Going Virtual – Home & Design Magazine

Following the covid 19 shutdown, many consumers still limit shopping forays to bare essentials like groceries, medicine—and wine. To assist clients who want to refresh or overhaul their interiors without leaving home, a number of Washington-area furniture showrooms and their in-house design teams have gone virtual. Interactive online showroom tours enable people to shop from the comfort and safety of their own sofas. Videoconferences take the place of shopping trips and site visits. And realistic 3D renderings help clients visualize the end results.

“Our virtual showroom tours seem to be helpful,” says Samantha May of Calligaris, which is now offering interactive tours of its Georgetown and Tysons showrooms online. “They let customers preview the showroom and shop completely contact-less.”

Roche Bobois, with locations in Tysons and Chevy Chase, also offers interactive online showroom tours, along with the remote services of a full design studio. “Our 3D team creates architecturally scaled 3D or AutoCAD drawings—not just decorative drawings,” says area sales director Brian Fell. “We can add personal details like an existing rug, or change flooring to see how it looks with the interiors.”

After videoconferencing with clients and learning their requirements,Roche Bobois’ in-house designers create 2D perspective drawings depicting possible furniture plans. Once those are set, designers present lifelike 3D renderings that incorporate different choices of flooring, fabric and color palettes—and even replicate outdoor views.

Coming soon: Clients will be able to don virtual-reality goggles and experience a virtual project walk-through in a Roche Bobois showroom. Says Fell, “This is what is needed for today’s market—it’s the future.”

WHERE TO SHOP

The following local furniture showrooms offer various forms
of virtual shopping.

Belfort Furniture: belfortfurniture.com
BoConcept: boconcept.com
Calligaris: calligaris.com
Green Front Furniture: greenfront.com
Ligne Roset: ligneroset-dc.com
Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams: mgbwhome.com
Resource Furniture: resourcefurniture.com
Roche Bobois: roche-bobois.com
Sheffield Furniture & Interiors: sheffieldfurniture.com
Theodores: theodores.com