Virtual designs for your home
Do you want professional advice to change your home? Veteran interior designer Benji Lewis can help you with an online appointment
As we come up on ten months of the new normal, just about ever y element of our lives has been affected. While most of the effects are less than desirable (and a fair few downright awful), it’s encouraging to find a silver lining through it all.
Veteran UK-based interior designer Benji Lewis has found one such silver lining: transferring his business from in-person to offering customised interior design advice to clients online via Zoom in a new venture he’s coined Zoom that Room.
The Zoom that Room pivot has allowed Lewis to continue to work with clients around the globe, from LA to London and beyond, and has allowed clients in various places worldwide to avail of his services where they otherwise might not have in the past.
In fact, Zoom that Room is a double entendre in itself: he operates design consultations via Zoom, and he also helps clients level up their background for this Zoom era.
‘I realised the impact of what people’s backdrops would be,’ Lewis explained. ‘It wasn’t just a case of people wanting to feel nice and getting bored of their room colour, but I knew that the manner in which they showcase themselves in their interiors was going to be very important.’
Lewis believes part of the appeal of virtual appointments is the fact that the scope is limited by the client.
‘It’s really non-invasive because I only get a limited view of their house.’
With a virtual appointment, clients are able to look for a design opinion on a particular area of their homes, whereas with an in-person visit, the scope might grow considerably larger even as the interior designer walked through the home.
Lewis explained, ‘That appeals to people, they feel like they can control the manner in which the appointment is done.’ While virtual appointments might seem limiting, Lewis reports he is able to make recommendations about soft furnishings, furniture zoning, and even the way they’ve got their furniture laid out for the space, all via Zoom.
Lockdown 3.0 might be just the right time to get serious about the space you’ ll be Zoo ming( and everything else) from over the next several months. As Lewis attests, ‘It’s about a feeling you get when you go into a room, and that feeling needs to be that you love being in there. That’s exactly what we all need to feel right now.’
You can find more information about Lewis’s Zoom that Room online at zoomthatroom.com
Transformation A rather unloved room is transformed by
Lewis by placing comfortable and luxurious co-ordinating furniture and accessories in zones, using the fireplace and the window as focal points and adding mirrors and paintings to warm the vast bare walls. Lewis requests clients to send photos of the space they need help with in advance. ‘Tell me about your background, and the history of the house. Send photos of any architectural details, what the windows are like, built-ins, fireplaces, ceiling height is important, floor finish is important.’
Packages start at €100 and include a 30 minute Zoom consultation.
How the updating process works