
What is AR home decor, and what are its uses, features, benefits, considerations, etc.?

Augmented and virtual reality are a growing market that has been helping e-commerce brands and businesses to provide users with a personalized experience. It provides users with multiple engaging options, such as virtual try-ons, 3D viewers, and 360-degree models, enabling users to explore every product detail from different angles and perspectives.
Several industries like home decor, furniture, beauty, and clothing have seen immense growth with the implementation of augmented reality because it helps them to keep users engaged and provides them with the accessibility to explore products. According to recent research and studies, it is concluded that AI is approaching several industries and is expected to reach 1.8 trillion USD by the year 2030.
I have been studying and researching the impact and growth of the AR industry on the worldwide market for a very long time, and it has always amazed me with some new facts and information. In this blog, I will provide you with brief information on AR in home decor or interior designing, how it has been helping businesses, its uses, benefits, features, and more. Let’s get started!
What is augmented reality home decor, and what are its key features?
The augmented reality home decor is an innovation for the interior design and home decor industry that provides users with an engaging and interactive way to design their space. It uses advanced AR technology to deliver an engaging home decor experience by overlaying various elements such as furniture, decor, and layouts onto the real-time environment.
It helps various interior designers and real estate developers to project a 3D model of the decor or design onto the real world, enabling them to interact with virtual home decor items without making a physical visit.
It also helps designers or developers to provide cost-effective items by reducing the cost of physical visits and sampling by providing them with the ability to test out different arrangements, colors, styles, and measurements.
Key features
- Virtual lighting: It offers the advantage of experimenting with virtual lighting settings that will help users to have a realistic visualization of the decor and space in different lighting conditions, boosting their confidence and decision-making ability.
- 3D model modification: It reduces the need for physical sampling and space tours by helping designers to create, manipulate, and customize 3D models of furniture, fixtures, and decor realistically, providing users with a better visual experience.
- Augmented reality ruler: It helps designers measure the room dimensions using augmented reality technology with the help of mobile devices, enabling them to conduct proper space planning and utilize the maximum space available.
- Augmented design template: It provides users with pre-designed templates to provide them with a broader vision about the interior design layouts for inspiration, enabling them to understand the working model of the space decor.
Role of AR in home decor
Augmented reality has played a crucial role in the growth of the interior design industry, as it helps designers to provide clients with a better vision of their space decor. It helps users to visualize the placement of decor, furniture, and paint color before making any purchases, helping them to make satisfactory renovation decisions.
Just like that, there are many other factors that help interior designers to provide their customers with an enhanced and interactive way to renovate their space in a sustainable way. In this section, I will help you understand the role of AR in home decor and how it helps users to make their space more comfortable at minimal cost.
1. Eco-friendly material visualization
It helps designers to provide users with an eco-friendly and sustainable practice by helping them to visualize materials and home decor with the help of AR overlays and 3D models. It provides users with a 3D visualization of the furniture, decor items, and different paint colors using their smartphones or tablets, enabling them to view items from different angles and perspectives.
It also reduces time and energy during the design process by enabling users to override traditional methods with AR overlays. It also enables users to choose from different styles, layouts, and colors according to their preferences and helps them in performing precise space planning and layout design.
2. Streamlined design process
With the help of augmented reality technology, designers can streamline the design process by saving resources and time. It enables them to opt for digital experiments and quick visualization, which will help users to understand the space utilization and layout design better. It provides users with a cost-effective design process by enabling them to customize the decor items as per their choices.
It will help designers to immediately work on client feedback with the help of digitalization and provide them with multiple options. Therefore, using AR in home decor will help both designers and customers to streamline the design process, providing users with a personalized experience.
3. Improved communication and engagement
Augmented reality for interior design helps designers and customers to improve communication during the design process. It will also help the brand to increase user engagement on the website or app by providing them with an engaging and interactive way to design their space.
It helps designers to interact with customers in an engaging way by providing them with 3D and customizable blueprints, enabling them to conduct clear communication regarding the designs and layouts. It will also help users to have a precise understanding of space customization and furniture placement, which will help the brand to increase conversion rates and generate more leads.
4. Customized 3D models and virtual showrooms
It allows users to customize home decor items with the help of 3D model representation and a virtual showroom facility, which will enable them to have a precise and 360-degree view of furniture and design layouts. It allows users to customize these 3D models, according to their preferences, to design their space with accurate dimensions and have a detailed preview.
