Our Top 5 Online Home Design Tools

Anyone who has ever embarked on a home decorating project knows just how daunting it can be. With endless options available in color schemes, furniture choices and accessories, the ability to see the vision before spending money is priceless. Luckily, there are tons of handy online tools available to help even the novice decorator plan their project in advance. Here are five of our favorite online decorating tools.

Color Palette Generator (http://jrm.cc/color-palette-generator)

Is your entire artistic vision for your design captured in one image? This online tool allows you to upload a photo – your own or from the web – and develop a color palette straight from it. This is a simple way to use a favorite photo as a focal point for a room and match color schemes seamlessly.

Colorjive (www.colorjive.com)

If only shopping for paint was as easy as shopping for jeans. Ever wish you could just try it on? This online decorating tool allows the user to upload a photo of the room they plan to decorate and test shades on the walls without ever lifting a paint brush. Use a stock room just to get an idea or upload your own photo for test run. You can try up to three colors per room and store your images for later.

Sample Board (www.sampleboard.com)



Sometimes you just need a place to keep all of your ideas. Sample Board is an easy-to-use program allowing you to create interior design inspiration boards. It gives a wide variety of stock images, textures and color palettes to drag and drop onto your board and then share on Facebook and Twitter for free. Whether it’s a great chair you saw online or fabric you love, compile your images into one spot that illustrates your vision. Upgrade to a paid membership and you can import your own images, create as many boards as you like and print them in high resolution.

My Deco 3D (www.mydeco.com)

Sometimes you need to see it in 3D. This tool lets you start with a flat floorplan, move your furniture in and then watch your room come to life. For inspiration, check out the site’s online community where users share ideas and their own 3D models. An added bonus: camera view lets you view the room from multiple point of views.

3Dream (www.3dream.net)

This online decorating tool allows users to create a 3D room and then decorate it using furniture, paints and accessories. The program has a huge collection of virtual furniture to add that you can buy offline, too, including American Leather pieces.


Home decorating online is a wise choice before embarking on an expensive journey that may not work in your space. By using these tools, home decorators can save money and time by doing most of the legwork right from the comfort of their own home.