3 useful apps for homeowners

Technology plays a significant role in many aspects of our lives, and home ownership is no exception. Unsurprisingly, there are plenty of apps to help organise, decorate, and even increase security in homes. We pick out a few for you.

• Furnish: This app superimposes images of furniture pieces of your choice onto the area on which your phone’s camera is focused, allowing you to see what your home would look like when furnished. Previously called IKEA Now as it exclusively featured furniture from the Swedish brand, Furnish now also includes furniture from Target, Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, West Elm, Herman Miller and Knoll.The app has a gallery from which you can draw inspiration on how to furnish your home, and new furniture and retailers are added on a monthly basis. It is available on the iPhone App Store and Google Play for free (thefurnishapp.com).

• BrightNest: The eight-person team behind BrightNest promises “tips and tools” to “shape up your home and simplify your life”, and aim to deliver with informative articles on organising, cleaning, decorating and maintaining your home. Whether you live alone or with children, the elderly, pets or a spouse / roommate, there are tips for different homeowners and different housing types.Examples include pieces entitled The Ultimate Spring Cleaning Checklist, 29 Uses for Salt, and 10 Fabulous Color Theory Tips. The BrightNest app is available for free on Google Play and the iPhone App Store (brightnest.com).

• Salient Eye: Users of Salient Eye can monitor their home security via a primary mobile phone, as well as a connected mobile phone at home. As soon as the app detects any motion in the house, it will send a text message and an email to the user’s primary phone, with images of whoever is responsible for the movement. This lets homeowners know if there are intruders in their home.Salient Eye’s advanced software and technology helps homeowners save on traditional alarm systems; the app is available for free on Google Play, while an iOS version is in the works. iPhone users can register on the app’s website (salient-eye.com) to receive updates on the app’s availability for their phones.