With the help of virtual showrooms, brands can provide users with a personalized shopping experience with the accessibility of browsing products globally without any geographical limitations. It will help the brand expand its market reach and increase the customer satisfaction rate by implementing 3D models and virtual showrooms.
Key components of AR interior design
Augmented reality is an advanced technology that uses multiple components for home decor brands and industries, including design tools, realistic overlays, interactive interfaces, and 3D modeling, enabling brands to build enhanced customer relationships.
With the help of these components, brands can improve the AR for interior design and provide users with a better experience. In this section, I will help you understand these components and how they help home decor and interior design people provide their customers with an elevated and personalized experience.
1. AR design tools
Design tools are a crucial part of augmented reality home decor because they help designers to generate 3D visualizations and virtual walkthroughs, enabling customers to explore and visualize different layouts and designs. It helps designers to build strong and interactive communication with their customers.
Meanwhile, users get the chance to have a virtual experience of the space design that will enable them to make more informed and clear design decisions. Therefore, using AR design tools will help both designers and customers to streamline the design process, perform collaboration, make quick decisions, and make the design intent clear.
2. Interactive interface
Having an interactive interface during the AR interior design process will help the customer to visualize and explore home decor items interactively. With the help of an interactive interface, users can customize and personalize their space according to their choices by exploring new items.
It will also help the brand to keep users engaged during the design process and increase the user engagement rate on the website or app. Therefore, an interactive interface will help the brand to achieve higher engagement and enable users to make faster and more effective decisions, building a strong relationship between designers and customers.
3. Real-time overlays
It allows users to explore home decor items with the help of AR overlays onto real-time environments, enabling them to visualize the space with decor and helping them build a personalized space.
With the help of AR overlays, users can perform space planning and layout design according to their personal preferences, which will help them to give a personal touch to their space and customize it accordingly.
It will also provide them with multiple customization options that they can use to streamline the design process while saving time and energy from physical visits and making it more cost-effective.
4. 3D model library
It is another key component of AR home decor that designers use to store home decor items with different patterns, colors, and styles, enabling them to help users select the appropriate one for their home. Designers use this library to organize home decor items in different sections, as it will help them categorize these items according to their model, category, and style.
With the help of this 3D model library, designers can provide users with multiple options during space planning by implementing different colors and lighting based on their choices. Therefore, it will help designers to save users’ time by working on their suggestions and streamlining the process.
Applications of AR in the home decor industry
Augmented reality has been playing a crucial role in the development of the home decor and interior design industry, as it helps users to visualize the decor items and explore them in an engaging way.
Along with the development of AR in the interior design industry, it has also provided several applications that will help designers offer engaging space planning experiences to their customers. In this section, we will study the applications of augmented reality in the home decor industry and how it helps designers attract more projects.
1. AR stores
It helps designers to create engaging and immersive experiences for users by providing them with AR stores, which they can use to explore several home decor items. With the help of AR stores, designers can categorize furniture, lights, and appliances according to their models, styles, and colors, enabling users to select the best one.
It will also provide users with the ability to make more confident purchasing decisions during online shopping by helping them to plan and visualize their space accordingly. It reduces the product return rate for brands by increasing customer satisfaction and fostering trust towards the company.
2. Interior architecture planning
With the help of augmented reality technology, designers can perform precise architectural planning for a space or the entire building. It allows them to understand the structuring and create a 3D layout of the space to demonstrate the position of walls, doors, and windows, which will help the user to have a clear vision of their space.
It will also help the design to bring out a clear and concise communication with their clients, enabling them to look after feedback for a better and streamlined process. Hence, using AR for architectural planning will help users to customize their home with a personalized touch.
3. Interior design visualization
It allows designers to provide users with a 3D and engaging visualization of different home decor items, including furniture, lights, and appliances. It enables users to understand the item placement and measure the dimensions with the help of augmented reality, which will assist them in saving time and streamlining the design process.
It also helps the designer to provide their clients with a cost-effective way of home decor and space planning, enabling them to speed up the procedure and increase customer satisfaction. Therefore, using AR for interior design and visualization will allow the designer to save time and money while enabling them to speed up the deal-closing process.
