Virtual reality is one of the many technological innovations that has made its way into the world of interior design and has significantly transformed it, to say the least. What was earlier restricted to spaces like gaming, today helps designers and homeowners envision what their spaces will look like much before they’re even created.
By creating virtual models of what home interiors will look like, designers can give their customers a true-to-life glimpse of what they can expect. In this guide, we dive into the use of virtual reality in interior design, the various benefits it offers, and what its future looks like.
Much before the use of virtual reality in interior design, homeowners had to rely on renders to view what their new home’s interiors would look like. While they could give them a good idea, they couldn’t offer the life-like quality virtual reality does.
Virtual reality has truly transformed the interior design industry, with homeowners now being able to see what their home interiors would finally look like, significantly increasing transparency.
One of the major benefits of virtual reality in interior design is that it helps create a visual blueprint of any space and its interiors. Its ability to help plan layouts also aids in creativity, making the world of interior design a lot more dynamic.
Be it in the initial stages when a homeowner gives a designer their idea of a home or much later when a home’s interiors have been decided, VR can help create a thorough visual blueprint.
Further, with this blueprint created, designers can also use it to experiment with different styles of furniture, colour schemes, textures, and more to understand the best elements for any given space. This offers both designers and homeowners a great deal of flexibility, allowing for multiple rounds of changes until they reach a consensus.
Another key benefit of the use of virtual reality in interior design is that it helps create a truly immersive experience for customers. With a new customer-centric approach, designers can truly tailor spaces to their customers’ needs, ensuring maximum satisfaction.
As customers are no longer limited to flat sketches, VR allows them to visualise spaces in a 360-degree view. This helps bridge the gap between the designer’s vision and the client’s expectations, while also minimising any chances of misinterpretations.
VR allows clients to virtually walk through each room, inspect every detail, and understand how every element in their interiors will function in practice.
Errors in the field of interior design can often be costly. A simple miscommunication can often lead to costly errors, especially when customers have no way of examining every element of a render before the process of creating their home’s interiors begins.
However, VR has completely changed the game, ensuring greater transparency in the process of interior design. It also eradicated any possibility of missed or misunderstood details, ensuring their interiors are designed with the utmost precision from the word go.
This makes the customer’s journey a lot more delightful and helps designers use their time and resources a lot more efficiently.
A home is more than just a practical investment. Most homeowners also have an emotional connection with their homes and their interiors. As a result, their choices about the design, decor, and so on are also driven by a degree of emotion. With VR, homeowners can take a virtual tour of their home’s interiors, maximising their emotional connection with them.
The ability to visualise and feel the space is crucial, as it helps them tailor or customise their interiors to suit their personality in every way possible.
With the capabilities of virtual reality continuing to evolve with time, its use in the world of interior design is bound to increase. One key benefit is that it can and will help homeowners redesign their spaces virtually, without making any physical changes to their existing interiors.
This is bound to increase client satisfaction while further minimising the risk of costly errors. In fact, VR is already reaching new heights when combined with technologies like Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence. These combinations present newer opportunities that help maximise efficiency and improve client satisfaction in more ways than one.
While virtual reality offers a range of opportunities and benefits in the world of interior design, it also has its share of challenges, two of which are adoption and accessibility. As with any transformative technology, the cost of purchasing the hardware and software to effectively use VR in the interior design process holds individual designers and smaller firms back from adopting it.
However, with VR continuously evolving, the barriers to entry are also diminishing, which should eventually lead to greater adoption in the years to come.
As we move with time, adopting the use of technologies like virtual reality in interior design becomes strategically imperative. It unlocks a world of possibilities and provides designers and customers with a whole range of benefits, some of which this guide discusses.
If you’re looking to design the interiors of your new home with the best tech-first interior design brand, visit us at Bonito Designs. We, as India’s only ISO-certified full home interior brand, boast over 10 years of experience.
