3D Visualization Tool for Interior Designers Goes Live with Retailer Jim Gabbert

Furniture World Magazine

Jim Gabbert, chairman of Minneapolis-based retail chain Gabbert’s Furniture and Design Studio, was on-hand Monday morning in the Designer Resource Center, IHFC, to launch 3Dream.net, the groundbreaking 3D visualization tool for retail store and independent interior designers. Gabbert’s Furniture and Design Studio has already signed on for the service, which allows designers to show their customers what real furniture will actually look like in their homes. “3Dream removes a lot of the risk for consumers who have difficulty visualizing what a design will look like in reality,” says Gabbert. 3Dream.net, was beta tested throughout 2006 under the name DesignLinxOnline, is a subscription-based service. Using the 3Dream application, retail store and independent interior designers can create and instantly modify home furnishings design plans onscreen, in accordance with the client or customer’s floor plans. The crux of the 3Dream system is its use of real-world, 3D models of products ranging from furniture and accessories to window treatments and floor coverings, a bonus for marketers of branded furniture products. “The fact that your clients can ‘walk through’ their new rooms is so powerful. It means you get faster buy-in and an immediate emotional response. Consumers buy more when you’ve reduced the risk of making a ‘design mistake,” says Ross Barlett, co-founder and CEO of ViewIT Technologies, creator of 3Dream. Ross and Donna Barlett are the husband-wife team behind “The Board,” the immensely popular interior design tool that uses magnetic templates to show customers interior design plans. The Barletts will be available in the Design Resource Center from 10:00 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday of market, to give free test drives of the 3Dream technology.