As a real estate professional, you're always looking to provide value to your clients. That's why we had to share this article from HomeFinder.com when we spotted it on their blog. It's full of helpful information that's perfect for clients that have recently moved into a new home (or are renovating an old one). Feel free to share this with your customers!

Make sure your new house reflects your own sense of style by enlisting some virtual assistants to help create a perfectly designed home. With suggestions from some top home design experts, we've compiled the best apps to take the transformation from drab to fab. Read more to meet your new favorite design helpers.

To Inspire:

• Home 3D ($5.99, iTunes): Design the home of your dreams without breaking your back, by creating rooms in a virtual home, according to Sally Morse, director of creative services, Hunter Douglas. Match your home's layout with an existing floor plan image, enter your rooms' dimensions, and lay out the furniture, appliances and fixtures. Once you are happy with the room arrangements, take a virtual tour through your "home" to choose the materials for the walls and floors.
• Home Style ($1.99, iTunes): Take a photo of the room in your home you want to decorate, and upload it to the app to create a 3D design of how you can transform your room, said Shandra Ward, a Houston, TX-based interior designer.

To Measure:

• iHandy Carpenter ($.99, iTunes): This app is the swiss army knife of apps; hold a ruler, protractor, bubble leveler, and surface leveler all in the palm of your hand. Trade in your cumbersome toolbox and pricey carpenter for the convenience of measuring your upcoming design project right from your iPhone.
• Handyman Calculator (Free, Android): Your days of over buying supplies are over. Input your room measurements and the app will calculate the quantity of materials (paint, flooring, trim, etc.) you will need to complete your project.

To Prep:

• Photo Measures Lite (Free, iTunes): Take photos of the rooms you plan on designing and enter the dimensions directly on the photos, said Morse. You can save your measurements and easily send to contractors and others involved in the project.
• Home Interior Layout Designer ($2.99, iPhone): Rely on this app to make sure that new piece of furniture you have your eye on will fit in your home. Set a room's square footage in the app, and enter the furniture dimensions. Simply drag it around the room to see where it fits best.
• MagicPlan (Free, iPhone): Create a floor plan in several minutes – take a photo of each corner of your room, and the app will automatically measure your room and create a floor plan. Ward said, it's much faster than using a measuring tape!

To Design:

• Paint My Place App ($0.99, iTunes): Dump those paint swatches and select from over 30,000 global brand name paint colors to virtually paint your space. Once you choose your ideal color, you can paint your room already knowing what the end result will be.
• FLOR (Free, iPhone): Design your own floor covering with FLOR products, simply by inputting your floor dimensions and design preferences, said Ward. You can preview your new floor covering, prior to making the big purchase.
• Art of Window Dressing (Free, iTunes): Find the perfect window treatments for your new space by virtually dressing your windows. Browse hundreds of interiors to see how each product transforms a home, upload a photo of your room to see how the window treatment will appear in your house, and organize thousands of available fabric and style options, said Morse.
• Kravet and Lee Jofa E-Design Assistant (Free, iTunes): Search for fabric and furnishings by Kravet and Lee Jofa, two leading fabric and furnishing retailers. Choose from thousands of fabric patterns and furniture along with tips to make your design project easy, said Ward.

To view the original article, visit the HomeFinder.com blog.