If you’re in the process of decorating a home but you’re not working with a designer, or you have trouble visualizing the end result, have no fear. The answer may be in the palm of your hand – or at least on your tablet or laptop.

The renovation and design industries have changed a lot since I started my career 20 years ago, and some of the most helpful tools I’ve found are room planning apps. Whether it’s paint, furniture or accessories, you can find the tools to help you create the environment you want. Novices use them, professional designers use them and yes, I use them too.

Take my cottage beach house for example. When Sabrina and I were thinking about the overall look and planning out the design, we knew we wanted to use furniture from Mobilia (a long time favourite of ours), but it was challenging to visualize how it was all going to look in the end (keeping in mind that the cottage was undergoing construction and was a good two hours away from any stores!). So we had our good friend and designer Deb source some ideas at the store, and then Sabrina and I inputted all of them into Mobilia’s online design tool to see how it would all work together.

Here are some of the designs we came up with…

And here is the end result! As you can see, we went with design #2.

We couldn’t be happier with how the beach house turned out. The furniture we chose, based on how it all came together through Mobilia’s design tool, was exactly right.

What about you? Have you ever used a design tool to plan your space? Check out Mobilia’s online room planner and let me know what you think!

PS – if you’re reading this before April 10th, 2022, click here to enter Mobilia’s ‘Design Me a Decor’ contest featuring their design tool. Make sure to use the code “SCOTTDESIGN” to double your chance of winning one of five $5,000 grand prizes. Good luck!