Houzz, for decorating inspiration on a par with that offered by ROSS
This is my first dilemma: my husband has stark white plus black leather and chrome taste, while I like something closer to Bollywood meets Baja. Never the twain shall meet. Ever. My only option is to have my own room to do with as I please. Which brings me to dilemma number two: the two-bedroom Paris apartment in which all rooms are spoken for. So for now, my fantasy girly — and most of all colorful — office slash sewing slash sanctuary space consists of a notebook full of pics torn out of magazines. I heard about Houzz, which sounded like it could be an app version of my notebook. But no. Noooooo.
They have the right idea, they just missed something. Almost everything, in fact. But that’s just because Houzz is actually nothing more than a website wearing an app costume (there’s a lot of that going around).
You can go in and search Photos and specify styles, and you get accurate results like the “tropical” style “powder rooms” below (there is also a “bathrooms” category, no discernible difference). Moving on. Discussions: Don’t even go there. One spelling-challenged person asks the crowd if she should hang a chandelier in her dinning (sic) room, and there are thrilling answers ranging from yes to no from who the hell knows and who cares. Ideabooks: just the site’s mediocre articles (I like Apartment Therapy much better). Professionals: A directory. For all those of us rich enough to actually pay someone else to build and decorate a dreamhouse. My Houzz: you can save all the pics you like to your own little space. But they don’t even let you create different spaces for different rooms. Weak.
The only category I enjoyed (because it was exactly like being in the back of a ROSS looking for the rare item that wasn’t laughably tacky, which made it a treasure hunt, which made it kinda fun) was the Products category. There I browsed around and found some things I thought were cute and quirky (I’m on a turquoise kick). Products come from all over the web, from fancy designers to Etsy shops. This is where they got things right. But you can’t click on a product and be taken to a site where you can buy it.
The app is really not worth the time. I’ll hang on to my notebook and keep looking for a mobile alternative. Or maybe the answer is staring me right in the face (um, Pinterest, duh).
Devices: iOS
Cost: Free
Houzz on the App Store
