IKEA’s New AI-Powered Tool Allows You to Have The Sims Home Decorator Experience IRL

IKEA Australia has today (February 21) announced the arrival of its new AI-powered interior design tool, IKEA Kreativ.

Described by the brand as a “mixed-reality experience,” the new service feels almost like playing out your best memories of The Sims in real life. Here’s a look at what IKEA Kreativ is all about and how you can best put it to work for your space.

IKEA Kreativ AI tool releases in Australia

In the simplest terms, the IKEA Kreativ tool is a new AI-powered service that lives within the IKEA Australia app and allows you to either scan real spaces or use mock rooms to test furniture and decor layout options before you commit to purchasing items.

Per a statement from IKEA, the new technology has built on decades of learnings from its Life at Home reports and allows customers to imagine fresh ways to restyle existing spaces in their homes or design new ones from scratch.

Kreativ builds 3D digital recreations of rooms in your own home – which you can scan into the app – or offers test spaces for you to experiment with and with incredible depth and detail, allows you to fit items into the space, to scale, and see whether your imagined layout will work or not.

Giovanni Rutigliano, IKEA Australia Digital Manager, said in a statement that:

“This is a significant investment for IKEA in cutting-edge digital AI technology which is market-leading for a home furnishing retailer in Australia. IKEA Kreativ is part of our ambition to create a seamless omnichannel experience for our customers, so they can interact and shop with IKEA however, whenever and wherever they choose. With the addition of Kreativ to the IKEA app, we’re offering our customers the opportunity to confidently design and shop the products straight from their mobile device.”

Christine Gough, IKEA Australia’s Interior Design Leader, added:

“IKEA is passionate about helping people create a better life at home, and the most exciting opportunity with this tool is its power to democratise home design and put it in everyone’s hands. IKEA Kreativ can really break down barriers to having new ideas, designing, decorating and shopping for home furnishings, where people can feel the magic of the IKEA physical stores, through a virtual space.”

How to use Kreativ

During a launch event for the new tool, IKEA representatives spoke about some of the coolest ways to put the tool to work. To start, they highlighted that you can scroll through products available to shop in your local store and test out different colours or finishes in your space. You’ll also find that when searching through the ‘Add item’ section, the app will have prepopulated suggested search terms like ‘plants‘, ‘rug’, or ‘coffee table’, but typing in the term you’re after is an incredibly seamless experience. Items will pop up quickly, showing you prices and sizing information at a glance.

Once you’ve designed your room, you can save what you’ve created and share it with friends or family to hear their thoughts. You could also, in theory, set up a chat with IKEA design experts to hear their thoughts on your design plan. And if you’re unhappy with anything, you can always edit your choices, too.

Once you’re sold on how you’d like to fill your space, you can shop for items directly from the tool.

One thing that’s worth keeping in mind, however, is that while it’s easy enough to use the tool from your smartphone, it’s going to be a smoother process designing your rooms from an iPad or laptop.

Here are IKEA’s top Kreativ features:

• ‘Quick start’ your dream room design: Explore IKEA products, combinations, and design ideas from more than 50 inspirational 3D existing showrooms and try out products in lifelike spatial settings –quickly swapping, moving, rotating, stacking and hanging products.
• Scan your space: Through the IKEA Kreativ Scene Scanner, customers can take a series of photographs of their own room, which are automatically assembled into a wide-angle, interactive replica of the space, with accurate dimensions and perspectives. Then, simply ‘erase’ some or all existing furniture, position new IKEA furnishings, rapidly swap through alternatives, and fully design the room.
• Save, share and buy: Once the perfect room has been designed, customers can add products to their cart, save design ideas to their IKEA account, and even share design ideas with family and friends for inspiration and advice. As virtual rooms are stored in the cloud, they are accessible from anywhere and can even be brought in when shopping at a physical IKEA store on the IKEA mobile app.

Australian customers can find IKEA Kreativ on the free IKEA app or by visiting IKEA.com.au.

Lead Image Credit: Images supplied