What You Need to Know About Interior Design Apps

When you’re thinking about giving your home a fresh look, you might be considering relying on apps for convenience. Interior design apps are easy to find, but will they provide you with the right kind of help for the changes you want to make? Keep the following information about these apps in mind to help you determine if you should use them for your planned project.

Interior Design Apps

Whether you’re trying to choose new paint colors or rearranging rooms, you can find apps that make these tasks easier. Some of the more notable interior design apps include the following:

• Chairish: Browse for pre-owned, high-end decor.
• Hutch: Shop for furniture while being able to virtually outfit your room.
• Color Capture: Keep track of colors that catch your eye while you’re out and about, so you can incorporate them into your decor.
• BrightNest: Easily keep track of your decorating to-do list. 
• Ikea Room Planner: Augmented reality app to see how Ikea items will look in your home.
• Morpholio Board Pro: Keep decor shopping lists, sketches, and other items handy all in one place for easy reference. 
• Photo Measures: Take a quick pic of furniture, and write its measurements down to easily refer to while shopping.

While these apps can be useful, it’s important to note that they’re geared toward interior decorating rather than interior design. These projects might sound similar, but there are notable differences between them.

Interior Decorating vs. Design

Whether or not you should use these apps depends on the kinds of changes you’re thinking of making to your home. If you’re interested in updating your wallpaper, getting new furniture, or choosing new art or accessories, these apps might be right for you. However, they really should be considered interior decorating apps rather than interior design apps. Interior decorating involves making aesthetic changes to a room without replacing or installing new fixtures.

Interior design refers to making changes to permanent fixtures like appliances, lighting, or windows for a kitchen remodel. These projects can involve input and expertise from professional interior designers and architects, such as ensuring that paint colors complement your new fixtures. These projects are typically much more complex than interior decor projects.

Whether you’re planning on making some smaller changes or completely remodeling your bathroom or another part of your home, hiring professional interior designers can help you achieve the results you want. With interior decorating projects, you don’t necessarily need to hire professionals. Depending on the scope of your project, you might be able to depend on interior decorating or design apps to help you do your planning. However, having interior decorating experts assist you might help this process go more smoothly.

If you need interior design services for your home in the San Francisco Bay area, contact Drafting Cafe Architects. We’ll provide you with a free estimate and help you choose the best fixtures for your home. Keep in mind that we also provide interior decorating services to help you improve the look of your home.

Bathroom Remodel Ideas – Now That We’ve Been Staying Home Together

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, your bathrooms are probably getting much more use than usual with everyone home all the time. This situation might have you thinking about a bathroom remodel that is more functional rather than trendy. Consider the following ideas if you’re looking for ways to improve the bathrooms in your home.

Wear and Tear Prevention

With you and your family using your bathrooms more often, it’s important to make sure they can hold up well to daily wear and tear. This might mean having older or less durable fixtures, such as cabinets made of particleboard, replaced with materials that will last longer. Having durable cabinets and other fixtures means you won’t need to replace them sooner than expected, have them refinished or repaired.

When you’re considering bathroom remodel options, you should also plan for maintenance. Surfaces in your bathrooms should be as easy to clean as possible. Fixtures that have a lot of detailed surfaces, such as heavily carved designs on cabinet doors, easily collect grime and dirt. These kinds of surfaces are also harder to clean overall. Choose smoother bathroom surfaces for easier maintenance.

Usage Improvements

The current situation offers a great opportunity to stress-test how you and your family are using the bathrooms in your home. You might notice that your bathrooms are ending up messier than before due to being too small for all of that extra use. You might discover that you could use another bathroom, even if it’s just a half-bathroom, to help cut down on messes while also ensuring that everyone is able to use these rooms as often as needed.

Depending on your current setup, you might need to look into adding space to at least one of your bathrooms. If you only have one bathroom or too few bathrooms overall, you might explore your options for having one added.

Improved Efficiency and Safety

Being at home all the time now might have you thinking about ways to improve bathroom safety and efficiency. For example, most building codes require GFI safety outlets installed if your home is older in order to reduce the risk of electrical shocks. If your bathrooms don’t have fans, you need these installed for improved ventilation.

