Skip to main content

Houzz updates its app to work with Apple Pencil, let’s you scribble on home decor

Houzz’s updated app lets you add products to photos so you can try home decor before you buy

houzz updates its app to work with apple pencil sketch on ipad
Image used with permission by copyright holder
What does a farmhouse-style bathroom with concrete countertops and a clawfoot tub look like? The Houzz app can show you. The home renovation and design platform’s iOS app just got an upgrade the makes the experience more dynamic.

While it works with iPhones, the experience, called Sketch, is optimized for iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. There are eight million photos available for users to select, then they can start adding products from Houzz’s Marketplace. If you see a sofa you love, you can see how it will look in your living room by uploading your own photo. Think it might look better by the window? You can swivel it and move the object. You can also click on products you see in photos and buy them.

Recommended Videos

If your partner thinks the couch you just picked out is hideous, he or she can draw an X, scribble on it, or write a big “No!” on top of it. It’s meant to be collaborative, so you can see the defacement of your lovely aubergine velvet piece of furniture in real-time.

“Sketch is a powerful new function in the Houzz app that enables people to add products from Houzz to any photo, and to communicate and collaborate more effectively through photos with their home professional or others involved in the project,” said Alon Cohen, president and co-founder of Houzz in a statement.

The platform is also a showcase for designers and architects, so you can search for pros in your area and get a look at their portfolios.

The updated Houzz app joins a space occupied by Rooomy (for iOS), which lets you upload a photo of your home and totally redecorate, and HomeStyler (for iOS and Android) and RoomSketcher (also for iOS and Android), which let you play around with floor plans and browse others’ photos for inspiration.

Jenny McGrath
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jenny McGrath is a senior writer at Digital Trends covering the intersection of tech and the arts and the environment. Before…
Does the Apple iPad (2022) work with Apple Pencil?
Someone using an Apple Pencil with the 10th Gen iPad.

Apple has added a welcome breath of fresh air to its iPad lineup this year, bringing its most affordable entry-level model into harmony with its more premium tablets. The 2022 iPad features the now-familiar design language of the iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad Mini. Even more significantly, it also brings the USB-C port over from those models. It's even available in some fun new colors.

Unfortunately, it's not all sunshine and rainbows with the newest 10th-generation iPad. While it gains some nice improvements beyond the design, including an upgrade to the A14 chip found in the iPhone 12, a better 12-megapixel (MP) camera, and 5G connectivity, it's oddly been left behind when it comes to the Apple Pencil -- despite selling for $120 more than its predecessor.

Read more
HomeKit Secure Video: Why it’s great and why you should use it
Customers inspect the new Apple HomePod at an Apple Store on February 9, 2018 in San Francisco, California.

Apple's HomeKit Secure Video is a year or two late to the smart security party, but the company made sure it arrived with plenty of skills, customizations, and algorithmic expertise.

Jumping on the HomeKit bandwagon, HomeKit Secure Video is an Apple-exclusive monitoring suite that you can get access to through an iCloud+ subscription. Offering a range of impressive surveillance features, instant notifications, and geofencing abilities, HomeKit Secure Video checks all the boxes when it comes to safeguarding your home, business, and personal data.

Read more
Apple’s Home app redesign is just what HomeKit needs
Apple HomeKit ecosystem

One of the biggest announcements of WWDC 2022 is that the Apple Home app is getting a much-needed ground-up redesign.

The new app changes how you navigate through the app and organize accessories, but the most important change is that you can now see your entire home from a single view. There's no more jumping between menus to check things -- you can view every connected device, including multiple camera views, from within a single page.

Read more