Best AR home decor SDK providers
To provide users with a better and more engaging experience, it is very crucial to opt for the best technology and provider because it will help the brand to leave a positive impression on them. However, AR home decor is an advanced technology, and creating software from scratch requires lots of time, resources, and effort.
Since creating the entire software is an overwhelming task, brands opt for SDKs (software development kits) that will help them bridge the gap between technology and customer experience. With the growing demand and advanced technology, it is very difficult to understand which SDK is better for your business and how it will help you increase your sales.
To help brands select the best SDK providers, I did thorough research and spent lots of time studying which is the best AR home decor SDK provider. In this section, I have curated a list of the top 6 AR home decor SDK providers that help brands boost engagement, increase sales, and enhance user experience.
1. GlamAR
GlamAR is an AR-based solution provider that helps e-commerce businesses boost engagement on their website or app, increase sales, and reduce product return rates. It provides brands with several solutions, including virtual try-ons, 3D configurators, 360-degree viewers, and virtual spaces, which help them to keep users engaged during online shopping. It offers products for several industries, such as footwear, furniture, makeup, and accessories, which will enable brands to build a strong online presence.
I tried the virtual home decor SDK that provides users with a 3D model of different furniture or home decor items, enabling them to explore items from different angles and perspectives. It provides users with a 360-degree view of the furniture that they can use to understand its details and help them make more informed and confident decisions. It allows users to explore decor items on both desktop and mobile platforms, providing them with an accessible way to discover more products.
It helps brands in building a strong customer experience by boosting engagement by 94% and increasing the user engagement sessions. It also enables the brand to boost its business by driving conversions by 45% and reducing returns by 40%, which will help the e-commerce seller to stand out in the market. Therefore, it helps the brand to build a stronger community by providing them with an engaging and interactive online shopping experience.
Features
- 3D modeling: It provides customers with high-quality 3D models of different products and items that will offer them a realistic product visualization and bridge the gap between online and offline shopping experiences.
- 360-degree preview: It delivers users with a 360-degree view of products that they can use to have a detailed preview of the furniture from different angles and perspectives, providing them with an overview of the detailing and features.
- Customization options: It provides users with color customization options that they can use to change the color of home decor items and help them make more informed decisions according to their choices and preferences.
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2. Modelry
Modelry is an AR-based solution provider for the footwear and furniture industry that helps brands to increase user engagement and enhance experience. It provides brands with various solutions, including digital asset management, 3D product visualization, and a 3D viewer, which helps their customers discover multiple products in a realistic environment. It also helps the brand to boost its business by increasing sales, boosting engagement, and reducing returns, helping them to build a stronger relationship with customers.
I tried the AR for commerce feature that allows end users to explore and customize products in a realistic environment with the help of 3D models and 360-degree product previews. It bridges the gap between online and offline shopping for users, as it provides them with a real-time product visualization and 3D models using the device’s camera. It keeps users engaged and increases brand awareness by providing end users with the accessibility to explore items anytime and anywhere.
It helps the brand to enhance user experience, boost user engagement, drive more conversions, and reduce product returns, enabling them to stand out in the market. It also provides users with product details by deploying 3D assets seamlessly into various platforms and touchpoints. Hence, it enables the brand to increase its business, build stronger relationships, and generate more leads.
Features
- Lower product returns: It helps the brand to reduce product return rates by 3 times because it helps customers to make more informed and confident decisions with the help of augmented reality, enabling them to explore products in an interactive way.
- Increase conversions: It helps the brand to boost conversion rates and overall sales by 40% with the help of augmented reality technology, and helps them to reach a wider audience because it provides them with detailed product information using this technology.
- 3D model integration: It offers the seamless integration of 3D models into the e-commerce platform by sending them product reference images or linking them to product pages, then it will create the 3D models by producing assets and performing heavy lifting.
3. PlugXR
PlugXR is an AR-based solution provider for furniture and home decor items that allows brands to increase their overall sales and conversion rates. It helps online sellers and businesses to provide their users with an immersive experience by enabling them to explore and customize products with the help of AR technology. It also helps the brand to increase its user experience by providing them with an in-person-like shopping experience with the help of their device’s camera, without any geographical limitations.
I tried the AR experience for home decor and furniture items that help users understand dimensions and perform space planning using augmented reality technology. It provides them with an interactive yet immersive way, which helps them to make more informed and confident decisions. It also provides them with 3D models and 360-degree previews, which will increase their engagement on the website or application.
