Houzz

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Houzz is an online platform and community for home design professionals, homeowners and others interested in home design. The Houzz platform and mobile apps feature more than 190,000 interior and exterior residential photos, articles by professional writers and home design experts, product recommendations, and social tools to help users manage their home and garden projects. CNN named Houzz App of the Week, calling it “The Wikipedia of interior and exterior design sites.”

History

The company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., was founded in February 2009 by wife-and-husband team Adi Tatarko and Alon Cohen. Tatarko and Cohen created the site as a result of their own remodeling project. Tired of cutting pages out of magazines for their inspiration file, they developed the online photo database and professional directory as a tool for people to exchange ideas and help each other with the process of building, remodeling and decorating.

Mashable wrote, "Houzz is bringing the process into the digital age by creating a database of more than 170,000 home design photos sorted by room, style and geographic location." The Wall Street Journal wrote, "As a launching platform for your decorating project, or just as idle inspiration while daydreaming about your next one, Houzz is practically a bottomless well of inspiration at the tip of your swiping fingers."

Funding

In November 2010, Tatarko and Cohen secured $2 million in first-round funding and began hiring a staff for their office in Palo Alto. The investor roster included Oren Zeev , who has also invested in Audible.com and Chegg; Donald Katz, founder and CEO of Audible.com; Gary Ginsberg, Executive VP of Time Warner Inc.; Jeff Fluhr , co-founder of StubHub.com (and CEO until its sale to eBay) and Amos Wilnai, founder of MMC Networks.

Photo database

The Houzz photo database contains more than 200,000 photos of residential interiors, exteriors and landscape design photos uploaded by more than 27,000 home improvement professionals. Users can filter photo searches by location, style and type of space, or search the collection using multiple keywords. In each photo category, users can choose to browse a stream of photos users have most recently added to their personal collections (“ideabooks”); browse images with product sources (“tags”); and view the most popular photos. Users can click on an image to learn more about the designer, see the designer’s contact information, email a link to the photo, ask a question, and learn about products tagged in the photo.

Editorial Content

An editorial staff in Palo Alto and contributors throughout the United States write daily design articles (“featured ideabooks”) for the Houzz homepage and newsletters. Topics include architecture, landscape design, interior design, events, kitchens, baths, home offices, furniture, products, materials, accessories, home tours, interviews, DIY craft, decorating and home-improvement projects, storage and organizing, paint colors and patterns, choosing flooring, lighting and more.

Homeowners’ personal ideabooks

Homeowners and apartment dwellers interested in building, remodeling or redecorating browse Houzz for photos relevant to their individual projects and design styles. Users can browse photos by room, design style and location, upload their original photography, and bookmark favorite photos in personal ideabooks. These ideabooks often become tools professionals and homeowners use to email project ideas to each other, a practice that led the magazine Real Simple to call Houzz “the online equivalent of clipping décor images from magazines.” As of November 2011, more than 830,000 user ideabooks have been created.

Professional database

Houzz offers a platform for design and home improvement professionals in 50+ metro areas to be found by potential clients and the media through free online portfolios they can update and manage themselves. More than 27,000 architects, interior designers, builders, general contractors, kitchen and bath designers, photographers, showrooms, bloggers and other home professionals have uploaded their home design photography to the Houzz database.

Mobile

The first version of the iPad app was launched in April, 2010, followed by a second version in November, 2010. The Wall Street Journal said that “Houzz is practically a bottomless well of inspiration at the tip of your swiping fingers."

Houzz Questions

The Houzz Questions section gives users a community forum to post their design dilemmas and get ideas and advice from Houzz moderators, professionals and other Houzz users. Users can browse the forum to find questions and answers in specific areas, such as Accessories and Decor, Bath, Color, Floors, Furniture, Lighting, Kitchen, Windows and Doors, and using Houzz.

Products

Users also can browse a continually updated database of more than 75,000 home products from more than 240 product categories. Home design photos accompanied by a green product-tag icon contain product information and sources added by designers and the Houzz editorial staff.

More reaction

Architectural Digest wrote, "This app will stoke your imagination." TechCrunch wrote, "Houzz appears to be a decent idea that's been executed well." The Mercury News wrote, "You'll find a nearly endless portfolio of excellent ideas for your swipe file there that you and your architect can both contribute to and comment on."

External links

Houzz.com Houzz for iPad and iPhone Houzz on Facebook Houzz on Twitter Houzz Questions