Interior design at the click of a mouse

Software designed by a Shanghai interior design firm will allow property owners to view three-dimensional, fully furnished versions of their new or re-decorated home online.

Chen Weichang, chief executive of Shanghai MyHome 3D Cloud Tech Co Ltd, said that homeowners will be able to "drag in" pieces of furniture and see how they might look in a room.

Chen launched MyHome in 2008, four years after buying an apartment in Shanghai.

His software idea was sparked then because he found all that was on offer were interior design blueprints "full of geometric figures, which were hard to read".

"This kind of design isn't practical. A software was needed to help houseowners looking to re-decorate or design see the actual end-results of the decoration," said Chen, who used to work at a manufacturing company in the United States.

"Traditionally, homeowners need to sign contracts with decorators and hire construction teams through them. The decorators themselves can earn 30 to 40 percent of the profit from a project, and sometimes this leads the construction teams to use inferior materials and turn out sub-standard work to save costs.

"Homeowners should enjoy a renovation process, rather than feel the pain."

His platform, using cloud technology, allows owners to not only choose the designers and construction teams they like online but save around 40 percent of the total cost by avoiding intermediaries, he claimed.

Homeowners and designers can even share the same screen on the MyHome 3D website, without downloading the software.

Designers will help owners design their homes by dragging in building materials like wallpaper, paint, ceramic tiles and ceilings.

The virtual homes can also be filled with furniture, with the price tags even showing.

Owners can click on the items and buy them online directly through Tmall.com, the online shopping portal, which is a cooperating partner of MyHome 3D.

"New drivers, including the Internet, innovation, technology and consumption are playing a key role in today's economy.

"This kind of online business model for decoration can also be applied in other countries," Chen said.

At the beginning of this year, furniture and flooring maker Guangdong Yihua Timber Industry Co Ltd provided MyHome 3D the first round of financing of 62.5 million yuan ($9.8 million).

With nearly 100 full-time staff, MyHome 3D hires about 4,000 contract interior designers, more than 30,000 decorators and 10 furniture manufacturers. The website attracts clicks of 20,000 per day. Chen said he plans to take the company public in a few years.

Other interior design websites like tuotuohome.com and ikongjian.com also boast functions of choosing designers and decorators online.

Wang Qiong, an analyst at domestic research company Analysys International, said: "The core of an Internet decoration business model is that it is user-oriented and breaks the profit distribution mechanism of the traditional decoration industry chain."

It helps make information more transparent and standardized, and improves the efficiency of the home decoration process, he said.