It helps the brand to enhance its conversion rates by helping users explore products in a detailed manner and increasing their satisfaction rate. It also helps e-commerce companies to reduce the return rate and opt for a sustainable business model by streamlining the operational processes using AR technology. Therefore, it helps the brand to increase conversion rates, boost overall sales, and reduce return rates while building a stronger relationship with customers.
Features
- Interactive experience: It provides users with an interactive and engaging experience by providing them with 3D models and 360-degree product previews, enabling them to explore multiple products and keep them engaged.
- Area tracking: It offers high-quality area tracking that helps users transform their space by using immersive augmented reality technology to understand the dimensions of furniture and home decor items, enabling them to utilize the space without any wastage.
- Cross-platform deployment: It allows brands to increase their audience reach by providing them with multiple platform deployment options, which will enable them to increase their customer database and generate more leads.
4. CGI Furniture
CGI Furniture offers 3D modeling and rendering services for furniture brands, helping them to boost their user engagement and experience. It enables the brand to increase customer satisfaction and foster trust towards them by helping them choose the best products according to their choices and preferences. It helps various e-commerce platforms to increase their sales and conversion rates by boosting the customer reach and fostering their loyalty towards the brand.
I tried the 3D modeling and rendering services that provide users with an engaging way to explore new products and offer them real-time visualizations with detailed information. It provides users with various features, such as photorealistic rendering, 360-degree views, and AR-ready models, which will provide them with a detailed preview of the selected product. It also reduces the product uncertainty and helps users to streamline the design process by reducing the product return rates.
It also helps various brands and businesses by keeping users engaged on the website or app, which increases user engagement and experience. It also helps e-commerce sellers to enhance their conversion rates by providing users with clear and impactful product presentations. Therefore, it helps the brand to increase its brand awareness and generate more leads using augmented reality technology.
Features
- 3D modeling: It provides users with high-quality 3D models that will help them to understand the product better by closely monitoring their textures and materials, enabling them to make more informed decisions during online shopping.
- Interactive content display: It helps brands to display the product information interactively by using touchpoints and 360-degree previews, enabling users to explore items from different angles and perspectives.
- Product animation: It allows brands to perform product animations for social media platforms, which they can use to reach a wider audience and generate more leads by using interactive videos for marketing purposes.
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Brands that are using AR home decor
Home decor is a very prominent industry, as it helps homeowners to customize their space and add their personal touch to it. Therefore, everyone wants to make their home special and the best, which requires lots of planning, designing, and feedback. To provide end customers with a better and enhanced home decor experience, several brands have been using AR interior design on their website or app, which will help them to discover and select products accordingly.
In this section, I will let you know about some of these brands that have been using this technology to help users visualize products in their home and enable them to make more informed decisions.
1. IKEA
IKEA is a globally recognized brand for furniture and decor items that provides its customers with a personalized shopping experience with the help of augmented reality technology. It offers advanced features such as 3D models and virtual try-ons to help its users visualize the item in their home and room by using their mobile devices or web browsers.
It also enables them to customize the furniture according to their choice by changing its color and style to give it a personalized touch. During the 3D preview, it enables users to alter the wall color, which will help users select the universal product. It also provides them with appropriate dimensions of the furniture, which they can utilize to select the best-suited item for their space.
2. Wayfair
Wayfair is a home decor brand that provides its customers with an enhanced online shopping experience using AR technology and helps them make confident purchase decisions. It provides its customers with various features, including an integrated camera, room 3D, and room planner 3D, enabling them to perform space planning more strategically.
It offers these features in the mobile app that keep users engaged during online shopping, which makes their shopping seamless and more personalized according to their choices and preferences. It also helps users to visualize items in their home with the help of AR overlays, enabling them to experiment with different styles of furniture, layouts, and room dimensions.
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Benefits of using AR technology for the home decor industry
Using the augmented reality technology for home decor or interior design offers multiple benefits, such as visualization, customization, collaboration, and more. It allows the brand to build better and enhanced customer relationships and helps them to increase their customer database.
It also offers brands the ability to increase awareness among users by integrating the software into various platforms. In this section, I will provide information on the advantages of using AR technology for the home decor and furniture industries and how it helps them to generate more leads.