You might be dealing with higher water bills with everyone being home. To bring these bills down and improve bathroom efficiency, you might look into having energy-efficient fixtures installed, such as low-flow toilets, sinks, and shower heads. These changes can significantly reduce your water usage, even with everyone home.

If you’re exploring bathroom architecture options, please contact Drafting Cafe Architects for a free estimate. Our team of experienced architects and designers helps Bay Area homeowners make improvements to their homes. We look forward to combining your input with our expertise to help you with your bathroom remodel.

Kitchen Remodel Ideas – Now That We’ve Been Staying Home Together

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, kitchen remodel projects typically revolved around incorporating the latest trends for an updated look. However, now that many of us in the Bay Area have been living and working at home around the clock, you might have noticed that the latest trends aren’t necessarily giving you the best home environment. When you’re juggling working from home while also supervising your children’s remote learning, making changes to your kitchen can help things go more smoothly. Keep the following in mind when you’re thinking about improving your kitchen.

Wear and Tear

When you and your family are in your kitchen more often, wear and tear shows. Your kitchen needs to have fixtures that can handle heavier use, as well as surfaces that are easy to clean and maintain. For example, debris and grime can accumulate on surfaces with ornate details, such as cabinets and hardware. Appliance trends that were popular with chefs can be difficult to clean. For example, a gas cooktop with multiple burners versus an electric cooktop with a single glass surface. Sometimes the sacrifice is worth it and in some cities, new construction will not allow gas appliances for safety reasons.

Daily Use

Your daily kitchen usage before the pandemic was probably limited to breakfast and dinner, along with a few general tasks, such as going through mail or helping kids with their homework. During the pandemic, though, your kitchen usage has most likely increased significantly. While working from home and kids in remote school, you’re now using your kitchen for all three meals, as well as snacks, throughout the day. Cleaning, homework, and other regular tasks might also be done more often these days, which adds to your kitchen traffic.

Your family’s needs should be a priority when it comes to remodeling your kitchen. The latest trends might not offer the convenience or the right setup to handle your family’s increased kitchen use. Architects can help you make the best changes that allow you and your family to use your kitchen more comfortably.

Efficiency

Being home all the time means you’re probably experiencing higher energy bills from the lights being on more or the stove and other appliances being used more often. When you’re planning to remodel your kitchen, keep efficiency in mind. There are several changes you can make in order to improve your energy efficiency and avoid huge energy bills. For example, you might replace your dishwasher with a newer dish drawer model, so you can do smaller loads. You might also want to consider other kitchen remodeling changes, such as having a smaller convection oven installed for more efficient cooking. Improving the ventilation in your kitchen will help from smelling last night’s dinner during your morning meetings.

At Drafting Cafe Architects, our team focuses on helping clients in the Bay Area achieve results that work best for their life rather than relying on trends. We work with clients on coming up with kitchen architecture designs that help them get the most out of their home, which involves taking each client’s’ input into consideration. Please contact us today for a free estimate on your kitchen remodel.

Avoiding Architectural Design Fail: How To Match Remodeling Styles

Remodeling your home gives you a chance to give it an updated look and enhance its visual appeal. In order to achieve this effect, it’s important to make sure the exterior and interior of your home have the same flow. Remodeling the interior of your home in a way that doesn’t match or flow with its exterior architectural style can create the wrong effect. When the exterior and interior styles of your home clash it has an impact on the way your home looks and feels overall – especially to visitors. Keep these tips on remodeling in mind while considering your home’s architectural style.

Interior vs. Exterior

When planning your home remodel, think about what it will be like to walk into your home after experiencing the exterior look. When you have a certain architectural style on the outside, you’ll want a complimentary interior remodel so it doesn’t seem as though you’re in a completely different home. For example, if your home has a Victorian or Craftsman architectural style on the outside, you should avoid making changes that give it a contemporary look on the inside.

