that the 3D render is not perfect and leaves something to be desired.

Homestyler Interior Design

Homestyler Interior Design can be downloaded for free both from the Google Play Store, and Apple’s App Store.

Free and user-friendly, the app is basically a “fitting room” for your home. While you can choose an empty room from their gallery and start designing, uploading a picture of your own room will help you truly visualize the possible redesign ideas.

Snap a photo of your living room, upload it, then superimpose real products, 3D furniture, light fixtures, mirrors, wall art, and more.

If you’re not the creative type, you can also take a look at professional interior design photos to get inspired.

The app allows you to browse through professional designers’ portfolios, find those in your area, and connect with them. This way, you can leave your interior design project in good hands.

Autodesk Homestyler

If you’re into 3D modeling, and you have experience with professional design programs, you’re more than likely familiar with Autodesk.

Autodesk is the corporation behind AutoCAD, Autodesk 3ds Max, and others, and it specializes in developing software services for architecture, engineering, construction, etc.

While you need to be a professional to get around most of their software, Autodesk Homestyler app can be used by beginners as well.

The user interface is great. You can easily create a floor plan at the click of a button, design angled walls, insert furniture, appliances, cabinetry, and more.

Once you’ve designed the whole room, you can go on a virtual tour to inspect it. This is a perfect tool that allows you to design your room top to bottom before you begin the physical reconstruction.

Cedreo‍

Cedreo is an easy-to-use online 3D home design software used by professional home builders, remodelers and interior designers to create 2D and 3D floor plans, as well as photorealistic home renderings in under two hours.

The software helps housing professionals avoid having to pay expensive design firms, while also shortening the sales cycle by up to 50% as users are able to quickly show prospective clients exactly what a finished home design project will like.

In addition to floor plans and 3D exterior designs, users are able to quickly create photorealistic interior designs using Cedreo's library of 7,000+ customizable pieces of 3D furniture, decorations and materials. This library is updated every month with new 3D objects.

Another useful feature inside Cedreo is the ability to use product packs containing pre-grouped 3D objects which make it possible for users to decorate home interiors in a matter of minutes.  

The platform is 100% cloud-based, so users are able to meet with clients, review designs and proposals, and make edits on the fly.

Home Design 3D

This app has a bit of a learning curve, and it takes some getting used to, but it’s an amazing app nonetheless, and it’s illustrated tutorial will get you up to speed.

Home Design 3D lets you create a floor plan either in 2D or 3D, and you can customize it and recreate your entire home through the app.

You can choose from thousands of home items for furnishing and decorating, edit any object, resize it, change its color, position, even its altitude on the walls.

It has a compass function that shows you exactly where the light falls at different times of the day so that you can plan your entire room accordingly.

Their photo-realistic 3D rendering allows you to experience your creation first-person, and you can even take a virtual tour through the neighborhood.

They have millions of users, so you can share your creations with them, and take a look at what others are doing.

Planner 5D

Planner 5D is one of the more interesting home design tools available on the market. In the 2D mode, you can create your floor plan and insert any furniture or appliances you may want.

The furniture, walls, floors, and others can easily be edited down to the smallest detail, you can change colors, patterns, materials, and adjust the size of each item so that it suits your room perfectly.

With the Snapshot feature, you can take a photo of your creation, and shadows and lighting will be automatically added, and all the colors enhanced.

If you're interested in more than the interior, you can also use Planner 5D to landscape or create pools and more.

At any time, you can easily switch from 2D to 3D to further explore and edit your designs. The app is appealing to professionals and amateurs alike.

HomeByMe

HomeByMe is an entirely free tool that allows you to start your creation in 2D, and build your room bottom to top, furnishing it with state-of-the-art furniture and décor.

You can download the app to your PC or tablet without the need for creating an account, although if you want to save your work or share it with others, you do need to have an account.

Once you start drawing the walls, you’ll immediately see their dimensions and edit them if needed. All the windows, doors, staircases, and more can quickly be added from their gallery.

When you begin adding furniture, your 2D drawing will switch to 3D. You can simply browse through all the furniture since it’s separated into different categories according to the room you’re designing.

After you’ve finished with the furnishing, you can get an accurate 2D floor plan with all the furniture and appliances.

Housecraft

Lastly, the app Housecraft takes interior design to a whole new level. Whether you’re a professional interior designer, or you’d just like to play around with augmented reality, you’ll enjoy using this app.

Its main feature is the option to place virtual 3D furniture in your room in real time. Primarily, you’ll have to scan your entire floor with your phone’s camera.

Once you’ve scanned it, you can select virtual furniture and place it on the floor. You can furnish your whole room this way.

It’s easy to resize, change the direction of the furniture, move or copy it, and of course delete it if you don’t like it.

While the app has a variety of different furniture to fit any aesthetic, the color choices are limited, and not all furniture comes in different colors.

In the end, you can have a video tour of the space you’ve created. You will see if you like it enough to redesign your room in reality.

‍

‍All of these apps can help you visualize your home before you start any new interior design projects. You can play around, consult with others, get new ideas and more. Your previous experience with interior design will help you make better use of these apps, but it’s not necessary if you’re just browsing for ideas.