FURNIT-SAVER · Project

AR/VR Marketplace Lets Furniture Customers See Custom Pieces in Their Home Before Buying

digitalTestedTRL 6

Imagine you want a custom bookshelf, but you have no idea if it will actually fit or look right in your living room. This project built a tool that lets you scan your room with your phone, then drop in a 3D model of the furniture and tweak the design — color, size, material — until it looks perfect. It even suggests options based on your taste. Think of it as a fitting room for furniture, right inside your own home.

By the numbers

consortium partners from 3 countries

SMEs in the consortium

50%

industry ratio in the consortium

total project deliverables produced

The business problem

What needed solving

Small furniture companies are losing ground to large bulk retailers who benefit from economies of scale and wide product ranges. When customers order custom furniture, they take an expensive gamble — if the final piece does not match their room or taste, the cost falls on either the buyer or the manufacturer. This risk drives customers toward cheap, standardized options instead of higher-quality custom pieces.

The solution

What was built

The project built an AR/VR marketplace platform for furniture customization, including a system architecture with database and user interfaces (web and mobile), AR/VR visualization modules that let customers see furniture in their real rooms, and a recommendation engine that suggests furniture options based on customer preferences. A total of 12 deliverables were produced.

Audience

Who needs this

Custom furniture manufacturers and workshops looking to reduce order cancellationsOnline furniture retailers with high return rates due to product-space mismatchInterior design firms wanting to show clients realistic room previewsKitchen and bathroom fitting companies selling configured productsFurniture marketplace platforms seeking AR/VR product visualization features

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Custom Furniture Manufacturing

SME

Target: Small and mid-size furniture workshops offering bespoke or semi-custom pieces

If you are a furniture workshop losing orders because customers cannot visualize how a custom piece will look in their space — this project developed an AR/VR marketplace with a recommendation engine that lets buyers see, customize, and approve furniture in their actual room before committing. The system was built specifically to help smaller manufacturers compete against bulk retailers by removing the risk of a mismatch between expectation and reality.

Interior Design & Home Staging

any

Target: Interior design firms and home staging companies

If you are an interior design studio struggling to communicate your vision to clients — this project developed a 3D room-planning and augmented reality visualization tool that lets clients walk through your proposals in their own space. Instead of mood boards and guesswork, you can show the final result before a single piece is ordered, cutting revision cycles and client complaints.

Retail & E-commerce (Home Furnishing)

mid-size

Target: Online furniture retailers and showroom operators

If you are an online furniture retailer dealing with high return rates because products do not match customer expectations — this project built a smart recommendation engine combined with AR visualization so shoppers can place items in their rooms virtually. The 6-partner consortium across 3 countries designed both web and mobile interfaces, making it adaptable to existing e-commerce platforms.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to license or implement this kind of AR/VR furniture visualization?

The project data does not include budget figures or licensing terms. The system was developed as an Innovation Action with 6 partners, so costs were shared across the consortium. Any licensing arrangement would need to be negotiated with the coordinator, Fundacio Eurecat in Spain.

Can this scale to thousands of furniture products in an online catalog?

The architecture includes a database layer, web and mobile interfaces, and a recommendation engine — all designed to handle product catalogs. Based on the deliverables, the system architecture was built to support both web and mobile applications, suggesting it was designed for real-world catalog volumes.

Who owns the intellectual property, and can I license it?

The project was coordinated by Fundacio Eurecat, a Spanish research foundation, with 4 SMEs among the 6 partners. IP is typically shared among consortium members under the grant agreement. Contact the coordinator to discuss licensing or collaboration options.

Does this work with existing furniture design software and product databases?

The project delivered a full system architecture document covering database design and user interfaces for both web and mobile. The AR/VR modules and recommendation engine were designed as separate components, which suggests they could be integrated with existing product management systems.

How mature is the technology — is it ready to deploy in a store or website?

This was a 14-month Innovation Action that ended in March 2016. The consortium delivered a system architecture and detailed module designs for the AR/VR engine and recommendation system. Based on available project data, a working prototype was built but would likely need updating to current AR/VR standards before commercial deployment.

What devices does the AR visualization work on?

Based on the deliverables, the system was designed for both web and mobile applications. The augmented reality component allows customers to visualize furniture in their home environment, which typically requires a smartphone or tablet with a camera.

Consortium

Who built it

The FURNIT-SAVER consortium brought together 6 partners from 3 countries (Spain, Italy, Slovenia), with a balanced 50-50 split between industry and research organizations. Notably, 4 of the 6 partners are SMEs, which signals that the project was built around the needs of smaller companies rather than academic curiosity. The coordinator, Fundacio Eurecat, is a major Spanish research foundation with strong technology transfer credentials. The Southern European focus makes sense given that Italy and Spain are major furniture manufacturing hubs with many small workshops that need digital tools to stay competitive.

FUNDACIO EURECATCoordinator · ES
ADVANCED COMPUTER SYSTEMS A.C.S. SRLparticipant · IT

How to reach the team

Fundacio Eurecat (Spain) — a large research foundation; contact their technology transfer office for licensing discussions.

Order a report on this consortium See FUNDACIO EURECAT profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

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