If you're doing home renovations, drop your hammer, pick up your mobile device and grab some home renovating apps. If you don't know what apps are or are not familiar with using them, set aside those "How to Renovate" books you've been reading and learn about renovating with apps. No one knows exactly how many home renovation apps are available, but with over a million apps (and counting) available, there must be thousands.

Of course, there are thousands of great articles for home renovators here on Home Improvement Pages, too, but there are a couple of things that make apps a valuable part of your home improvement resource kit:

• You can take your mobile device (smartphone or tablet) with you wherever you go.

•  Many apps are interactive.

Using an App

Let's say you're out shopping for paint. You've already found a paint supplier on hipages, but when you arrive at the paint store, you're overwhelmed by the available choices. You can take a colour fan home with you and start over, but if you have a photo of your interior in your smartphone and a colour app that allows you to change the colour of your walls at will, you can save yourself a lot of time and go home with the perfect colour. An interactive colour picker that "paints" your walls for you is just one example of what you can do with apps. Here are some others:

• Get your entire interior decorating colour scheme with a home colour app. Change the colours of your walls, furnishings, floors and curtains in seconds.
  

• Design your home extension and see it in 3-D. Of course, you can do this with a software program as well, but an app like this is great to have with you when you're discussing your project with your building designer or want to see what a product you found at the building supplier would look like in the new room.
  

• When you're out shopping for furniture, there are apps available that allow you to visually compare interior design trends. Can't decide whether to go art deco or stick with contemporary? Place an art deco style sofa in a contemporary setting and see how it looks.
  

• When you're at the nursery looking for plants, you can use an app that will show you what they will look like in your garden. 

• Kitchen design apps allow you to do everything from make a floor plan to choose your colours and kitchen style. When you're done, you can see what it looks like in 3-D. This is a great app to share with your kitchen designer and may help you save a lot of time and money.
  

• Doing home renovation cost estimate is a lot easier with a materials cost estimator. The beauty of these apps is that when you're at your DIY building supplier and are given a per metre quote for timber (for example), you can just pull out your mobile device and quickly find out exactly how much timber you need and what it will cost.
  

This is just a small sampling of how you can do your renovating with apps. Others include apps that can follow the sun in your locale (great for planning the positioning of windows), apps that compare real estate prices, apps that allow you to take a sticky beak into others' homes (with their permission, of course) and just about anything else you can dream of. Apps are available for both Apple and Android devices, so there's no need to switch allegiances. We even have our very own hipages.com.au app dedicated to helping you locate the right service or product for your project. Most apps are very inexpensive and some are even free, so check some out now, before you pick up your hammer and get back to work on your home renovation project.