When you remodel a home with an older architectural exterior style, you should preserve that style inside. You can make major changes to the interior as needed, but keep your home’s overall architectural style in mind. For example, you can add built-in bookcases, stained glass accents, or more wood framing to your interior remodel to maintain a Craftsman-style exterior.

If your home’s architectural style is more contemporary, you should avoid making remodeling changes that take the interior back in time. This can create a jarring effect when walking into your home from the outside. Contemporary homes often have a more open floor plan with a lot of natural lighting. Making changes to the layout, such as adding walls or doors for more privacy, can make your home interior feel more dated compared to the exterior.

Work with an Architect

Trying to decide on changes to make that fit with your home’s architectural style can be difficult. Hiring an architect is an effective way to make sure you end up with a home interior that flows well with and fits the exterior. Architects have the knowledge needed to recommend certain changes as part of your remodel. These changes can ensure that your home has a cohesive look and feel.

When you work with an architect for your home remodeling project, you can also easily narrow down your options. An architect can direct you to options that fit your home’s architectural style, so you can zero in on these instead of considering options that might not work well. This can make the remodeling planning phase go more smoothly and help you save time. 

If you’re planning to remodel your San Francisco Bay Area home, please contact Drafting Cafe Architects today to get a free estimate. Our architects can help you create the right changes to your home in order to maintain a harmonious flow between the exterior and interior.

Plan an Affordable Bathroom Remodel

The best bathrooms are a place of comfort, luxury, and beauty. Older bathrooms sometimes fall short of this mark. Many older bathrooms lack modern features that can increase comfort, functionality and value. Remodeling your bathroom is a fantastic way to improve your quality of life at home and increase your home’s value at the same time. 

Before the remodel can begin, it’s important to know the cost and make a budget that helps put some boundaries around your remodeling plan. Ultimately, the cost of your upcoming remodel will depend on many factors, including the scope of the project, quality of materials, cost of labor, and other your desired styles.  

What Factors Affect Bathroom Remodel Cost? 

Generally speaking, bathroom remodels usually fall into two categories: midrange and upscale. Midrange remodels are relatively modest, with a focus on high-value, low-cost changes. Upscale remodels often involve large-scale changes and/or the purchase of high-end fixtures. 

What’s Included in a Midrange Remodel?

Midrange remodels involve the replacement of all fixtures, but not a relocation of the fixtures in the bathroom. No walls are moved for this kind of remodel, but at the end, the space is still transformed with new tiles and shower surround, new shower fixtures and toilet, a new vanity and sink. Midrange remodels can be especially beneficial if you’re selling your home sometime in the next five years, because the relatively modest cost translates to high ROI.   

What’s Included in an Upscale Remodel?

Upscale remodels change the space entirely. Often, this includes expansion and changing the configuration. All new fixtures add functionality, while high-end features like a freestanding soaker tub create a spa-like environment, perfect for relaxing.

Upscale bathrooms are large enough for his and her sinks and medicine cabinets, an extra-large vanity for storage, and an in-floor heating element for added comfort before and after showers. The expanded size usually requires more ventilation and electrical updates. Thus, your plan will need to be reviewed and bid by multiple contractors – always a smart idea, anyway.

What Else Impacts Bay Area Bathroom Remodel Cost?

Good quality materials can increase costs. However, it’s a mistake to buy low-quality materials just to save money. Poor quality fixture break quickly, need repairs often, and can lead to leaks that cause structural damage. It’s important to purchase the highest quality you can afford when it comes to fixtures.

Midrange Vs. Upscale Bathroom Remodel Costs

Typically, modest costs translate to higher ROI. If you’re concerned about controlling costs while also getting the best value for your money, work with the architectural designer to maximize your return for your bathroom remodel. They can help guide you up front.

Bathroom Remodel (Midrange) Job Cost: $28,800 (89% ROI) 

Bathroom Remodel (Upscale) Job Cost: $86,300 (72% ROI) 

Work With Experts

Is you are planning to remodel your Bay area bathroom, Drafting Cafe can help you plan and design. They offer interior design support and design-to-build for the homeowner that’s too busy for project management. Call today to make make an appointment and start your consultation.