( CNN ) -- Collections of beautifully shot images of people 's passions -- food , fashions , architecture , etc . -- helped make Pinterest a hit . Now Houzz , the interior-design platform , is turning similar photos into extremely popular mobile apps that tap into the home improvement craze . At its core , Houzz is an addictive , never-ending gallery of luscious images of home interiors and exteriors . Its website and apps are popular resources for people who idly dream of redoing their homes or moving into new ones . Home improvement and design , both the real and daydream variety , is a hot industry right now . Just look at the glut of home improvement and house-flipping shows that fill up channels such as HGTV . The home improvement product market is expected to hit $ 287 billion in 2013 , according to the Home Improvement Research Institute . Houzz gently guides people through the process . You begin by looking at bathrooms , graduate to having a scrapbook of dream bathrooms , then read the Houzz tutorials on bathroom renovation and eventually hire someone through its directory or local experts on bathroom renovation . `` Many times people start on the inspiration side but end up taking actions because of that , '' said Houzz founder Adi Tatarko . `` People became very obsessed with it . '' Tatarko and her husband , Alon Cohen , were working full time and raising their two children in the Bay Area when they started a home renovation project four years ago . They had difficulty finding professionals and found that contractors too had their own frustrations with customers expecting too much . `` There was lots of miscommunication in the process , '' Tatarko said . The couple started Houzz in 2009 as a side project , but the next year it went from a hobby to a full-fledged business . The Palo Alto , California-based company now has 120 employees , and its iOS app has more than 100,000 five-star reviews in the Apple App Store . Every month , 15 million people search Houzz by room , style or metro area -- more than half through a smartphone or tablet . The company has a library of more than 2 million images . The sheer volume of photos housed in Houzz means you can spend hours drilling down into your particular project , say , ideas for Mediterranean-style storage closets in Austin , Texas . Browsing high-resolution photos is the initial draw . You can save favorites into Ideabooks for later -- for example , a selection of outdoor wall gardens or midcentury modern living room chairs in a particular shade of yellow . But for Houzz , the money comes when people take action . Interior designers , contractors and architects upload many of the images . There are more than 250,000 such professionals active on Houzz . What makes the app more than just pretty pictures is the information that goes with each image . You can click to see the companies and people who worked on a project , ask questions about how they did certain things or where to find furniture or other products . The people who post images are good about providing answers . There also is a directory of professionals with reviews , sort of an Angie 's List but with splashier visuals . Going local is a key part of Houzz 's business . If you see a dreamy spread in a magazine such as Dwell , the information disclosing who worked on a house is only useful if you live in that area . Houzz shows examples of work from people close enough to hire , divided into 425 metro areas . A Houzz survey ( PDF ) of 100,000 people found that 84 % of respondents were planning to decorate or redecorate , 40 % were considering remodeling or building an addition , and 10 % were planning on building a custom home . Online tools are an increasingly important resource for the people diving into these projects and the professionals hoping to get their business . Also , 18 % of people said they were renovating to incorporate new technologies into their homes . While free to users , Houzz is making money from brand-name partnerships with big companies such as Kohler and Nest , and through a subscription marketing program for professionals . Investors said they are confident the company will be profitable -- it 's raised $ 48.6 million in funding so far . Tatarko said she hopes Houzz will help more people jump from fantasizing about home improvement to picking up a hammer themselves or a phone to reach someone who uses hammers professionally . `` Our homes are a very significant part of our lives , '' she said . `` I think it ( home improvement ) was just so hard before , so people just stayed away from it . ''
Houzz caters to people who like photos of beautiful homes and dream of improvement projects . Houzz 's sites and apps attract 15 million users a month . It draws people in with stunning photos and adds how-to guides and reviews of professionals .