1. Better visualization
With the help of AR technology, brands can provide their users with a better visual experience that they can use to explore and customize selected products according to their choices and preferences.
It provides users with real-time 3D models that they can use to rotate and spin the product in their rooms with the help of the device’s camera, offering them a see-it-before-you-buy facility. It will help the brand to increase customer satisfaction and foster their trust by helping them to make more confident choices.
2. Enhanced customer experience
It provides users with an enhanced online shopping experience, as it offers them an interactive and immersive way to explore products using AR overlays. It helps the brand to increase user engagement by keeping customers engaged on their website or app by providing them with real-time 3D models and 360-degree previews.
It enables the brand to foster customer relationships and increase brand loyalty by helping them make less impulsive and costly purchases.
3. Improved collaboration
It helps the brand to increase collaboration and improve communication with customers by helping them to streamline the design process. With the help of augmented reality, brands can get along with users on the latest feedback and discussions that will help designers understand the customer choices.
It will also help designers to establish better channels of communication with their customers by providing them with a cost-effective and time-saving way to explore and customize their space.
4. Marketing advantage
It helps the brand to stand out in the market by providing its customers with advanced technology using augmented reality. It also helps the brand to increase its customer database by reaching out to them at a global level by integrating the software into multiple platforms.
Hence, it will enable the brand to beat its competitors and generate more leads by using 3D models and realistic visualizations.
Challenges that interior design brands face while using AR technology
Interior design is an emerging yet increasingly popular domain because it helps users to customize their space while giving it a personalized touch. With the help of AR technology, it has experienced immense growth and is helping its customers to make more informed decisions.
But every technology has its own challenges, which sometimes make it difficult for the brand to leverage it completely. In this section, I will provide you with an overview of challenges faced by the home decor industry with the increasing use of AR technology.
1. High development cost
Augmented reality is an emerging technology that requires development costs and accessibility, making it difficult for brands to achieve the same in their business goals. It includes software development, 3D modeling, and hardware acquisition, which demands extra time and effort for better execution. Therefore, for a small brand or individual designer, it becomes challenging to leverage AR technology in their e-commerce platform.
2. System integration limitation
Another challenge that brands encounter is system integration and its limitations. Sometimes it becomes very difficult for them to integrate the software into the e-commerce platform because it demands higher system requirements. It makes tracking, registration, and spatial recognition difficult tasks for brands by creating a complex or cluttered environment.
3. Training barriers
Augmented reality raises training barriers for brands because it demands expert skills in 3D modeling, AR development, and user experience design. It creates a challenge for businesses to hire expert developers so that they can integrate the software into their e-commerce platform seamlessly. Therefore, it costs them additional resources and interrupts their business goals and budget.
Conclusion
Augmented reality helps designers make home decor easy and enjoyable by transforming the way customers approach the entire process and providing them with a sustainable method to customize their space. It also allows users to preview the furniture virtually, experiment with colors, and adjust design elements in real time, which will bridge the gap between online and offline experiences.
It reduces the guesswork and reduces the home decor cost mistake while empowering homeowners to confidently create personalized and stylish spaces. It makes the home decor process more interactive, immersive, and user-driven, as augmented reality provides designers with an advanced and more accessible way to revolutionize the design in real-time environments.
With the help of augmented reality, designers can improve the home decor and design process by allowing users to visualize furniture, decor, and design layouts using AR overlays directly in their real rooms, which will enable them to make faster decisions, reduce costly mistakes, and enhance collaboration with designers and family members.
To use the AR home decor feature, people require a smartphone or tablet with a camera and AR capabilities, which will enable them to add a personal touch to their space based on their choices and preferences.
Because AR technology enables users to use the device's camera to scan the room, it can be used to measure the room's dimensions, generate layout design suggestions, provide options for furniture placement, and assist users in choosing the best decor items for the space.
Among several AR interior design applications, some of the well-known apps include IKEA Place, Houzz, Planner 5D, and Dulux Visualiser, which allow their users to try out furniture, colors, and layouts virtually.
You can use the AR home decor to redesign your entire room because it will help you to plan spaces, preview changes, try multiple styles, and experiment with multiple floor plans before making any real modifications.
AR helps interior designers to provide their clients with sustainable and cost-effective options by enabling them to perform efficient space planning, reducing material waste, and helping to select eco-friendly materials, which will minimize the environmental impact of redesigns.