Angie Zarrillo moved into her first house this year, a fixer-upper built in 1923 in Independence, Mo., with hardwood floors and a breakfast nook. So far, the handiest tool for renovations hasn't come from a kitchen drawer or the garage, but inside her purse.
Zarrillo uses mobile applications -- commonly called apps -- on her smartphone to select paint colors, discover ways to rework flea market furniture and learn quick fixes to common household challenges.
"I type in a problem and find an answer," said Zarrillo, a high school family and consumer science teacher. "For example, 'How do you clean paintbrushes?'" Solution from the app: a simple mix of water and dish soap with a picture of Dawn detergent.
Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, founder of the blog Apartment Therapy, says home-related apps have changed since they were new to the scene three or so years ago.
"They've always had a fun factor, and the promise was good, but now they deliver on it," he said. For example, using your phone as a level to hang pictures or to do woodworking has moved beyond gimmick to functional. "The iHandy Carpenter app is really like a pocket Swiss Army knife of measuring tools."
Tablets up the ante
The other innovation that has affected home-related apps is the tablet computer, introduced two years ago with the iPad. The screen is larger than a phone's, yet the computer is lightweight enough to be easily portable, better for looking at floor plans and color palettes on the go. Nearly one of every five adults in the U.S. now has a tablet, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
The increasing popularity of tablet computers has coincided with the rise of home-design photo library sites and their apps. Zarrillo's favorite is Pinterest, which lets users "pin" images from the Web onto virtual bulletin boards.