Ikea Now Has a VR Showroom

Sometimes you don’t want to pop out, but you know you need to go grab that something. A sandwich, some food for the week or even that new game. There’s only so much you can get delivered by drone, so what about the stuff you want to see before you buy? Well if you are one of the lucky ones planning a trip to Ikea, why not see what it looks like before you’ve even left the house with Ikea’s new VR showroom.

The new program is available through Steam, with the app supporting the HTC Vive headset. In the app, you can choose from one of three rooms with the ability to change the colours of cabinets and drawers with just a swish of the Vives controller.

The app gives you the ability to explore from both a tall person’s perspective and a child’s, giving you the option of trying out a kitchen before your little one find all the bits that you regret buying two days later. The page notes that this experience is expected to last 5 minutes, with the pilot only being supported until august 2016.

In their press release Ikea state they see the “IKEA VR Experience as an opportunity to co-create with people all around the world”, asking for suggestions and ideas on how to use virtual reality and improve their VR kitchen. Is this the first step to a VR shop? Could we avoid the second guesses of buying something from a picture by viewing it in 3D before we’ve even left the house?

Would you ever trust an app before you buy or do you have to see and touch something in person before you buy? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.