Empty house? This startup will design and fill it for you in 40 days

Need this to fit into a 12 ft by 15 ft space? Foyr can help you out. Photo credit: Loren Kerns.

In 2014, engineer Shailesh Goswami set out to be a magician.

After a disenchanting experience doing his own home interiors, he found himself dreaming of the tech that could bring him more transformative power. While browsing home decor sites, he’d found inspiration in beautiful spaces, but those rooms didn’t translate well to the size of his own home.

He’d had a decidedly disenchanting experience doing his own home interiors.

Typically, people who want to renovate their new homes have to first find and visit a designer, who usually takes around four weeks to get an idea of the house layout and come back with a design. Then, they have to implement all the design changes: order furniture, buy decor, and install everything in the house. That takes around a month and a half, meaning that there could be two and a half months between buying a home and moving into the space you want.

Shailesh’s dream was to be able click on an image of a room and get a completely customizable version. By “waving a magic wand,” he could then transform the space into whatever room dimensions he wanted, then look at the different furniture samples shown and figure out where to find them in different cities.

Shailesh Goswami, Founder and CEO of Foyr. Photo credit: Foyr.

“We’re replacing a traditional interior designer and home decorator,” he tells Tech in Asia.

It took around 15 months for the IIT-Delhi grad and former Microsoft engineer to develop the software. In 2015, he released the site for Hyderabad-based Foyr, which currently offers owners of brand new homes in Hyderabad and Pune custom-made room designs for their floor plans.

Tech-made magic

Currently, Foyr only serves customers in Hyderabad and Pune. They can visit the website and submit a floor plan and basic home requirements, such as their budget and preferred design – art nouveau, for example. If a floor plan is unavailable or customers want to provide additional information, they can submit pictures of their empty house, even if they’re taken with a smartphone. The software will then give them three personalized designs, along with their price. The website services are free and take about 10 minutes.

If customers want to proceed with the designs – Shailesh says that around 10 out of every 100 customers decide to go ahead – they can go into one of Foyr’s offices and fine-tune their customization. Assisted by a Foyr designer, they can switch out furniture in the designs or adjust the overall cost.

Mirror perfection