AI And The Metaverse: Is It The Future Of Interior Design?

AI And The Metaverse: Is It The Future Of Interior Design?

I was honored to be interviewed by Luann Nigara for this conversation on her well known and well regarded podcast, A Well Designed Business, back in November 2023.

It’s so interesting how much has changed in just a year and a half, isn’t it? When I was first interviewed by Luann for her podcast, AI and the metaverse were not quite the popular topics they are now - at least in the home industries here in the USA,

I invite you to listen to the conversation here:

https://youtu.be/mgYZrzBOXWI?si=ePMJkjYs7HP_Im32

And, at that time, Savour Partnership’s Metaverse Lighting Trendhouse project for Dallas Market’s Lightovation tradeshow had not yet debuted, nor had the AILA sink for Thompson debuted, that was designed via my text prompt to Midjourney.

Both of those major events happened in January of 2024. It’s always been my goal to show, by my actions, what is possible with these two technologies and I’m so grateful to have had these opportunities given to me by both a national tradeshow and the luxury lifestyle brand, Thompson.

Below are a few of the hundreds of images I have from the debut event of the Metaverse Lighting Trendhouse at Dallas Market’s Lightovation tradeshow that I wrote about in more depth here:

https://www.savourpartnership.com/blog/first-sneak-peek-into-metaverse-lighting-trendhouse

The image below this one is two avatar friends having a dance party in the Trendhouse in the metaverse of Spatial. The entire visual of the project was built, modeled and rendered by Annilee Waterman. See the big painting on the right behind them? That was created with AI by Annilee, as were all the rugs.

Above, Annilee is on the far right, with 3 of our friends who came to see it, Linda Holt who is next to Annilee, Deborah Main and Jennifer Hyman. I have many dozens of pictures of friends who came to see it, and if you’re one of them seeing this new post, thank you so much!

Below is Beth Gross from Unique Loom [ one of my fellow VRD brand partners ] whose jaw dropped when she saw what these VR glasses from Meta made it possible for her to see and do in the Metaverse Lighting Trendhouse.

This is exactly the reaction a few others had, too, and it made me so happy to be able to catch it with my camera.

The Metaverse Lighting Trendhouse would not have ever happened had it not been for Allison John, Director of Programming at Dallas Market Center, who took the germ of the idea I presented to her during a meeting we had at June 2023’s Lightovation, and blew it up into this much bigger idea, and then shepherded it through the long approval process to bring it all to fruition.

Allison was able assisted in that approval process by Cole Daugherty, who created the proposal that got the project’s budget greenlighted by Lightovations’ forward thinking board of directors. And, of course, nothing would have happened had it not been for Cindy Morris, Dallas Market Center’s CEO, who signed off on Allison’s idea before Cole ever did any of the work on the proposal.

This kind of openness to funding this level of thought leadership is exactly why I love this tradeshow so much.

Another genuine hightlight of this event was getting to moderate a panel that had as its star guest, Peter Bristol, who works for Meta and whose team designed the Oculus headset that was used to view the Trendhouse. Also on this panel with Peter was Lauren Allison, principal of Monarch Kitchen Design, who uses VR in her presentations with her clients up in New York.

As you can see below, Laura Van Zeyl, Vice President Of Marketing for Lightovation, was introducing us.

Below is a fun picture of Peter and Lauren together and below that is a better picture of Peter [who also designs some stunning minimalist lighting for Visual Comfort ] with Lauren and I.

In the realm of Ai, as most of you already know, I was asked by the luxury brand, Thompson, to collaborate with them to use a text prompt to Midjourney to design a sink for them, the AILA sink, which debuted at KBIS in January of last year.

I wrote about that extensively here, but what’s exciting this year is that New York City based interior designer, Robin Baron, specified an AILA sink for one of her clients who purchased it for her home and it’s now installed - as you can see in the bottom picture below.

Robin had AILA customized as an undermount and then had the onyx countertop cut to fit the outline of AILA. Talk about gorgeous!

It was a real thrill to see AILA in the wild … the first AI designed sink and the first to ever be installed in a home for real world use. Thank you, Robin!

What got me thinking about ALL of this was the fact that I’m about to head to Lightovation again, but this time as an attendee only, where I will be with my client, Lori Carpenter, the founder of The 3rd Phase Instagram Live Show and Facebook Group community.

Lori is a founding member of the Arkansas chapter of the Interior Design Society and is a regular Lightovation attendee, too.

Lori was nice enough to stop by Thompson’s exhibitor space during Spring HPMKT, and take this picture with my AILA sink.

I didn’t know she was going to do this, but that’s just the kind of person she is. Always thinking of others.

If you haven’t tuned in to Lori’s Instagram Live Show yet, she holds it every Tuesday at 12:30 CT over on her Instagram feed at https://www.instagram.com/loricarpenterdesigns. Lori’s mission with The 3rd Phase is to help all those in their 3rd phase of life live as vibrantly and joyfully as possible with respect to all things home, health and wealth.

Lori’s weekly guests help her audience know how to do just that.

One of Lori’s upcoming guests on July 8th is Dr. Martin Moore - Ede, a former professor at Harvard for 23 years and the founder of the Circadian Light Research Center. He’s also the author of several books, the most recent of which is this one below.

I think everyone attending Lightovation is going to want to get this book.

Lori also has a free and private Facebook community called The 3rd Phase, which I am helping her to moderate and where we share lots of other helpful info. You’re invited to join it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/the3rdphase .

NOTE: If you’re a manufacturer exhibiting at Lightovation, and you see this, and you have a product that specifically helps those who are 60+ with better sleep or another aspect of healthy aging, please reach out to me as Lori would love to meet with you at Lightovation.

If you’ve missed any of these past guests on Lori’s Instagram Live Show and would like to listen to their replays, head on over to Lori’s Instagram feed here: https://www.instagram.com/loricarpenterdesigns and don’t forget to tune in to her LIVES on Tuesdays at 12:30 CT.

Lastly, I’d like to thank each of you, my friends and blog subscribers, for supporting me as you have in all of these educational activities around all things metaverse and artificial intelligence.

I hope each project I’ve undertaken will help you see the possibilities in these new technologies for your own businesses and I also hope you will see another, deeper story, too:

The fact that I, as a business owner and a woman in her 3rd phase, have undertaken these first of their kind, groundbreaking collaboration projects.

Know this, my friends: you are never too old to learn anything you want to learn, if you remain open, curious and informed.


Leslie Carothers, a proud 3rd phaser
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Named One Of The Top 40 Most Inspiring Women In Home